How Orthotic Inserts Can Help Athletes With Heel Spurs
Taking care of your foot health is a top priority for any athlete, but the wear and tear caused by constant training and competitions inevitably takes its toll. Athletes of all stripes are vulnerable to a variety of conditions that can affect the feet, and heel spurs can be particularly painful and debilitating for both amateur and professional athletes.
What Are Heel Spurs?
Any activity that involves a lot of running and jumping naturally places the heels of your feet under a great deal of stress, causing minor damage to the bones, ligaments and tissues within. Over time, the damage caused by this stress can cause calcium deposits to build up inside the heel, usually underneath the heel bone.
Most people, even non-athletes, have a small amount of excess calcium in their heels, but athletes who work constantly to improve their performance can have particularly large deposits. If enough of these calcium deposits are left in the heel, they eventually form a pointed, bony protrusion attached to the heel bone, which is known as a heel spur.
Athletes are particularly vulnerable to heel spurs if they have an abnormal walking or running gait that places an excessive amount of pressure on the heel. Improper footwear, overtraining, and pre-existing plantar fasciitis also increase your risk of developing heel spurs.
What Are The Symptoms Of Heel Spurs?
Once they grow large enough, heel spurs can cause sharp, debilitating pain in the affected heel(s), which becomes worse during strenuous exercise or while lifting heavy weights. This pain can be intermittent or chronic, depending on the size and location of the spur.
You may end up changing the position of your foot to lessen the pain while you move, which can significantly affect your performance and cause other health problems such as shin splints and Achilles tendonitis. Any athlete who believes they are suffering from heel spurs should visit a podiatrist as soon as possible to have the foot examined and the cause of the pain diagnosed.
How Can Orthotic Inserts Treat Heel Spurs?
Podiatrists can offer a range of treatments for heel spurs, such as corticosteroid injections to reduce pain and inflammation, and ultrasound therapy to break up the calcium deposits and prevent the surrounding tissues from scarring. Orthotic inserts can also be very helpful for both treating and preventing heel spur formation.
Orthotic inserts are crafted individually by podiatrists and are designed to reshape the contours of your feet into a healthier position that takes stress away from the heels of the feet. They can be worn inside your training and competition footwear and should also be worn while you go about your day-to-day activities.
Over time, the pressure relief provided by orthotic inserts will allow the body to break down the calcium deposits naturally. They can also help to prevent the excess heel strain that causes calcium deposits to accumulate in the first place. Reach out to a professional for custom foot orthotics.