Daily Mobility Exercises by Dr. Kelly Starrett Forums Foot/Ankle Heel Pain ONLY in Long Lever Dorsiflexion (Downward Dog) Reply To: Heel Pain ONLY in Long Lever Dorsiflexion (Downward Dog)

#285491
AvatarLyle Fielmich
Participant

Hi, yes it did. It took a little work, but heres my process:
– voodoo flossed my ankle and heel to get the skin gliding
– realised the problem may be upstream as well so I;
1. Used the “Bone Saw” on my calves, occasionally adding the voodoo band.
2. Voodoo wrapped my Hamstrings (sounds odd – but theres an excellent video on here about it) and that was a HUGE help, especially utilising a rumbel roller. Once the voodoo band has a grip on that hammie, my word do you know about it (painful!!!)
#2 was by far my favourite and leads me to think a big part of my pain was from tight hammies, although investigating my heel cord through the back of my calf – it felt like a bunch of broken guitar strings – so that certainly wasnt helping.

after 3-4 weeks of solid work on them (no rest from the gym mind you) i can comfortably go into downward Dog with no issues. This week however i was testing it and felt the tiniest burn on my heel, so I went back to my calf / hammie protocol and its fine again. Hope this helps!!!

FYI video on hammies can be found by searching the archives for “Voodoo Hamstrings”