Waking Up With Sore or Tight Ankles & Feet?

Tension in your achilles tendon and/or the plantar fascia (soles of the feet) when you first get out of bed is a common 'body-signal'. In the beginning it can be easy enough to live with but what does it mean?
It may only take 4 or 5 steps or stretches to ease off but it's not normal, what is your body trying to tell you?

In this blog I'll take you though the underlying structural issues that could be a part of what's causing the tendons and fascia in your feet to be so sore. This could also be the reason your pain isn't going away on it's own.

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Think of your body like a pitched tent.

I refer to this analogy a lot because it describes what goes on structurally really well...
In an ideal world your 'tent' would be pitched perfectly,

• on nice level ground (your footwear)
• the central pole (your spine) upright and straight
• the canvas (your skin) hanging evenly
• the guy wires (your muscles and tendons) of even tension and length.

The problem all of us have is, even from birth, our spine and body has had to make compensations for misalignments that the body could not self-correct. Typically this happens seemlessly in the first 20 years of life and for the most part, we will have been unaware of these minute tilts and twists the body has used to keep the whole body balanced over our feet. Speaking generally, this compensation begins to make itself known from our mid-20's onwards with aches, tension and the occasional muscle twinges and spasms as the muscles work hard to hold the skeleton upright against gravity.

How well balanced is your body over your feet?

In the spine, if a vertebra is pulled or pushed into a forwards direction the body cannot self-correct it as it has no muscles in the back that can pull that individual bone backwards to correct it. This is why, as we get older there is a tendency for us to stoop and develop a forward head posture and rounded back.

When the weight of the head and upper body go forwards the muscles running from the back of your head all the way down to your heels have to pull hard  or even shorten over the years - like guy wires - to counter act your weight pitching forwards.

The achilles tendon is such a great example of a tight guy wire in this scenario. Does it make sense why it might become chronically tight and therefore tender to touch?

Does this forward head posture look familiar?

This is why, as we get older there is a tendency for us to stoop and develop a forward head posture and rounded back.

The ankle and foot are pretty incredible. The architecture of which wouldn't be lost on the engineers amongst us. It's wise to ensure your footwear isn't hindering the normal function of the foot and ankle because this will massively upset the balance of the entire body above it.

In this video, Dr Aberle explains the underlying mechanics of foot pain using a CAD model of the entire skeleton.