Anyone out there overcome this overuse injury? I started back running after doing the NYC MARATHON last year and developed sharp pain in my achilles. Saw a dr and PT 1st week in January. Diagnosed it as achilles tendonosis. I have been doing the stretches, strenthening, ice, heat, rolling and now 4mths later I am still in pain and not better off then early january. I see a sports dr who works with the pacers/Colts in april. Would it help if they put a boot on me for a few weeks? Anyone have any luck overcoming this? Getting depressed not being able to run anymore…
I had three episodes. The key each time was 8 weeks or so NO, zero, nada running. It has been a year since the last episode. I did have ART, Graston, needling…it greatly improved recovery time. The assessment isolated the root cause and I began a functional strength routine for hips, gluteus…4 months is awfully long. Are your trying to run through it, if so, stop now or you will have issues for the rest of your life. Let it heal. Tough one to swallow. These boards here a littered with those that ran through this one, make sure you ask them if they would do it again.
I got over this last year. I had a sore tendon that was bugging me all winter last year and I fixed it relatively quickly. I went to a PT that told me that my achilles was hurting because it had shrunk slightly from running on my toes a bit. He gave me a few exercises to help stretch it out again.
I did the following:
I did some stretching, but not a pulling stretch motion. I did an exercise where I flexed my shin muscle. You do it by trying to get your toes to point backwards towards you as much as you can. Multiple reps at a time. This should help stretch your tendon out again as you do these exercises.
I also was told to stop trying to run as mid-foot and on my toes as I used to. Basically, don’t be afraid to heel strike a bit. the PT told me that the heel strike was actually ok and helped stretch my tendon. I would warm up my short runs doing an accentuated heel strike motion and then run a bit more normally.
After a few weeks of these diligent exercises, my pain really subsided and I felt ok again. I incorporate these from time to time to hold off any soreness and it helps.
Hopefully trying this out helps. Everyone is different, but I figured I would share what worked for me. I know how it feels to be missing runs, especially as the weather gets better. Good luck with the healing process!
if its bad, stop running until it gets better. keep doing the ice, heat, roller while not running on it. hit the deep end and do pool running to keep the muscles firing and don’t push it.
when i get massages now, about twice per month, my therapist sometimes goes to town on my achilles and it feels ohh so good after!!
Thanks…no I have done zero running since I first started seeing the PT in January, so that is not what is causing the pain.
I have a similar problem. Sometimes I think the flexion from kicking off the wall (swimming) ~ makes things worse.
I would talk to your doctor about platelet rich plasma injections. It’s a realively new procedure. I recently had it done for plantar fasciitis with some good results.
I had a problem with my left Achilles in 2010, when I was diagnosed with degenerative Achilles tendinosis with some micro tearing. Rest alone didn’t help, so my orthopedic surgeon put me in a boot for three months followed by six weeks of PT. It was frustrating to be out of action for that length of time, but it worked for me.
Although I was predisposed to have Achilles issues, I think the trigger for me was a pair of ill-fitting running shoes. I’m much more aware of my form now, focusing on my posture and a midfoot strike. I also started adding in Galloway walk breaks on my long training runs to keep from fatiguing my Achilles too much. Another change I made was moving my cleats a little rearward on my bike shoes to take some pressure off my Achilles while on the bike.
Good luck,
Mark
Anyone out there overcome this overuse injury? I started back running after doing the NYC MARATHON last year and developed sharp pain in my achilles. Saw a dr and PT 1st week in January. Diagnosed it as achilles tendonosis. I have been doing the stretches, strenthening, ice, heat, rolling and now 4mths later I am still in pain and not better off then early january. I see a sports dr who works with the pacers/Colts in april. Would it help if they put a boot on me for a few weeks? Anyone have any luck overcoming this? Getting depressed not being able to run anymore…
I’ve battled this a bit but I not for as long as you. For me, eccentric heel drops have been invaluable for getting through this. Perhaps you’re doing this already.
Is that where you stand on stairs and raise your heel/calf up and down? If so, yes I am doing those.
I am also doing graston scraping. Massage rolling on my calves. I will ask this Dr. about PRP as well. I don’t care if I have to be in a boot for awhile to get rid of this.
I was running in Hokas and with the zero drop, I almost think that is the wrong shoe for me. I loved the cushion for sure, but I pronate and need the medial support, so this is not the shoe for me.
Is that where you stand on stairs and raise your heel/calf up and down? If so, yes I am doing those.
Yes, and no.
The important thing with the heel drops is that you are using muscle to lower yourself (drop) - using eccentric contraction (lengthening) to lower yourself. It’s very important to NOT use the calf to push up on to your toes while you’re doing this. I do these drops one leg at a time and after the drop, use the other leg to “push” myself back up to the raised position.
I’m not a doctor, or even smart for that matter, but this has really helped me. Especially after long runs.
I had this, and I tried running through it until it caused a big problem and developed into posterior shin splints. I was probably a week away from a stress fracture.
This was back in Nov/Dec. I saw the ortho, and he put me on no running until mid-Feb.
I was running pain free, building back slowly…until this morning.
Back out of nowhere. I’m so frustrated, but I know I can’t run through it. More stretching, ice, and no running.
The ankle that it happens on has been twisted and sprained so many times…ankle pain is almost a constant. This, though, is different.
Anyone out there overcome this overuse injury? I started back running after doing the NYC MARATHON last year and developed sharp pain in my achilles. Saw a dr and PT 1st week in January. Diagnosed it as achilles tendonosis. I have been doing the stretches, strenthening, ice, heat, rolling and now 4mths later I am still in pain and not better off then early january. I see a sports dr who works with the pacers/Colts in april. Would it help if they put a boot on me for a few weeks? Anyone have any luck overcoming this? Getting depressed not being able to run anymore…
I’ve battled this a bit but I not for as long as you. For me, eccentric heel drops have been invaluable for getting through this. Perhaps you’re doing this already.
same here, these exercises cleared it right up for me. sorry to hear your struggling with this, so frustrating.
Got it, thank you so much for the link!
To see the heel drop technique, do a search of Alfredson Protocol. It definitely helped me recover from follies of experimenting with minimalist shoes.
Suffered for a good 6 months with tendinosis. The eccentric heel drops with a weighted back pack have almost cleared them up for me over a period of probably 9 months. I have slowly increased the weight in the back pack (starting with 3 kg and working up to around 25 kg - bodyweight of 60kg). I found that the increased loading on my calf required me to be extremely vigilant with rolling my calves (a foam roller wasn’t adequate, I needed a wooden rolling pin) or I ended up with a different kind of pain in my achilles. Running pretty much pain free now, though if I forget to do the rolling/heel lowers and do some fast runs I start getting sore again, but never as bad as it was.
What sort of reps/sets are you all doing for the eccentric heel drops, and how many times per week?
When my tendinosis was bad I was doing 1 set of 15 with straight leg and 15 with bent leg on each leg in the morning and repeating that in the evening. Sometimes I would get an extra set in during the day. It took quite a while before I really noticed any effect.
Is that where you stand on stairs and raise your heel/calf up and down? If so, yes I am doing those.
Yes, and no.
The important thing with the heel drops is that you are using muscle to lower yourself (drop) - using eccentric contraction (lengthening) to lower yourself. It’s very important to NOT use the calf to push up on to your toes while you’re doing this. I do these drops one leg at a time and after the drop, use the other leg to “push” myself back up to the raised position.
I’m not a doctor, or even smart for that matter, but this has really helped me. Especially after long runs.
I’d back this and make sure that you add weights over time too. I got over a really nasty case of Tendinosis this way.
Don’t forget to do them with a bent knee as well.
Also work on strengthening the glutes as mentioned. This, with the heel drops finally cured my chronic Achillies problems
I had this and I did this to heal: Stop running for 4 - 6 weeks and stretch and strengthen the calves. I also had to find the right running shoes for me. I read that many support type running shoes - which I was wearing at the time - have soles that have very little or no flex (pick your shoe up and try to twist the sole in the center) and that can be a source of Achilles tendon problems caused by running. Turns out I need shoes that flex.
Stretch - eccentric heal drops and other calf stretches.
Strengthen - toe raises 3 sets and as many as you can do until it hurts - stop when the pain starts and when you can do 3 sets of 50 without pain do the same routine with eccentric toe raises and then move to jumping jacks (on the balls of the feet). When you can do 3 sets of 50 jumping jacks pain free its time to start running again.
-Mark