Achillis tendon injury

Hi, I have had to re-register as I have not posted for a while and forgot my password and no longer have the email addy registered.

My problem is I hired a personal trainer a few months back and he over worked me and my achillis tendon went right near to my heal bone. I can walk fine and feel no pain now until I try to play squash or run, then after it is painful and flares up again.

I have been seeing a sports therapist where he stimulates the blood dlow etc but after 8 treatments it does not seem to be helping and at £40 a time it is expensive. I am going to the gym on the cross trainer and swimming, but I am desperate to get back running and feel this injury will never clear up.

Any advice would be welcome

Hi Paul.  Sounds like achilles tendonitis. Or tendonosis as it's more accurately called.  I had this injury and I'm sorry to report in my case it took 15 months to clear up.  I didn't start treatment with a sports injury therapist from the outset, which was a mistake, but those sessions were absolutely vital for a full recovery. At the beginning I was visiting twice a week, gradually reducing to eventually once a month, and had treatment for a whole year all told.  Are you getting deep tissue manipulation?  It is hideously painful but worth it.

I wrote a thread, more like a blog, nearly a year ago. I'll see if I can find it and bring it forward for you.  

What do you mean by "went"?  Hopefully not ruptured which is a very serious injury.  Has the tendon become very swollen?  What strength is left in it - can you still stand on tiptoes on the offending foot?

If it is inflamed don't play squash!  I can't think of a worse thing to do. I found I could and it was actually better to continue running throughout but at a very low intensity and, importantly, avoiding downhills.

To avoid aggravating the tendon I cut slits in all the heel tabs on my shoes using a sharp knife.

The jury is out whether or not too use heel inserts in your shoes.  I tried it but found better not using them in the end.  You need to try to get the full range of movement back.  Your therapist will hopefully have given you exercises, an important one being heel raising and lowering off a stair.

Thanks for that T-Rex wow that does seem like a long time to recover.

To fully keep you up to date then this is how it went

1. See personal trainer who I knew was over working me

2. 2 days later wake up with pain in back of my ankle and thinking it was a strain went and played squash and felt a lot of pain br thought it may be just a swelling.

3. Day after could not walk and ended up at A&E, was told it was achillis tendonitis and given tablets

4. Took a few days before I was able to walk again and the pain was minor unless I did something strenuous, but could really feel it, went on for maybe 5 weeks like this and decided I needed to see a sports therapist.

5. Therapist was happy it had cleared up and the swelling had gone down and I went and played squash again. Big nistake and the swelling came back and I could feel a slight dull pain for a few days.

6. Had a few more sessions since but it seems to be the same story of slight swelling and not quite right. I feel nothing unless I over do something or press hard around the area. The sessions are also expensive and I have decided rightly or wrongly to try and do it myself

He did suggest execises you mention and I will hold my hand up and say i have been slack and will start to do them again properly. I have not tried running apart from a running machine for 5 minutes, I just presumed it would do me no good.

The injury feels like it is right on the bone and thus hard to treat and not sure it can be deep massaged, in fact I went to the hospital because I thought it was my heel that was fractured.

I will have a good read through your post thanks

By the way the heat and cold method

How often should you do this and what is the best to use for the heat?

I never specifically heated the area.  I just tried to ensure the feet never got cold as such.  Apart from during the cold therapy when immersion in a bucket of cold water for 15 minutes three or four times a day seemed to help, particularly after exercise or when very swollen.

I suggest you do keep on with deep tissue massage.  £40 is pricey.  Perhaps you can find a cheaper one?  Mine, last year, was £15-20 for 30 minutes.

I doubt you will have the courage to massage hard enough on your own, also you will find it difficult to reach the area to do it properly.

Yes, the stretching is very important.

It sounds like you're having a very similar experience to the one I had.  Let me know what you think of my story.

The current therapist never deep massaged I dont even think he could do so as its right on the heel, he just used machines to stimulate it

I will though try and find someone cheaper as this is for 30minutes at £40

I am currenlty recovering from this injury. My physio diagnosed me right at the start - said it was all due to my tight hamstrings which is due to my weak core.

So treatment was to stop running for 10 days whislt doing 5 sets of 30second planks, 3 times a day. In addition to this, I also stretch my achillies twice a day my raising onto tiptoes etc.. 6 weeks in and I am gradullay bringing up om mileage - by leaving at least 24 hours between runs. So I cycle one day and run the next

I had achilles tendonitis (or 'sis'). Mornings had extremely stiff ankles too, limping for about 15 minutes before blood flowed to my ankle muscles and tendons. I had thought this was attributable to old age as many friends complain of stiff ankles in the morning. 

Went to the physio after 2 months of improvement without running (but still lingering pain in the achilles and residual stiffness).

Turns out my calfs were extremely stiff and causing stress to my achilles and other foot tendons.  After a painful calf massage, my tendonisis and morning stiffness disappeared within 24 hours. I now regularly massage my calf muscles and have no more ankle stiffness or signs of weakness in the achilles.

Wow! Huge range of very conflicting messages here - feeling better does not always equal getting better.....

Paul i had this at the back end of last year so bad my tendon was approx three times its normal size, my physio actually couldn't believe it didn't snap.

There is a hell of a lot of threads and info on here about this condition so get researching.

What i will say is get yourself a good recommended sports physio your guy seems to be mugging you off. I followed my physios advice to the letter and within 3 months ran the Winter 100 pain free. I only saw my guy about 5 times @ £30 a time. I would say i'm recovered now 6 months later.