Anyone had it.. Any advice on trying to get rid of it. Been going on for about 6 months now, I've been trying to rest it, but short of lying still on the couch all the time its practically impossible.
I'm seeing an Osteopath and doing lots of ice and stretching. I have been out on the bike a few times but that just seems to make it worse..
First of all a question before I tell you what I did to cure mine. Why did you choose an osteopath over any of the other options?
When I had my achilles tendonitis last year I used strapping to reduce the loading on my achilles when I was walking. This involved two or three big strips of elasticated bandage, stretched fairly tight, running down the back of my calf and under my foot. This was anchored solidly by tape running round my foot, upper calf and just above my ankle. This served to immobilise my achilles pretty much. Then when the pain and inflammation reduced I got the wife to give it big licks with friction massage. This cured it in next to no time.
One thing to be wary of is that you dont alter the way you walk to try and avoid pain or you will end up with a whole heap of knee and hip problems.
I was given the following heel drops to do.
Stand on stair with both heels dangling over the edge and your weight on your forefeet. Raise yourself up so you're on your toes, then slowly lower yourself as far as you can, so your heels are lower than the forefoot.
Repeat 15 times.
Now do the same, but just lower yourself down on one leg, but use both to raise.
Repeat 15 times for each leg
Now do the same, but lower and raise yourself on one leg
Repeat 15 times for each leg
Do 3 reps of the above.
My case was pretty mild though, and it's completely outside my knoweledge to say whether these exercises will cure or cripple you. So you might want to seek some advice you can trust 
Id see a proper sports physio, The Mrs was in a wheelchair with it, she ended up travelling >100miles each way for a series of appts at the FASICs clinic at Edinburgh uni, which has improved it no end. It'll always need watching tho.
Been resting mine for about 8 months now. Having physio on it. My right one seems to have sorted itself out but left is still not good.
Alternating ice and heat packs, a minute each for about 20 mins, seems to help. I think it's meant to promote blood flow to the area. Also ice packs after walks, runs and rides.
I've backed off with the stretching. I think I did rather too much to start with and that seemed to aggravate it. I'm avoiding certain times like first thing in the morning. I also stop stretching if it's painful.
Frustratingly I think it's just a case of resting it. Still go out riding, and rowing seems ok too, but have had to stop running.
It does depend on the injury. I partially tore mine a few years ago. I used a rise inside my shoe while it healed. This shortens the stretching motion it makes when walking. I also massaged it regularly. I then gently reduced the size of the rise. Once the swelling and pain has gone I then regularly worked , exercised and stretched the area, ham strings and lower back and under the foot,(including the exercise IanMunro has mentioned).
I still regularly have to be careful, I don't wear shoes with any type of heal (this includes normal mens work shoes) and stretch my lover back, legs, heal and foot. So far I've never had any big problems again.
I would be careful about strapping it though. If the damage was cause by friction you can increase the friction by pushing it tighter.
Thanks for the replies..
I choose the osteopath mainly because I've seen him before for other problems, he does use a lot of massage not just bone crunching.
I've done some of the heel drops off the steps.
Look like its going to be a long term problem, just very frustrating that it started to affect on my cycling.
you might want to look at seat position on your bike, if its normal XC height (i.e. as far up as it goes), you end up with a big calf stretch at the end of your down stroke as your heel travels down through (going into excessive dorsiflexion). You might want to lower the seat to reduce this level of stretch.
Also if you are a bit of a stomper you might want to limit the amount of power you're transmitting through your feet to the pedals in the short term, if you're chucking a lot of force through the foot, your achilles has to take a fair amount of that strain from the calf muscles. So using a larger ring and higher cadence might ease the strain a little.
These are a couple of tips that might make riding more bearable, but should be done in conjunction with appropriate rest, icing, stretching and strengthening, and definitely under the watchful eye of a physio to try to troubleshoot and reign you in if needs be. The heel raises are a mainstay of treatment, (if they're painful go up with your good leg and down on both), bow-stringing can be used (a form of friction massage)as well as strappings to offload some of the strain on the achilles.
However, with out having a proper look i can only speculate what might be a good idea, i recommend seeing a sports physio or other sports clinician.
SBZ do you have any more detail of the strapping you used?
Find resting the Achilles to be difficult when just walking about seems to aggravate it so this could be a good way forward.
Also notice you didn't mention any stretching. What's your view on this? I have a suspicion that it's actually slowing down my recovery.
I had it September to Feb. Scar tissue builds up easily and makes it worse.Lots of pinching right up and down the achillies till it starts to go numb. Heel raises and....REST It will only get better if you rest it as well as the above.
Duckman, not an easy thing to rest as even if I lay off the running and cycling, the dog still needs walking!
mrblobby - the idea of the strapping was to limit the amount by which my calf and therefore achilles could be stressed.
Similar to this
www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzRhIyw85Xk
I'm not a great fan of stretching anything, so didnt do any stretches. More preference than anything else.
SBZ, thanks for that. Shall have to give that a go.
Did you do much stretching as part of your recovery?
Not that I can remember. Did the lowering off a step a little bit as above, but that's not really stretching.
I had Achilles Tendonitis that then tore my calve as I didn't treat it, just managed it.
I went to see a sports physio as it had been going on all over summer and hadn't got any better. As above heel raises and a lot of stretching. I had to stretch my calve and achilles every 2 hours. I didn't use any ice as there wasnt any inflamation, I did use a heat pack after doing activities/work which helped. I also used a wobble board as the muscle between the Achilles & Calve had also torn.
I can still feel it slightly (healed 2 months ago), its fine as long as I stretch off before, after and during a ride.
had Achilles Tendonitis that then tore my calve
I might be increasing my stretching routine!
blob,achilles probs could also be referred pain.Rather than just treat the symptoms you need to hunt for the causal factors.
eg - Tib Posterior is known to refer to the achilles area as does Soleus.
Before doing lots of arguably not very effective stretches [compared to various muscle energy techniques] have you had Tigger Point therapy release in these areas?
Has your pelvic alignment been checked?
Leg length discrepancy?
What was your warm up/cool down protocol when you were running? ie few mins warm up on the indoor trainer,dynamic mobilisations replicating the running action,self massage,PIR type stretches on high load muscles or areas of potential injury...etc.Takes me at least half an hour to get ready for a run,which can be a pain in the a,but it reduces the risk of injury,lowers perceived exertion,promotes a smoother running gait,and despite advancing years enables me to continually set PBs despite very low run mileage.
What sort of manipulation to the tendon have you had?
On a pedantic level,you'll be suffering with an 'osis not an 'itis.
Rather than wanting an answer per se,just give my brief pointers some thought.If these factors haven't been looked at [they should have been] then find ye a decent soft tissue therapist.Not sure an osteo or physio is best for this,unless they have been trained in up to date soft tissue techniques.
Good luck.
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