Written by What is the mid foot?
The mid foot is comprised of the three cuneiform bones, the cuboid and the navicular bones as well as the surrounding soft tissue. As the name suggests, mid foot pain is basically pain in the middle of your foot!!!
What causes mid foot pain?
- Joint sprains
- Stress fractures
- Tendonopathy
- Plantar fasciitis
- Plantar fascia sprain
Gathering information in your history will help us to determine where your mid foot pain is actually coming from. For example, an acute onset of pain may indicate a sprain of the joint or plantar fascia, where as a gradual onset of pain would be more likely due to an overuse injury e.g. tendonitis, stress fracture.
How do you treat mid foot pain?
A thorough assessment of your foot will include palpating the area for any tenderness, feeling movement in your joints and testing your muscle strength. Assessment will also include looking at your biomechanics, this is basically how you move. We often will look at how you walk, run, hop or simply raise onto your tippy toes. This will all help us determine what is going on in your foot and why!
Depending on your diagnoses, treatment of your mid foot pain can include; massage, taping, joint mobilization, exercise therapy and management of your load eg. reducing or modifying the training you are doing.
Plantar Fasciitis!!
This is the most common type of mid foot pain we see in the clinic. Now I have had this myself and it is not nice!! Plantar fasciitis is basically an overuse injury of the structure under the arch of your foot.
Symptoms:
- Pain under the arch of the foot
- Pain under the heel
- Pain is usually worse in the first few steps of the morning
- Typically pain has come on gradually
Why does it happen:
- Poor biomechanics
- Change or increase in training
- Poor footwear
- New footwear
Treatment consists of:
- Releasing the plantar fascia
- Addressing biomechanics issues
- Reduce and/or modify training
- Stretching
- Taping
- Sometimes a night splint if necessary