How to fix a sore foot
So you’ve tripped over a tree root, or you’re just plain ‘ole running (or biking, or swimming, or walking) and suddenly your foot hurts.
What can you do?
The other day I had a client who was in this very situation. In this case, the outside of her foot hurt. Look at the picture below. I traced the path of the yellow highlighted tendon from the outside of the foot up into the outside of the lower leg. I pushed into the red area- aka the muscle belly- and she said, “ouch!”
The name of that muscle is the peroneal, and that long yellow tendon is the peroneal tendon.
It has been my experience that the peroneal muscle often tries to work as a lateral stabilizer. Why does it do that? Well, and I know this will make everyone *groan*, but the much bigger and more powerful lateral stabilizer glute muscle isn’t working as well as it should.
So we kicked that glute muscle into gear, but still the foot was sore.
I used to think when you kicked in the muscle that wasn’t working, the muscle that worked too much would let go. Now I think that sometimes the muscle that works too much needs the help to get it to relax.
So how do you relax such a tiny muscle like the peroneal? Or any tiny area for that matter?
Have you ever heard of Gua Sha? It’s an Eastern technique that uses simple tools to do small area foam rolling and release. Traditional Gua Sha tools include water buffalo horn and jade.
Really what you need is something you can hold in your hand with a little bit of density, so I used a river rock. Western medicine has replicated Gua Sha to ASTYM or SYSTM, and they use plastic spoons and forks and things. Same idea!
Watch the video below to learn how to do it, and let me know in the comments below how you liked it or if you’ve used it before!
P.S. How does this story end? This text warmed my heart:
