Morning foot pain is unfortunately a daily reality for many people, and one of the primary causes is Plantar Fasciitis, where the fibrous band that runs along the sole of the foot tightens up as they sleep and causes them to have pain. The reason that this tends to happen overnight more frequently is because the foot is not being stretched and moved during the night in the same way as it is during the day. Movement is actually a big help for treating Plantar Fasciitis, and this is illustrative of that fact and gives some indication as to why Plantar Fasciitis exercises can be so useful when treating the condition.
The timing of these Plantar Fasciitis Exercises can be at any time, but you will find that doing them when the Plantar fascia is at its most taut (which for most people is in the morning), will yield the best results and the greatest degree of relief.
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You should start of when you wake up in the morning when you are still in bed. Before you even get up you should extend your foot twenty times (in the same way that a Kung-Fu expert might kick someone, extending the ball of the foot). Doing this will have the effect of extending the Plantar Fascia band that runs along the length of the insole of the foot, and hence helping to get rid of that tight feeling that you have.
In a way this is like the foot equivalent of extending a rubber band. If you do it regularly then the rubber band will stay flexible. But if you stop doing it, then gradually, over time the rubber will become more and more taut and lose its flexibility until one day it will simply snap.
That is what we are trying to avoid with these plantar fasciitis exercises.
You can do this exercise at any time of the day, and it is also a good idea to do it when you have been sitting down at your desk for an extended period, or at home in the armchair. In both of those positions you tend to be a little immobile, and it is certainly not helpful when the blood supply to your feet is constricted.