i was diagnosed with peroneal tendonitis about a month ago. took about 3 weeks off while given a cortisone shot in the area. i started slowly building up again with some short runs but very concerned that it may come back. got any suggestions for routines that may strengthen those muscles so i wont get another flare up? i got the brooks green silence, after the initial injury, and have a very high arch…if any of that info helps.
People with high arched/rigid feet are more prone to peroneal tendonitis as the peroneals try to evert the typically more inverted foot type. Trail running and running “on your toes” will make it worse. Often, a tight gastro-soleal complex (calf) is noted and can be addressed with typical running calf stretches. It is unlikely do to a “weak” peroneal muscle. Return to running with caution as true peroneal tendonitis will take a lot longer than 3 weeks to resolve.
I do foot band exercises to address/prevent it. They’re described here: http://www.runwashington.com/news/3107/310/Sports-Medicine-Five-Strengthening-Exercises-for-the-Foot-and-Ankle.htm
I’m dealing with this injury now and as mentioned above, it takes quite a while to resolve. Also as observed above, I have high-arches and tight calves. For me, it started off last September as a dull ache, then progressed to barely-able-to-walk the day after running. I saw a doc in October, did PT for a couple of months and by January I was starting to feel like I would beat it. Even now, it still aches a bit when running but feels pretty good otherwise.
The PT folks said the most important thing was to continue stretching my calves (knees straight) and achilles/soleus (knees bent) (this being the more important stretch of the two). For strengthening, they recommended various calf-raise exercises.
It has been my experience that this injury takes time to clear up - good luck to you.
ill chime in as a third with this problem. eversion with a resistance band is good. if you want more you can do the eversion with toes pointed and toes up (one works the peroneus longus more and the other the peroneus brevis more). also can do balancing exercise (one foot on a bosu ball, single leg calf raises with a few seconds of standing on your toes at the top of each rep). i have noticed some weakness in my injured-side-calf overall so I’ve worked those in alot. also, eccentric contraction has shown promising results for treating achilles tendinosis (see the sources cited here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tendinosis#Eccentric_loading, a surprisingly good article on tendinosis) so i have been focusing on slowing down the inversion part of each foot eversion rep, don’t know if its helping but the combination of everything has meant slow steady progress for the last few months. good luck, this is an annoying one and easy to lose hope. progress is slow, just trust the PT and reevaluate every 2-3 weeks. if you’re worried about prevention, now i suppose alot of this won’t apply but maybe will help others searching.
one more thing on prevention. i’ve recently switched to minimal running shoes (kinvara 2’s) that seem to have helped alot. the lack of arch support i think is what is making the difference (recommended for people with higher arches). if you haven’t already, its a good idea to check you aren’t in the wrong shoe (i.e. high arches with lots of arch support will tend to inhibit pronation and put too much strain on the outside of the foot as a result). also, have tried heel cups when its feeling more tender and i have to be up on my feet. offers some immediate improvement though eventually caused other pain so i limit the heel cups to days when i know i will be doing a lot of walking.
just putting this out there for future searches.
http://www.summitmedicalgroup.com/library/adult_health/sma_peroneal_tendon_strain_exercises/
I do foot band exercises to address/prevent it. They’re described here: http://www.runwashington.com/...e-Foot-and-Ankle.htm
This is quite helpful and is often overlooked. Reminds me I need to get back on this. Having experienced this before, I’d also recommend you stay on top of your stretching. Tight muscles are often the cause of lower leg issues. Whenever I used to neglect this the PT would always flare up. Lastly, self message, messages and rolling out my lower legs always helped avoid this.