A few weeks ago my foot was killing me. Particularly my heel. Earlier in the year, I started working out doing high-intensity interval training. It’s a great workout and I feel accomplished after, but the next morning the heel of my foot would be killing me. Killing me as in, I’d get up from a seated position and couldn’t put much weight on my foot. It felt as if someone bruised my heel. Eventually, I’d walk on it enough where the pain would subside, but once I sat down again, I’d get up to walk and the pain resumed. My body started to adjust to the pain and I started to favor walking on my right leg. Favoring means your body starts to compensate for the painful body part. Doing this gradually affects the hip, the glutes, the back and so on.

Brian (my massage therapist) focused on my calf muscles (gastrocnemius in particular). He performed myofascial release in my calf region where he essentially manipulated and loosened the muscles and fascia in my shin area as well as my calf muscles. He stripped each of the muscles around my lower leg to make sure that everything between my knee and my ankle was manipulated. This should spell pain relief. The rest of the day I still had to gingerly keep my weight off my foot, but the next morning I got out of bed and the pain was gone. Just another way massage can be used as pain management.