Hi everyone, it’s been a long time since I posted here! I have been having a bout of Tarsal Tunnel Syndrome in my right foot. I noticed this about a year ago, if I bent down to pick up something from the ground I would feel a shooting sensation inside my ankle. I just notice it occasionally, it isn’t debilitating, and I never notice it when exercising. Recently I had to take a few months off training while we were moving, and once we got settled I was able to start back up. After a week this shooting pain returned, and I noticed that I hadn’t been experiencing it while I wasn’t training. I saw a podiatrist who took x-rays and diagnosed it as tarsal tunnel syndrome with some mild inflammation. He gave me a compression sock to wear and prescribed a course of 800mg ibuprofen. I have continued to train as normal over the past few weeks, and the symptoms have not reduced at all.
As mentioned, this doesn’t impact me ever or prevent me from doing anything, so I could easily live with it. My only concern is whether I am doing some permanent harm if I continue to leave this untreated. I’m not really interested in surgery. It seems if this is an “overuse” condition I would probably have to stop squats and maybe deadlifts for a period of time to let the inflammation subside, then pick back up really slowly so my body can adapt to the training demands. Any advice on whether that is the best next step, and if so, how long I should pause the lower body work? Are there alternate exercises that could help with this issue (I found a few websites with some stretches and exercises which are supposed to help)? Or is it fine to just continue training as normal as long as the pain doesn’t bother me?
Hey lonestar_shawn - thanks for your questions. There’s not usually anything special that must be done in these scenarios and sounds like you already have the principle to be active to tolerance in place. If you’ve not already, check out the article Pain in Training: What do? for general guidance on programming. I would likely add some posterior tibialis specific work in this context which can be targeted with plantarflexion + inversion. You can do the exercise unsupported against gravity (foot hanging off table/bed) and pointing your toes while moving them towards midline (other ankle). if this is low level and easy then you can do a calf raise like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26OOBia10KU or you may just perform a calf raise with foot placed in inversion position from the bottom position. For individual guidance we would need a consultation with you, which we are happy to do remotely (see HERE).