Plantar fasciopathy is one of the most prevalent musculoskeletal conditions and will affect one in every ten people during their lifetime.
The condition was formerly labelled as ‘plantar fasciitis’ but due to histological findings similar to those of tendinopathies, longstanding plantar fasciopathy is now considered a tendinopathy.
A new treatment approach that appears promising for plantar fasciopathy is heavy-slow resistance training, which involves repeated slow contractions through concentric, isometric and eccentric phases against a heavy load.
Self-dosed and pre-determined heavy-slow resistance exercise programs had similar effects on plantar fasciopathy pain and other outcomes over 12 weeks.
Advising people with plantar fasciopathy to self-dose their slow-heavy resistance training regimen did not substantially increase the achieved dose compared with a pre-determined regimen.
> From: Riel et al., J Physiother 65 (2019) 144-151 (Epub ahead of print). All rights reserved to Australian Physiotherapy Association. Click here for the online summary.
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