16/04/2025
Why "Treating the Foot" Isn’t Just About the Foot
f you’ve ever treated a client with persistent plantar heel pain, medial arch stiffness, or an ankle that just won’t “clear” properly — and felt like you were missing something — you’re not alone.
And here’s a truth many of us discover the hard way:
👉 You can’t truly treat the foot without assessing what’s going on above it.
In fact, the more I work with foot dysfunction, the more I see it as the victim, not the culprit.
The “Catch the Foot” Phenomenon
The foot often picks up the tab for what’s going wrong higher up in the chain — whether it’s hip dominance, thoracic rotation, or something as seemingly distant as a historical wrist fracture that shifted load patterns across the fascial system.
I call it the “Catch the Foot” phenomenon. It’s where the foot becomes the physical endpoint of dysfunctional patterns elsewhere in the body. The pain shows up there, but the root cause? It’s playing hide and seek — and it’s not always playing fair.
Here's an Example From My Clinic:
A client presents with:
Ongoing medial arch pain
Lateral shin discomfort
Difficulty with toe-off during gait
Initial imaging and orthotics hadn’t helped.
The missing piece? A subtle, long-forgotten fall from a bike — which had altered thoracic rotation, locked up popliteus function at the knee, and contributed to saphenous nerve entrapment affecting sensation in the medial arch.
Until we addressed all of these — using gentle manual therapy, low-level laser, and focused mobility work — her foot had no chance of resolving.
So What Do We Do Instead?
Here’s what I suggest to every practitioner who feels stuck with foot cases that just won’t resolve:
Start with the story. Ask the client to walk you back. A simple “Was there anything else that happened before the foot pain began?” can be gold.
Assess the entire lower limb as a system. Don’t just isolate joints — trace tension, movement loss, and compensation patterns.
Understand that timing matters. Fascial restrictions, nerve irritability, and muscular imbalance don’t appear overnight. You’re likely dealing with layers that need sequencing, not just strength.
Use clinical reasoning before protocols. Every case is different — and that’s a good thing. Your job isn’t to plug them into a program. It’s to understand what their foot is adapting to.
The Big Takeaway
Foot pain doesn’t always start in the foot. If you only look there, you’ll miss the bigger picture — and your client will keep coming back, frustrated and resigned.
But when you expand your lens, ask better questions, and apply a structured system for assessment and treatment, results start to shift.
Quickly.
If you’re curious to learn more about how I approach complex foot cases with manual therapy, functional anatomy, and clinical reasoning — I share my process in my in-person workshop and online trainings.
But even if you don’t attend, I hope this reminder stays with you:
👣 The foot isn’t broken. It’s trying to keep up. Help it by understanding what it’s compensating for.
Your clients (and their feet) will thank you for it.
