Heel Pain

[leha]

Hi:

Nothing I've read anywhere sounds much like what's happening to me, so I thought I would post here and see if anyone knows what it is.

I do a lot of activities that involve deep stretching of the leg muscles. For the second time now, I have developed a weird problem in one heel in which the inside side/bottom area of the heel, very close to the skin, becomes tightened and slightly numb (and a little painful) when I extend my leg fully, stretch it forward or to the side, and flex the foot. There is no problem if I stretch backwards and flex, nor if I flex with the knee bent; only with the leg forward or to the side. I cannot extend the leg and kick forward with a flexed foot at all, because it feels like whatever is tightening is going to snap. In general, it feels like something I don't dare push, or try to "work out." And finally, it does not hurt at all under any other activity, or at rest. I can run, jump, stretch with my foot pointed, or, as I mentioned, stretch my leg backward with the foot flexed.

Listening to my body, this does not feel like there is anything protruding into the tissue. It feels like a structural weakness of some kind, indirectly related to the stretch in the Achilles tendon. In fact, when I had it before, it healed spontaneously after a couple of months, and I was fine for months after. I feel like I'm doing some portion of this stretch incorrectly, and need advice on how to support the tissue in my heel during the stretch, or strengthen the supporting muscles or something, but since I don't know what it is, I'm at a loss as to how to fix it.

Any help greatly appreciated!!