The Strong Foot Protocol
Use the insole to kill the pain, then rebuild foot strength gradually so the pain stops coming back.
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 88%
Lieberman's account of plantar fasciitis separates symptom relief from cause. The foot contains four layers of muscle supporting the arch, with the plantar fascia as a layer of connective tissue beneath them. Stiff-soled, arch-supported shoes are comfortable precisely because they do the muscles' work, so the muscles weaken; a weak foot lets the arch collapse, the fascia over-stretches and inflames, and because the fascia has almost no vascularisation it repairs very poorly. An orthotic insole relieves the symptom by preventing arch collapse, which is legitimate but permanent if nothing else changes. The protocol is to accept the insole for pain, then deliberately and slowly rebuild the foot muscles through targeted exercises and progressively more minimal footwear.
Origin
Lieberman's decades of research into barefoot running and foot biomechanics, applied live in the episode to Bartlett's own plantar fasciitis diagnosis, where a podiatrist scanned his foot, told him his arch was too flat, and prescribed insoles for all his shoes.
Core principles
- 01A strong foot is a healthy foot.
- 02Comfortable shoes are comfortable because your foot muscles are doing less work.
- 03The plantar fascia barely vascularises, so it repairs slowly once inflamed - prevention beats treatment.
- 04Symptom relief and cause correction are both legitimate, but only one of them ends the problem.
- 05Feet obey the same progressive-overload rules as any other muscle group.
How to run it
- 1
Use the insole to stop the pain first
Wear the prescribed orthotic while symptomatic. It prevents the arch collapsing as far, so the plantar fascia is stretched less and the pain settles. Lieberman is explicit that there is nothing wrong with treating the symptom - pain is no fun.
Watch out Understand what you have bought: relief, not repair. If you stop here you will likely need the insoles for the rest of your life.
- 2
Offload the aggravating activity while it heals
Reduce the running or impact sport that is loading the fascia, so the inflammation can settle before you start loading the foot deliberately. Bartlett's case healed in about a month with the insoles plus time away from running and football.
Pro tip Use the offload period to start step 3 - the foot exercises do not require impact.
- 3
Train the foot directly
Add specific foot-strengthening work - Lieberman names foot doming exercises among others. This is the intervention that addresses the actual cause, and it is the one most people skip because no clinician prescribed it.
Pro tip Treat foot work as its own muscle group in your training plan, alongside the groups you already strengthen.
- 4
Transition to more minimal shoes by percentage, not by switching
Move gradually towards shoes that are not stiff-soled and have no arch support, increasing the proportion of time you spend in them slowly. Going barefoot, especially on compliant surfaces, makes the muscles stiffen the foot themselves.
Pro tip Walking or running on a beach is a natural demonstration - your feet feel tired afterwards because the compliant surface forces the muscles to do the stiffening work.
Watch out This is the step that injures people. Lieberman is emphatic that if you do too much too fast, your plantar fasciitis will come roaring back.
- 5
Progress until the symptom stops recurring
Continue increasing minimal-shoe time and foot work gradually. Lieberman's stated expectation is that with strength built properly, the plantar fasciitis disappears and does not come back.
Watch out Do not read an absence of pain in week two as completed adaptation - muscle and connective tissue remodel on a months-long timescale.
In the wild
At 30, Bartlett developed ongoing pain in his foot. A podiatrist scanned his foot, measured it on machines, told him his arch was too flat and that he was standing wrong, and prescribed insoles for all of his shoes. Lieberman reframed the diagnosis: Bartlett had strengthened essentially every muscle group in his body in the gym except his feet, and the stiff comfortable shoes he wore had let those muscles weaken.
→ The symptoms healed within about a month on the insoles plus reduced running, putting Bartlett at the stage where the cause - foot weakness - could finally be addressed.
During the conversation Lieberman asked for a shoe from his bag to demonstrate, and it emerged that Bartlett was already wearing the same minimal barefoot-style shoes - a fairly new addition to his life, which felt strange because he could feel the floor through them.
→ Lieberman confirmed these are exactly the kind of shoe that strengthens the feet, but warned that making them his only shoe immediately, with feet he guessed were still weak, would likely cause regret.
Common mistakes
Accepting the insole as the whole treatment
The orthotic prevents arch collapse but does nothing for the underlying weakness. Lieberman likens it to putting the foot in a cast, and calls the wider pattern disevolution - treating the symptom of a mismatch disease rather than its cause.
Switching to minimal shoes overnight
Weak feet suddenly asked to do all the stabilising work will over-stress the fascia they were failing to protect in the first place, and the condition returns worse than before. Lieberman's warning is unusually blunt on this point.
Strengthening every muscle group except the feet
Regular gym-goers routinely train legs, back and core while their feet spend every session encased in stiff supportive shoes, producing an athlete with a weak link at the point of ground contact.
Is it for you?
Best for
Runners and gym-goers with plantar fasciitis or recurring foot pain, and anyone wanting to move to minimal footwear without injuring themselves.
Not ideal for
People with structural foot conditions requiring genuine medical orthotics, and anyone in acute pain who has not yet had the condition diagnosed.
From the transcript
“To prevent plantar plantar fasciitis, the best way to preventing it is having a strong foot. A strong foot is a healthy foot.”
“one of the reasons is because we we encase our feet in stiff-soled shoes that are very comfortable. And and the reason the shoes are…”
“they're kind of foot doming exercises and things like that”
“if you do too much too fast, you will your plantar fasciitis will come roaring back”
“so slowly slowly slowly increase the percentage of time”
From the episode
Harvard Professor: "10,000 Steps A Day" Is A LIE! Revealing The 7 BIG LIES About Exercise, Sleep, Running, Cancer & Sugar!!! Daniel Lieberman
Harvard Professor