Arch Pain While Foiling.

Nak · Sat Jan 29, 22 6:43 am **Arch Pain While Foiling.**

This post is for those with arch pain while foiling.

Up until recently I would suffer pain in my arches when I’d foil for more than about 30 minutes. The pain would be bad enough I would either terminate the session, or take a break in the water to give my feet time to recover. Many folks I’ve talked to suffer from the same issue. I searched for a solution, and found nothing useful. I talked to doctors, I tried orthotics, I tried moving my feet more. Nothing worked.

So, a couple of months ago I found an old post on a windsurfing forum. The author was a windsurfer and a podiatrist. He recommended a simple exercise and stretch. So I tried this exercise for 6 weeks or so before I came to Baja this year. It worked. I can now ride for hours on end with no foot pain.

Caveat: I’m not a doctor or a trainer. I don’t know why this works. I don’t know if you can hurt yourself doing this. Talk to a doctor before you start any exercise program. I’m not saying this is safe or will work for you. All I’m saying is this is what I did and my arch pain went away.

OK. I do this at the end of every workout and just before I stretch. My guess is that the stretching afterwards is important. I start standing with my hand on something for balance. Then I do three sets of heel lifts and toe lifts. I lift my heels off the ground as high as I can while staying on the balls of my feet. The movement is quick, almost but not quite a bounce. The heels come up quickly, and then back down just barely touching the ground before I start up again so that the calf muscle is stopping most of the downward motion. I stand on something with give to absorb shock. I do the first set until the muscles are well fatigued, but not until failure. Once the muscles are fatigued, I stop and start raising the balls of my feet and toes as high as I can while standing on my heels. This is a stretching motion and not quick. I do that 20 times. That completes the first set. I immediately go into the second set which is accomplished in the same manner as the first. The third set is the same, except I do the heel lifts until the muscles simply can’t continue. After the third set—heel lifts and toe lifts--is complete, I go right into calf stretches and then the rest of my stretching.

I’ve been road biking six days a week and thought my calf were pretty fit, but the first few days I did this I could barely walk afterwards, LOL. It seems like this workout works the top of the calf more than biking does, at least that’s what got very sore. The top of my calves used to get sore foiling as well; they don’t anymore. By the end of the first week I recovered from this exercise quickly.

Anyways, for the last 18 days I’ve foiled every day but one, with sessions lasting up to several hours. No foot pain, where as before the arch pain would be rather intense in my arches after 30 minutes.

gemelo-pescado · Since 01 Sep 2020 54 Posts Stevenson

Thanks for the exercises, Nak. I’ll have to add them to my pre-session stretch routine.

I also experienced severe arch pain while foiling, but my solution was gear related. I started off riding a Dwarf Craft... and that concave deck caused foot cramping and some arch pain. I then moved to the Naish Hover, which has a slight convex on the beck. That slight convex caused excruciating foot pain for me.

My last session on the Naish Hover lasted 45 minutes or so…. It was just too painful. The next day my Kanaha Shape was delivered. My first session on a KS was beautiful. No cramping. No arch pain. Lasted hours on the water. KS boards have a flat deck, and having a flat deck was the solution for me.

Feet are different. But that was my experience and my solution to arch pain.