Shoes, work, sports, arts, injury, pregnancy, health conditions, aging, and more can affect the ease and comfort with which you move through the world. Don’t leave your foot pain to chance or “wait and see". Instead, seek care from a chiropractic foot and ankle expert who’s got the education, experience, and deep knowledge of athletic and performing-arts biomechanics to help you through it.
At Groove Chiropractic in Vancouver, WA, foot and ankle concerns are not an afterthought. They’re a specialty area rooted in years of treating dancers, runners, field athletes, pregnant patients, and people recovering from injuries. If your feet hurt, it can affect your entire kinetic chain. If your ankles are stiff or unstable, related areas from your knees to your low back may compensate. And once the body starts over-compensating, problems multiply quickly.
My goal? Keep you moving with ease, strength, and confidence, no matter your sport, job, hobby, or season of life.
Why Foot and Ankle Pain Deserves Specialized Attention
Your feet absorb thousands of steps per day. They balance you, propel you, stabilize you, and react instantly to every surface you move across. When something in this complex system isn’t functioning well, whether it’s a joint, tendon, muscle, ligament, or nerve, it impacts the patterns of movement throughout your entire body.
In the Portland and Clark County region, people are active year-round: hiking the Gorge, going to hot yoga classes, dancing, weightlifting, cycling, playing youth athletics, and training for races. Foot and ankle pain can disrupt not only your athletic life but your mental health, social life, and daily functioning.
Chiropractic care for the foot and ankle is highly effective because it addresses both:
- The biomechanics → how your joints move
- The neurology → how your brain communicates with those joints and tissues
When both systems are supported, the body begins to heal and move more efficiently.
Common Causes of Foot & Ankle Pain
Foot and ankle issues show up for many reasons. Some of the most common patterns I see at Groove Chiropractic include:
1. Overuse From Sports or High-Impact Activity
Running, field sports, basketball, dance, volleyball, and pickleball can all place repetitive force on the ankles and arches.
2. Improper Footwear
Shoes that lack support or are too stiff, too soft, or too worn out can alter your gait and increase strain on joints and tendons.
3. Workplace Stressors
Long hours standing, walking on hard surfaces, ladder work, or sitting all day create various patterns of dysfunction.
4. Performing-Arts Movements
Dancers, gymnasts, cheer athletes, and musicians have unique loading patterns: pointe work, jumps, standing, turns, and stunting all challenge the foot/ankle complex.
5. Pregnancy-Related Changes
Relaxin, weight shifts, swelling, and pelvic changes can all cause new discomfort.
6. Aging or Health Conditions
Arthritis, neuropathy, circulation issues, diabetes, and previous fractures can alter function over time.
7. Acute Injuries
Sprains, tendonitis, falls, twists, and missteps often leave lingering instability even after the initial pain fades.
Whatever the cause, the earlier you address it, the faster and more fully you recover.
How Chiropractic Treats Foot & Ankle Pain Differently
Groove Chiropractic takes a whole-body approach to foot and ankle care. Your pain may be showing up in the foot, but the cause might be:
- limited hip rotation
- weak glutes
- core inhibition
- stiff big toes
- restricted ankle dorsiflexion
- collapsed arches
- tight calves
- lumbar spine or pelvis misalignment
Everything is connected.
My approach includes:
1. Joint-Specific Adjustments
Targeted chiropractic adjustments restore motion in the foot’s 26 bones and the ankle’s complex joint surfaces.
2. Soft-Tissue Therapy
Massage, scraping/IASTM, cupping, and taping can help improve the health of soft tissues like the calves, tibialis anterior/posterior, fibularis, foot intrinsics, and plantar fascia.
3. Biomechanical Movement Analysis
Assessing how you walk, stand, squat, jump, pivot, or dance can help identify what’s actually driving your symptoms.
4. Strength & Stability Coaching
Think: foot, core, toe strength, ankle balance, hip stability, and the neuromuscular systems that control them.
5. Personalized Home Exercises
You’ll leave with easy, effective movements to reinforce your improvements between visits.
6. Whole-Body Alignment Work
Because sometimes your “foot problem” is really a pelvic or spinal compensation pattern.
This isn’t a generic foot protocol. It’s personalized care tailored to your sport, job, and lifestyle.
Conditions We Treat at Groove Chiropractic
- Plantar fasciitis
- Achilles tendon pain
- Ankle sprains (new and old)
- Chronic ankle instability
- Big toe stiffness or pain
- Flat feet or collapsing arches
- Posterior tibialis dysfunction
- Fibularis tendon irritation
- Dancer’s foot/ankle conditions
- Pregnancy-related foot changes
- Pain from standing occupations
- Overuse injuries in young athletes
- Pain during running or hiking
If it affects your foot or ankle and it affects how you move, I have the knowledge and tools to help you with it.
Why Athletes and Artists Love Groove Chiropractic
My background in both sports medicine and performing-arts biomechanics helps me understand movement at a deeper level. I have years of personal experience of the demands dancers face. I have treated runners from kids to ultra-marathoners. I know what CrossFitters, volleyball players, youth athletes, and weekend warriors need to stay strong and injury-resistant.
Patients appreciate that I don’t just treat the symptoms, I try to find and address the root cause.
Let’s Get You Moving Again
Whether you're managing chronic pain, a fresh injury, pregnancy-related changes, or just the effects of busy, on-your-feet daily life, your foot and ankle health matters. You deserve to move with ease, confidence, and joy.
If you’re in the Vancouver, WA; Portland; or Clark County area and ready to feel better, I’d love to help you get your Groove back. Book an appointment at groovechiro.janeapp.com or call 503.468.6835 for a chat to see if Groove Chiropractic in Vancouver WA is a good fit for you. www.groovechiro.com
Dr. Cydney Brinson, DC
Chiropractor
Owner of Groove Chiropractic
Serving the athletic, artistic, and growing families of the SW Washington and Portland, Oregon areas.