Anyone have any luck getting through this?? Had it for about 8 months now, pain is about a 3-4/10. Sounds like exercises to strengthen the calf muscles is the solution, on week 3 of being serious about rehab.
Any insight would be helpful, thank you!
Have you seen a physical therapist?
Short answer, what works for me and my athletes I’ve coached.
- Load management. Reduce the run load and begin with run/walk sessions. Slow down daily runs (2 mins slower than 5k pace is my rule)
- Seated AND standing calf raises
- Graston scraping technique
- *if having plantar fasciitis problems too, then add Superfeet orange insoles into every pair of shoes you step in
Thank you for the response. I have not seen a PT yet, that will be the next step. I was doing heavy loaded seated calf raises over the summer and it was about healed, just got lazy at the end. Pain slowly came back, I decided it was a good idea to rub the sore area on the back of my heel one day this Fall really hard with my finger for about 20minutes to try and get some blood flow to it, bad idea!! It’s been fairly sore ever since. (don’t do that lol!) I know it can take several months of rehab to get the pain to ease, will keep at it, thanks.
probably should do heel drops (eccentric loading) and not calf raises…
it’s been 12 years for me, still working on it. I get pain-free weeks but eventually it comes back again after long or fast runs. I now do the heel drops with a 45lb plate held in the hand on the side of the affected heel, that’s working for now.
see,
https://forum.slowtwitch.com/forum/?post=6553842#p6553842
This is tough because it’s such a YMMV kind of thing, but - I dealt with this for years and it sucked. My milleage:
Time was the best thing. A long time - a couple years - some of those nearly entirely away from triathlon.Second most useful thing was an ultrasound wand device I found at a medical supply store. This was pretty huge for me in breaking up scar tissue and creating pain relief. Put on the gel and then run the ultrasound over my achilles for 10 minutes or so. After a minute or two I’d start to zero in on an acute area of tenderness and I’d stick around that area. 2-3x per day depending on what was going on with me. Can’t recommend this highly enough.Eccentric stretching was not for me. A PT I worked with described the value of load and eccentric stretching was for strengthening, but - at least for me - got in the way of healing. This is also - for me - what made rehab hard.Never barefoot, ever. Even walking from my bed to the bathroom. Always I had something on my feet that provided a bit of lift for my achilles.No clever footwear. The whole thing started for me during a speed run in Newtons (this was a long time ago, btw). Years later after I hadn’t had issues for a long time and presumed I had healed I tried Altra for the wider, more natural toe box. Almost immediately could feel old familiar issues. I am all about today’s cushy shoes and 8mm drops.(I realize requiring some lift in the heel is to many unnatural or emblematic of weakness etc. in the area - I don’t care)No clever wraps or braces. I found one that had an air bladder - the idea was when the foot struck it squeezed air from one section of the brace (underfoot) to a section wrapped around the achilles. Then every time you lift your foot the bladder deflates. I tried some others too, I was desperate to just run. Anyway that stuff can create a sensation of relief but it wasn’t actually creating change. So I’d end up making things worse in the long run.Maybe a weird one, but avoid crossing my legs. It’s natural at my office chair for me to cross one leg over another or even sit up cross-legged in my chair. I found anything that limited blood flow in any way created issues.Strengthen the chain. My hip flexors, hamstrings and soleus have all been involved in one way or another. I’m in my late 40’s and must do yoga and light strength training regularly if I want to enjoy training and racing (and which is where, by the way, I now get eccentric stretching that keeps me healthy). Not optional for me. But see bullet 3. I think premature strength training made things worse for me.
Wish you the best.
I appreciate the response, getting old sucks, I’m 45.
Lots of horror stories out there with this, I managed to make it through high hamstring tendinopathy 5 years ago, took a long time to get through that one, hope this one is shorter, but doesn’t sound like it.
Anyone have any luck getting through this?? Had it for about 8 months now, pain is about a 3-4/10. Sounds like exercises to strengthen the calf muscles is the solution, on week 3 of being serious about rehab.
Any insight would be helpful, thank you!
I had that problem. It a long lasting injury. I finally got over mine by 8 months of rest and I only ran bare foot in the grass. Basically I took a year off from racing (it was nice to have a life again) and running bare foot on the grass did wonders.
As a runner, assuming your not a trail runner, you run in a single direction. Straight. Over time you “dumb down” your ankles, Achilles, you toes do not splay out naturally because of your shoes, and connective tissue that make your feet function they way they are designed get lazy.
Running in grass strengthens all the above and it was the best cure for me. BTW my Achilles pain was 7/10. I had injections, PT, and was in a boot for 30 days. It was ugly but the best thing I found was running the the grass without shoes.
Anyone have any luck getting through this?? Had it for about 8 months now, pain is about a 3-4/10. Sounds like exercises to strengthen the calf muscles is the solution, on week 3 of being serious about rehab.
Any insight would be helpful, thank you!
I’m having the same issue, and it seems like it’s going to hang on for a while. I’ve read through the comments, and it looks like I’m following similar protocols (reduced running, no uphill, slower pace, more swimming, more dry land/core work, calf raises, blah, blah, blah). Biking doesn’t seem to aggravate things, so I’ll set up an indoor trainer too (even though I really dislike indoor riding).
Injured runner = swimmer
Anyone have any luck getting through this?? Had it for about 8 months now, pain is about a 3-4/10. Sounds like exercises to strengthen the calf muscles is the solution, on week 3 of being serious about rehab.
Any insight would be helpful, thank you!
I had it for a year. Went to 3 phyios and they kept on treating the calf, getting me to strengthen it etc but it didn’t help. The 4th physio quickly diagnosed a tight hip flexor. When I started stretching that the problem went away and I was running pain free 2 weeks later. A lot of physios will quickly go straight to the calf, but it could be a bunch of other things.
Yup, have to adjust. There was a link above to a post from mortysct, that protocol is what eventually got me out of high hamstring tendinopathy, I’m going to follow that.
Thanks for the response, crazy how there are so many different solutions from case to case. I will make sure I’m stretching my hip flexors each night, thanks!!
Running in grass strengthens all the above and it was the best cure for me. BTW my Achilles pain was 7/10. I had injections, PT, and was in a boot for 30 days. It was ugly but the best thing I found was running the the grass without shoes.
wild… I started walking barefoot around the house and garden, here in CO there isn’t much grass to run on so wasn’t able to try that, ha.
the boot is another thing worth doing, sleeping with the boot on does work but it’s not great for sleeping in. I plan to try a Strassburg Sock instead once my wife is done with it…
Running in grass strengthens all the above and it was the best cure for me. BTW my Achilles pain was 7/10. I had injections, PT, and was in a boot for 30 days. It was ugly but the best thing I found was running the the grass without shoes.
wild… I started walking barefoot around the house and garden, here in CO there isn’t much grass to run on so wasn’t able to try that, ha.
the boot is another thing worth doing, sleeping with the boot on does work but it’s not great for sleeping in. I plan to try a Strassburg Sock instead once my wife is done with it…
The boot is a bad idea to sleep in. I used a compression sock and it seemed to help. But for me at least it was rest and running in the grass. The injury never hurt on the bike or swimming.
Check out this post (and thread).
https://forum.slowtwitch.com/forum/?post=6553842#p6553842
Calf strengthening worked for me. Progress from static loading (standing on tippy toes) > body weight calf raises > weighted calf raises.
Remember that insertional Achilles is different from high achilleas issues, so don’t let your heals drop below horizontal. Better yet, do them in high drop shoes or w/ your heals raised (like with a book).
Another watch outs: don’t stretch your calves normally. if you want to massage, use a roller stick.
I avoid boots/socks that force your foot into dorsiflexion as this stresses and aggravates the injured area.
Second most useful thing was an ultrasound wand device I found at a medical supply store. This was pretty huge for me in breaking up scar tissue and creating pain relief. Put on the gel and then run the ultrasound over my achilles for 10 minutes or so. After a minute or two I’d start to zero in on an acute area of tenderness and I’d stick around that area. 2-3x per day depending on what was going on with me. Can’t recommend this highly enough.
Do you have the make/model of this device? I’d be curious to try it.
Update, running around 20 mpw, pretty much pain free. No pain in the mornings out of bed. Going to start introducing some hills in April.
I started off with the standing heel raises everyday, I didn’t start seeing improvements until I added the seated heel raise and resting a day in between, doing these 3xweek now.
It’s a long recovery, but there’s hope. Thanks for everyone’s help.
Thank you for the update. It provides hope.
I need to be more diligent with the heel raises. I can run up to 10 miles without any pain while running, but my Achilles can be pretty sore after.
I had it bad in my right achillies for almost two years (2015-16). I spent a lot of time and money in PT with exercises, stretching, manipulation, and scraping. I could only run about 20 miles a week and that with a pain level of about 5 out of 10. Heel lifts under my inserts helped some. But what finally fixed it was taking a complete break from running for about three months due to surgery from a different issue. It was amazing starting back up without that pain. I followed the BarryP plan for return to running and also switched to the Hoka Bondi. And contrary to another poster I never, never, go barefoot. Bought a couple of pairs of sandals for the pool and around the house. I thought my running days were over back then but I’ve gone on to run a several ultras and many marathons. There have been times when I feel like that all to familar pain is returning and that’s when I do my heel drops and stretching. That has kept it at bay now for several thousand more miles of running. Good luck!
Thanks for the information, yea, can be a real grind of an injury. I’m hoping to be back trail running by mid-summer.