I’m about five months into light training after an 8 year absence from the sport. Things are going pretty well, and i’ve managed to get my 60m times down to 7.2-7.4. However I can’t take things to the next level due to an ongoing achilles problem. I get in a four or five day unit of training and my left achilles starts to get sore and aching. Usually it takes up to a week before I am able to accelerate down the track again.
Could someone give me some ideas of how I can better rehabilitate the tendon, possible causes, or strengthening/flexibility exercises that might help prevent the constant relapse?
My training is very low volume, two sessions a week with drills, 2x30m, 2x60m, and some low impact plyometrics like bounding and half squat jumps, then general fitness sessions for basic strength twice a week. I fell like I can start to run much faster if I can just get in a month or two without pain
Hi, Jon. Is it accute tendonitis? If so ice will help a lot. I have had the same problem and ice has really helped me. Ice acts as an anti inflamotory and tendonitis is exactly that. Inflamotory of the tendon. Also you may want to try this, Stand on a stair with both feet, have your heels hanging of the stair. Use the right foot only to push up and then remove the right foot of the stair. Slowly lower your left leg. Basically you want to work the ‘bad’ tendon eccecentrically. Then repeat. Place the right foot back on the stair or whatever you will use. Do 2sets of 15 reps every day. I found this information from a website which showed the sweedish scientists carry this out on some people who had accute achilles tendonitis. It helped them and it’s helping me. Also Glucosamine is very good for joints and ligaments.
hassan gave some great advice there but missing some key points.
firstly you need to see a therapist to help break down scar tissue thus leading to enhanceing the rehab and of course help get to the cause of the problem.i know you said you have no access but try your best to see one.cross friction of the achilles works great and also alot of work will have to be done to the calf to release any pressure on the achilles.
hassan said about the aided heal drops that were used on the peakperformance site with great results but i thought they were too advanced to begin with.
i have used eccentric heal drops with absolutly great results but its hard work and takes time.start with double legged heal drops-
using a step-
start with only balls of the foot on the step with heels in the air,stand up straight with slight flexion in the knees(hold onto a stair banister to balance yourself)
your starting position will be up on the balls of the feet(like a calve raise position)your objective is to load the achilles eccentricly by allowing the hells to drop under the level of the balls of the feet.
so basically its up and straight down with no delay.at first start off slowly and as confidence improves increase speed and allow extra weight to fall into the drop position.
there should be a slight bounce at the bottom due to the force and no this won’t cause more teares.do 2sets of 20reps double legged drops and as you improve introduce single legged drops which are the exact same movement.try to do this programme x2 daily and always ice after every session.the achilles will get inflamed with the exercises and ice will help decrease inflammmation.
Thanks both of you for your advice. I’ll definetely get right on everything you mentioned. I’m wondering if the problem has anything to do with my calf muscles being too tight…seems to correspond with tight calf muscle and also a bit of tension under my knee. Maybe the tight calf is causing strain at both ends.
AS far as rehab, I’ll probably go see my doctor soon about this and see what he has to say.
As you pointed out I would say the problem is in the calf muscle. Especially if it always gets better after a week of rest. Try to massage it after your sprint session combined with maybe some hot/cold water pressure. The heeldrops are great but be careful not to further tighten that calf of yours.
jon,
Your calf muscles are tight, that’s all. I have the same problem myself. Before you get too aggressive with more advanced therapy, I would try just stretching the calves, and more specifically the soleus, on a regular basis and see where that gets you. The best way to target the soleus is to bend the knee while stretching the calf. If the stretching by itself doesn’t work, get some trigger point work done.
By the way, your training program is very good, very conservative.
All the points mentioned here were great but I think that the most important questions were NOT asked.
What was the mechanism of injury to your achilles? How exactly did it happen (ie. what sport/event do you play/run?) Is this injury chronic or acute? (you mentioned that you were off for 8yrs but you didnt say if it was due to the injury) Only then can you make a proper diagnosis and Tx for your injury.
Also, how old are you? Are you left legged or right, with respect to injured leg? Is your current (after injusry) gait balanced?
I have stressed this before and I will say it again, HYDROTHERAPY HYDROTHERAPY, HYDROTHERAPY…
This is one of the best, perhaps thee best (matter of opinion of course) action of Tx any athlete SHOULD use regardless of injury type (ie. chronic or acute).
No, I was a track and field athlete in high school, competing at 400m (51.6 best time), then I decided to switch down to the 60m indoor season for college. I completed one indoor season of very high intensity training, and followed religiously the CFTS which I had picked up at a meet. My best times then were 6.23, 7.26 for 50m, 60m (Down from 7.64 for the 60m the year before) Unfortunately the party lifestyle took over for a few years and I dropped right off the scene altogether and have never been back since, although every spring I wanted to. This past winter I started doing alot of stretching and drills around the apartment and when the warm weather hit I hit the track. I finally have the motivation to return and plan to focus on the 400m. I’d like to run 49-50 second type times by next summer, which is provincially competitive. So i’ve been trying to get a speed reserve built up through the summer and fall, (sub 7.0 handtimed 60m) and then condition myself for the 400 over the winter and spring.
The achilles pain seems to come near the end of a speed session where i’m doing 30’s and 60’s or after plyometrics. It is very acute at that point and subsides into a dull sort of ache over the next couple of days, but any kind of action up on my toes is impossible for a few days. Usually within a week of total rest I am able to do a short speed session again and I’ve made a point of doing plyo’s in a flat footed way. But then within one or two sessions like that it is back. However it does not bother me at all when walking.
I am now 29 years old, maybe too old to be attempting this, but my 7.3 early 60 times seem pretty decent for all the time off and I feel I can go faster. I"ve done almost no dynamic strength or weights. I am really just in the very beginning stages. Um…right or left legged? From a block start my right leg is forward if that answers your question, however when hurdling my left leg is lead (???) I feel I have a fairly balanced stride throughout my accelerations but have no way to be sure.
I hope this little bio helps. Thanks for the interest and thanks to everybody who responded. I just put myself through a half hour of heel drops, calf stretches and self massage and plan to try again later this week.
ok you know when where and how it happened.you know exactly what you did to progressivley make the injury worse.personally i had a chronic achilles problem back in 99 mainly due to a calf injury which was treated but pushed back into intense training days later,big mistake.i had severe tightness in the area for weeks but trained throughout and the next thing i knew i was getting pain in my achilles.i trained,getting treatment but getting worse.it got to the point were i couldn’t extent properly and i was missing track sessions thinking that rest would aid the achilles.it didn’t aid the achilles at all.
the achilles has poor bloodflow thus leading to the healing process being naturally slow.that is why you need therapy-to 1,get the injury diagnsed.2-get treatment,3-once you get the cause and the treatment begin rehab.
get to the bottom of the cause and get treatment then discuss rehab with your therapist and good luck!