Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Stand Desk- I now have heel pain! I am back to sitting

This is a quick update and warning with the experience I have had with my standing desk.  Early July I developed heel pain- It sounds from my research on the web that it is plantar fasciitis, but I am not a doctor so I would not make that declaration.  Now I also reduced my running from 20 miles to 10 miles a week. 

I do not know exactly why this developed, but here is my thinking: I am still overweight so maybe that is a factor.  The shoes and boots I am required to wear at work might be a contributing factor.  The pain is only when I stand-up or sit up- not when actually standing and it is relieved by walking or running (especially barefoot).  For the time being the last week and a half I have been sitting at work again.  Actually, last Friday I tried standing for two hours and the heel pain got worse again after subsiding.

More to follow, but  I may try re-incorporating standing partially during the day once it heals.  Perhaps it was because I went full standing for as long as I could from the get go.  I might also try to find office appropriate minimalist shoes.

4 comments:

Lara Jean said...

Here is some more information on plantar fasciitis (1 of every 10 people suffer from PF) http://ow.ly/60U2T

You should try adding a supportive heel cup to your shoes, this will help absorb the shock from your heel that you get from walking or standing in your boots. Also, stretching the plantar fascia (arch), Achilles, and calf muscles will help prevent pain caused from the plantar fascia tightening and then inflaming when you sit for long periods. The ProStretch Plus is a great tool to stretch those areas. Good Luck!

Lara said...

MDSMR11 -- that code will give you a discount on heel cups at www.medi-dyne.com

rb said...

I was happy to find your post, since I have been having a similar problem. About two months after switching to a standup desk I began to experience heel pain that was present when bending over or during the process of sitting down or standing up. I found that I could sit and stand without pain by raising my heel off the ground and resting on the ball of my foot during the process. Niether my doctor nor my physical therapist thought this was due to having a stand-up desk. I have just gone back to a sitting desk to see if the pain goes away. I am happy to hear that worked for you, I hope it will work for me as well.

rocketsciencesense said...

Thanks for reading rb. Let me know how it goes. I wear vivobare shoes almost 100% of the time now and hope to try a standing desk again soon.