The Spoon Foot Technique

By Dr. Jeremiah Jimerson, DC — known online as Younger You Doc (@youngeryoudoc)

This is the one people bring up most. A spoon, the arch of a foot, and about ninety seconds.

Watch the original @youngeryoudoc Instagram Reel — approximately 100 million views as of August 2026 →

The same demonstration on YouTube, where it has picked up roughly 12 million views of its own as of August 2026.

I Didn’t Invent Scraping a Foot

Instrument-assisted soft tissue work is not mine. Gua sha is centuries old, IASTM and Graston are the clinical versions, and people have been running tools over plantar fascia for a long time.

What I did was reach for a spoon.

The reason is practical. Patients would ask what they could do between visits, and telling someone to go buy a stainless steel therapy tool is a bad answer — most people won’t, and the ones who do often use it badly. A spoon has a smooth rounded edge, a bit of weight, and everyone already owns one. I started testing it, it worked about as well as I’d hoped, and eventually I filmed it.

Research on instrument-assisted work is mixed. Some studies show short-term changes in pain and range of motion, others find little advantage over other approaches. That’s not the reason I use it. I use it because I can test what changes on the person in front of me, immediately.

Test It Before and After

Do this properly and you’ll learn more in three minutes than from anything I write here.

Before: stand up. Notice what the bottom of that foot feels like taking weight. Then bend forward and let your hands hang — note where they reach and where you feel the pull. Then pull your big toe back toward your shin and feel how far it goes and how it feels along the arch.

Then: work one foot only. Sit down, rest the ankle across the opposite knee, and use the back of the spoon along the arch with light-to-moderate pressure and a bit of lotion or oil. Slow strokes, ninety seconds to two minutes. One foot.

After: repeat all three tests. Compare the treated foot to the untreated one.

Either it changed or it didn’t. That’s your answer and it’s more useful than my explanation.

The forward bend catches people off guard, because the foot connects up the back of the leg through the calf and hamstring. When people find they reach further after working one foot, that’s usually the moment they get interested.

Why It Might Change Something

Working theory, not proven mechanism.

The sole of the foot is one of the most densely innervated surfaces on the body — that part is established anatomy, and it makes sense given that it’s how you sense the ground. There is also real connective-tissue continuity running from the plantar surface up the back of the leg.

My working explanation is that a novel, broad sensory input across the sole changes what the nervous system is reading from that area, and some protective tension eases off. That would explain why the change shows up so quickly, and why it sometimes shows up somewhere other than the foot.

The older idea — that you’re breaking down adhesions in the fascia — I’m sceptical of. The forces are small and the changes are far too fast for tissue remodelling. Something that loosens in ninety seconds didn’t have its collagen rearranged.

What This Doesn’t Tell You

Plantar fasciitis that keeps returning is usually not a foot problem in isolation.

In practice I find it much more often tracks to what’s happening above — hip mechanics, ankle mobility, how the big toe moves, and very often footwear. If the arch keeps getting overloaded, you can scrape it every day and it will keep getting angry, because you haven’t changed the reason.

Use the spoon for relief. Don’t mistake it for a plan. More on what actually causes plantar fasciitis →

Who Might Find It Useful

• People with that first-steps-in-the-morning heel and arch pain
• Runners and anyone on their feet all day
• Anyone curious whether foot input changes what they feel further up the chain

When Not To — And Why Sensation Is the Whole Issue

The thing that makes this technique safe for most people is that you feel it. Pressure that is too much registers as too much, and you back off without thinking about it. Take that feedback away and there is nothing stopping you from scraping the same patch of skin well past the point of irritation, because it never starts to hurt.

So the question is not whether you have a particular diagnosis. It is whether you can accurately feel what is happening to the tissue under the spoon. Talk to your doctor before trying this if any of the following apply:

• Peripheral neuropathy of any cause — diabetic, chemotherapy-related, alcohol-related, idiopathic. Plenty of people with diabetes have completely normal foot sensation and are fine; plenty of people without diabetes have neuropathy and are not. The neuropathy is the issue, not the diagnosis on your chart.
• Any reduced or absent sensation in the feet, from nerve injury, prior surgery, or a cause nobody has worked out yet. The usual home test is whether you can reliably feel a light touch on the sole with your eyes closed.
• Poor circulation — peripheral arterial disease, chronically cold or discoloured feet, a history of claudication.
• Impaired wound healing for any reason, including long-term steroids, immunosuppression, or poorly controlled blood sugar.
• Open sores, ulcers, blisters, cracked or fragile skin. Nothing goes on damaged skin. A foot ulcer needs a clinician, not a kitchen utensil.

If you have diabetes and normal, intact sensation and healthy skin, this is a conversation with your doctor rather than an automatic no — but foot care is a genuinely bigger deal in diabetes than most people realise, and that conversation is worth having before you start scraping anything.

Regardless of who you are:

• Not on broken, irritated or infected skin, and not over a fresh injury
• Not if you are on blood thinners or bruise easily, without asking your doctor first
• Not through sharp, shooting or electrical pain. Stop.
• Light to moderate pressure only, always with a lubricant. Passing redness is fine; bruising, broken skin or soreness the next day means you went too hard.
• Check your feet afterwards. If you have any doubt about your sensation, look at the skin rather than relying on how it felt.
• Sudden heel pain after an injury, or pain with swelling and warmth, needs to be evaluated rather than treated with a spoon

Common Questions

Does it break up scar tissue in the fascia?
I don’t think so. The forces are too small and the changes too fast. My working theory is that the effect is mostly sensory and neurological.

Metal or wooden spoon?
Either. Smooth rounded back edge, no sharp corners. Metal glides slightly better with lotion.

How often?
Once a day at most while symptoms are active, then as needed. Daily need for months means the cause hasn’t been addressed.

Will it cure plantar fasciitis?
No. It may reduce what you feel. Whether that lasts depends on why the tissue was overloaded in the first place.

Should it hurt?
Firm and slightly uncomfortable is fine. Sharp pain is not.

If It Keeps Coming Back

Plantar fasciitis is one of the most common things I treat in Charleston, and the frustrating cases are almost always the ones where the foot was the only thing anyone looked at.

Plantar fasciitis & foot pain → · Knee pain → · West Ashley chiropractic care → · SoftWave therapy →

Jeremiah Jimerson, DC, ART — Chiropractor in Charleston, SC
761 St Andrews Blvd, Charleston, SC 29407 · (843) 873-6004

Educational only, not a substitute for evaluation. Sudden heel pain after injury, numbness, or pain with swelling and warmth should be looked at.