Video and Transcript: Understanding Outside of the Heel Pain

Hi, everyone! Dr. Orit Hickman here from Pain Science Physical Therapy. 

This video is going to be a short one to address a very specific type of pain that I have experienced on the outside of my right foot. I was just preparing for Thanksgiving dinner this week, and I ended up standing for a long period of time in the kitchen. I was roasting a ton of vegetables and baking three pies. And, I went to step down, and I felt this really sharp pain on the outside of my right foot. I was limping for a couple of hours, but, eventually, the nerve pain went away. What I’m left with is some numbness and tingling now in the outside of my foot. The nerve that I irritated is called the perineal nerve, and it is a branch off the sciatic nerve, which is that large nerve that travels from the back of your-from your back, down the back of your right hip-your hip, down into your leg. And, I did this on my right leg, so I’m just going to show you a very specific exercise for that nerve irritation.

So, what you want to do is you want to find a comfortable place to lay down. And, I’m going to hold behind my right leg. My hip and thigh are about a 90° angle to each other. And, I’m just  going to lift and lower the bottom leg. So, this is the beginning of that nerve glide, and it’s very gentle. And, you might not even feel any discomfort in your foot. Now, do about five or ten repetitions of this. 

If you can tolerate it, then what you can do is you can hold the leg up, and you can turn the foot in. And, that is a progression of that nerve glide. And, again, [do] about five to ten repetitions of that. 

So, to repeat: the beginning of the nerve glide is just lifting and lowering the bottom leg, and then, once that feels comfortable, you would add in the foot. And, I would just do about five or ten repetitions of that. 

I would recommend that you repeat that about two to three times a day, maybe for two to three days. And, what should happen is you should feel that nerve feel better over time. [There] should be less tingling and less numbing sensation. And, if you have pain, that should help with the pain as well. 

Again, this is a very specific nerve glide for a very specific nerve. And, nerves really like blood flow. They really like to have enough movement. They like to have enough space around them. When nerves get irritated, they get inflamed. There can be swelling around them. That can keep the nerve kind of cranky and make it feel more uncomfortable. So, movement is a wonderful thing for a nerve that’s gotten irritated. 

I hope that was helpful if you’ve ever experienced that same type of nerve pain as I’m experiencing right now. Please let me know what you think. Feel free to leave any comments below and give me a thumbs-up if you liked the video. And, also, subscribe if you’d like to get more videos like this one. Have a great day!