Product Review: Heel That Pain Heel Seats (Guest Post #3)

Posted by DoombuggyRunner on May 20, 2015
Posted in: Equipment, Medical, Product Review.

HeelThatPain_02

Disclosure: I was provided these products from Heel That Pain for the product review; however, all opinions are my own.

Welcome back to another product review for Heel That Pain.  Several months back I was approached by Heel That Pain to test a few of their products.  Heel That Pain specializes in shoe inserts and cups used to help prevent and reduce conditions such as heel pain and Plantar Fasciitis.  You can read the other Heel That Pain product reviews here.

Full Length Heel Seats

Heel Seats – Guest Post #1

Heel Seats – Guest Post #2

They use a concept know at the Fascia Bar.  “The Fascia-Bar technology present in Heel That Pain’s inserts, wraps and splints realigns the plantar fascia ligament to its proper position while providing therapeutic acupressure and cushioning to the heel bone. This combination not only provides rapid relief from pain, but also stimulates the human body’s natural ability to heal itself. In essence, the typical customer experiences progressive recovery with each step they take wearing our patented Fascia-Bar products. Our top orthotic, HTP Heel Seats, has a satisfaction rating of over 90%.”

Because I do not currently have, nor do I want, plantar faciitis, I reached out to several runners in my running group to test the heel seats.  Each of these runners currently struggle with plantar faciitis, and are going through treatments of varying levels, so I figured who best to test these than them.

HTP-Pad1  HTP-Pad2

Here is a third and final review of the heel seats with one of my fellow runners.

As someone who has battled plantar faciitis off and on for almost 2 years, I’m pretty cautious about what I put on my feet.  You’ll almost never find me barefoot, and both my running and dress shoes have custom orthotics inside most of the time.  So when I was asked to try a new insert in my running shoes, I hesitated.  But like most folks with plantar fasciitis, I’m willing to try almost anything if there’s a chance it might help.

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The first time I stepped off with the inserts in my running shoes, I have to say I thought I had put them in wrong.  For the first few minutes, it literally felt like there was a bar in my shoe passing under my plantar fascia.  Not painful, but definitely a little uncomfortable.  The more I walked on them, though, the less I noticed they were there.  In fact, by the end of my first run, I actually noticed the insert more on the foot that DOESN’T have PF than the one that does.  The feeling reminded me of when you put sustained pressure on a tense muscle and, over time, the muscle slowly relaxes.  In this case, it felt like my plantar fascia was gradually stretching/relaxing during the course of the run, with the result that it was pain-free by the end of the run.
IMG_0688  IMG_0689
After using the heel seats for a while, my take was that, for an over-the-counter insert (i.e., not one specifically shaped to your foot), this could be a good option for many folks with PF.  Don’t let the first few minutes dissuade you — the benefits definitely come with time.  For those already using a custom orthotic, I suspect few will get more benefit from the insert than from what they are already using — although at around $25, I could buy a set and 9 replacements of the Heel That Pain inserts for less than my orthotics cost!
I haven’t tried them in anything but running shoes, but dress shoes come next.  The ultimate proof will be over a longer period–probably a few months–but I’ve at least been convinced that these are worth a trial run!

David Bundy
Charleston, SC

I would like to thank Heel That Pain for asking me to review their products, and I hope this has helped others in their consideration shoe inserts.

For more information on specifics on my review of the product, you can contact me at doombuggyrunner@gmail.com.  If you are a product manufacturer and would like for me to review your product here on Doombuggy Runner, you can also email me at doombuggyrunner@gmail.com.

Good luck and happy running.