By Laura Charon of Snerkology

Well. Like many health minded folk out there, I jumped on the Resolution Revolution and vowed that beginning January 1st, 2009, this would be My Year. My year to get in shape. My year to develop healthy habits. My year to reach my fitness and weight goals. My year to FINALLY stop screwing around and really, honestly DEDICATE myself. I was motivated, people. I was enthusiastic. I was READY.

I was thwarted.

I completely underestimated just how out of shape I was, so when I jumped into exercise, my body went, “Oh, you think so, do you? Well, I’ve got news for you, honey…”

The thing is, I didn’t think I was starting off too quickly. A friend of mine from work and I started walking around our work campus a couple of times a day – so that represents about two miles in total distance. I started stretching more, doing yoga, and I dusted off the ol’ elliptical machine at home. I began adding in some weight training. I started Jillian Michael’s “30 Day Shred”. I got a Pilates DVD. I adjusted my eating habits and started tracking my intake and exercise (I recommend sparkpeople.com, by the way).

I thought I was doing everything right. Oh, how wrong I was.

See, I have notoriously bad feet. They just hurt all the time, and have for years. Like many adults, I just brushed this off as signs of aging, and figured that as I got stronger with my New! Motivated! Me! my feet would get themselves in shape, as well. I was very, very wrong. Years of wearing the wrong type of shoes (Arizona is the Flip Flop capital of the world), coupled with severely tight hamstrings, resulted in a GLORIOUS case of plantar fasciitis (there is good info on the condition here). My doctor actually mis-diagnosed it as a possible stress fracture, before the symptoms escalated.

I’m here to tell you, my friends, please do EVERYTHING you can to prevent yourself from developing this condition. It is severely painful. And once you get it, it’s a complete pain in the ass to get rid of. So get insoles for your footwear. Stretch your tight hamstrings. Follow the recommendations on the Mayo website to prevent this from happening to you!

Anyway! Here I am, barely able to walk, which equates to a complete de-railing of my fitness goals. No feet = no cardio. No cardio = no weight loss. Or so the discouraged part of me believed. After a week or two of indulging in a complete Pity Party for myself (which involved eating everything under the sun, which resulted in re-gaining five pounds – I’m so smart), I shook off the blues and started trying to come up with a fitness routine that wouldn’t involve using my feet.

I know. It’s kind of counter-intuitive, isn’t it? But it’s possible! So while my feet are healing, I can still develop the healthy habits and “routine” of putting my fitness first, making time for it each day, so that when my feet finally do cooperate with me, I’ll already have the foundation for success. Here’s what I’ve been doing:

1. Stretching. Now, I have to be careful because my tight hamstrings and the plantar fasciitis get aggravated by overly aggressive stretching (like yoga). But floor poses and positions are helpful and gentle enough to not cause additional damage.

2. Pilates. In keeping with the above, I have the “Pilates: Begining Mat Workout“. As the name suggests, it features floor/seated poses, with gentle dynamic stretching and good engagement of the core.

3. Balance Ball. The use of the balance ball enables me to keep the weight off of my feet. I have a couple of decent balance ball DVD’s that actually came with the ball that I purchased. I take it slowly and am mindful of any of the techniques that put weight on my feet, but for the most part this works pretty well.

4. Weight Training. I am fortunate enough to have a universal weight machine at home, but even if you don’t, just a good pair of hand weights work very well, especially if you have a bench. The only leg exercises I do are seated hamstring curls and leg extensions, very light weight, in order to encourage my body to develop strength enough to support and eliminate the plantar fasciitis. The rest is upper body conditioning – bicep curls, tricep extensions, flys, bench press, lateral raises, rows. By the time my feet heal I’ll have totally tricked out arms.

5. Abdominal work. A strong core is essential for burning calories and supporting your body’s overall fitness. I’ve heard good things about the “Perfect Abs” DVD, so this will be my next purchase in the near future. I mean, who doesn’t get bored with the same old crunches?

So. I may not be able to walk, or run, or bike, or paddle away on the elliptical. But that doesn’t mean I’m down for the count. Certainly cardio will be a key element of my eventual (inevitable!) success, but any exercise is good exercise, and the things I mentioned above are all excellent fitness options. Because of my inability to do much cardio, I have to pay special attention to my diet – something I gave up for a while in a fit of discouragement and the misplaced attitude that, “If I can’t do it all, I can’t do any of it!” I know. I’m an emotional, irrational creature.

I hope this helps anyone who is experiencing similar lower-extremity issues. Don’t give up! Eventually we’ll be healed and pain-free, but until then we still have options. Good luck!

Tags: plantar fasciitis

This entry was posted on Monday, February 23rd, 2009 at 1:59 pm and is filed under Exercise Articles, Moves, Busted. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.