Don’t give up on running just yet.

There are few things as sneakily debilitating as a foot injury. While common, with some one in ten people experiencing it in their lifetime, plantar fasciitis is also one of the most painful running injuries. The good news is it is preventable, treatable, and not something you have to live with forever. By following some basic injury prevention guidelines, including getting good shoes and following smart exercises, you can keep plantar fasciitis from keeping you down.

Plantar fasciitis is inflammation of the plantar fascia, which is the name for a group of bands of tissue that runs from your heel to your toes.

Plantar fasciitis has several causes.

Plantar fasciitis is often worse when you first wake up in the morning, because when we sleep our bodies relax and our ankles drop, tightening the calf muscles and stressing the plantar fascia, as described above. “Everyone will say that first step in the morning is the absolute worst,” Zakhary says. Zakhary recommends having supportive slippers by their bedside and sliding right into them, instead of walking with bare feet on the flat floor.

Once you’ve begun your day on the right foot (dad joke intended), you should consider the variety of stretches, exercises and other tips below to manage your plantar fasciitis.

There are a variety of things you can do both to help prevent plantar fasciitis, many of which also apply if you already have it. Zakhary recommends that if you’re diagnosed with plantar fasciitis that you work with a physical therapist to create a personalized set of exercises targeted at strengthening and lengthening your lower leg muscles. “Literally anything to stretch that posterior chain in your lower leg,” Zakhary says. Those stretches and exercises can include:

Zakhary stresses that plantar fasciitis is not something that has to stop you from a healthy lifestyle. Any other workout that you enjoy doing should be on the table for you, as long as it isn’t causing you pain. And if you’re managing and doing what you can to prevent it, hopefully you’ll be back on your workout grind before long.