Top of Foot Pain in Runners
With the increased popularity of barefoot or minimalist running, there is an increased incidence of and injury that is being label TOFP (Top of Foot Pain) on many forums and blogs. There are a number of causes of pain on the top of the foot such as a ganglions, tendonitis and metatarsal stress fractures. What most of the barefoot or minimalist runners seem to be describing with the term, TOFP is a dorsal midfoot interosseous compression syndrome which occurs when the forefoot dorsiflexion moments on the rearfoot are too high for the tissues to tolerate and there is some compression over the dorsum of the foot between the tarsal bones and bases of the metatarsals. The treatment of top of foot pain is to increase the forefoot plantarflexion moment with strapping, rearfoot striking, heel raises, calf muscle stretching and foot orthotics with the appropriate design feature. If the runner wants to continue barefoot or minimalist running then they need to use the foregoing to get over the injury and then gradually transition back to forefoot striking and away from the foot orthotics to allow the tissues to adapt to the load. In some cases the loads or dorsiflexion moments are so high, the tissues may never adapt.
Related posts:
- Barefoot Running
- Factors assoicated with plantar fasciitis
- Heel Pain in Gout
- Lateral foot wedging for medial knee osteoarthritis
- Foot orthotic mechanisms of action
