Stretches to Help Relieve Tarsal Tunnel Syndrome

A few months ago, I started getting some symptoms from tarsal tunnel syndrome again, but not as bad this time. It seems that whenever I spend long periods of time on my feet or go out for a run, the symptoms start to creep back within a couple of days. This time, I went to an orthopedic surgeon who determined that I wouldn’t need surgery but I should definitely see a physical therapist.

I’ve been going to a PT called BASE Training and Physical Therapy in Encino (highly recommended if you live in the area) for the past few weeks and so far it has been pretty helpful. Funny story, I know the owner of the business from elementary school but that was a complete coincidence. Whenever I go in (about 2x a week), they do some therapy on my feet but also showed me some stretching exercises to do at home and at work. The key here is not how long you do the stretches, but how often you do them. I set a timer on my phone for every 90 minutes and I take 2 minutes to do these stretches. The reason that the nerve gets entrapped is that there is some inflammation in the tarsal tunnel area, so one of the best things to do to relieve that is to loosen the muscles in the area by frequent stretching.

1. Upper calf stretch

The point of this is to stretch your upper calf. Place both hands against a wall like show in the illustration above. Push pressure on the back heel so that it is always flat against the ground, and then move your pelvis towards the wall. You should feel a slight stretch. This actually doesn’t work for me as well anymore as I’ve started to loosen my upper calf through the past few weeks’ worth of stretching but it definitely helped when I first started doing this stretch. Hold for 30 seconds.

2. Lower calf stretch

This stretch is a tiny bit trickier, but I really like this one. Do the same pose as above, but this time, move your back foot a little closer to the wall and bend your back leg. Push down on the back leg, and you should feel a stretch in your lower calf. Hold for 30 seconds.

3. Calf and hamstring stretch with exercise band

This is my favorite stretch. I like this one because when I’m feeling any type of numbness, burning, or pain in my feet or ankles, I do this and it pretty quickly goes away. Invest in an exercise band and yoga mat because you will be using it a lot. Lay flat on your back, put the band in the middle of the bottom of your foot, and raise your leg, keeping it straight. The here is also to make sure you are pulling back with your toes, rather than pushing so that you are always keeping that 90% angle with your foot and leg. Raise your leg as much as you can while pulling back on the exercise band and you will feel a stretch in your calves and hamstring.

Lastly, I bought a foot/calf-stretcher that I use at my PT’s office. You can get it on Amazon for $17, here. It’s not an affiliate link or anything so I don’t make any money on it if you buy it, but I do recommend it as I keep this at my office and use it every 90 minutes.

Please comment below on your thoughts and experiences, as it seems a lot more people than I thought struggle with TTS. I have been getting a lot of emails from people who seem to have lost hope, but I just want to close this post by saying do not ever give up hope. I promise you, there are ways, albeit different ways for different people and conditions, but this is not a lost cause. Stay positive, surround yourself with positive people, and please continue to share with me how you are doing!

Edit Dec 12, 2024: It has been quite a few years since I originally wrote this post. Aside from these things I’ve posted above, I’ve discovered a few things that really completely fixed 90% of my issues with tarsal tunnel syndrome.

1. I went to an accupuncturist that really helped me a lot. I’m in the LA area and this place is called Golden Monkey Healing. I was really skeptical it would do anything but it made a huge difference after a couple of months of sessions.
2. Stretching wise, the accupuncturist taught kind of an interesting stretch where you wrap the exercise band around your big toe and stretch similar to the “calf and hamstring stretch with exercise band” above.
3. At night when I felt like my feet were feeling numb or burning, I would massage the outer part of my calf and that helped a bit
4. This one is super important, but wear insoles with arch support! I have been using these from Amazon for the past 6 years and they’ve done wonders. I’m even at the point now where I can go on runs for about as far as I want. I had a pair of these in all of my shoes, including my golf shoes. I’ve thought of getting some expensive custom made ones that mold to your feet but when I showed these to my orthopedic surgeon, he was really impressed and said they were of high quality.