Plantar fasciitis is the most common cause of heel pain in adults. The most common and typical symptom of plantar fasciitis is first step pain. This is pain under the heel that is worse when putting the foot on the ground after resting and improves after a few steps.. Technically, this is called post-static dyskinesia.
The cause of plantar fasciitis is going to be anything that puts a higher load on the plantar fascia. The plantar fascia is a long ligament like structure on the bottom of the foot that connects the heel bone to the ball of the foot, so it supports the arch. Any biomechanical dysfunction or activity that places increased load on the arch of the foot is going to increase the risk for plantar fasciitis.
The four most important factors that increase the load on the plantar fascia and increase the risk for plantar fasciitis are:
- Body weight. The higher the weight, the higher the load on the arch of the foot.
- Tight calf muscles. The tighter the calf muscles, the more strain on the plantar fascia.
- Biomechanical dysfunctions. There are number of issues in foot function that can cause more stress on the plantar fascia
- Activity levels. The more active you are the more cumulative load that is placed on the plantar fascia.
Also it also depends how vulnerable the plantar fascia is to damage. Sometime the fascia is quite resilient and these risk factors are not enough to cause plantar fasciitis. In other the fascia is vulnerable and these risk factors easily cause the plantar fasciitis.