Achilles Tendinitis

Quoted message said:

Long story short....I was a runner for several years back in my 30's.
I took up running again for a new years resolution. BTW I'm now 49.
Anyway I seem to have developed a case of achilles tendinitis. I'm
stretching now and not running,

STOP STRETCHING! The most recent evidence suggests stretching before running
actually causes more injuries than it prevents, and that has been my personal
experience.
If what you're doing now isn't working (it's obviously not) then do the
opposite.
Cheers!

My advice (I've had lots, I run in the mountains all the time):

1. Never run if you feel anything down there. Pain = reinjury. Walk home
if you must.
2. You can often walk uphills without pain to get your exercise fix while
you heal, but only if it doesn't hurt at all.
3. Ice it for 2 minutes on/2 off times 3, several times a day. This
really accelerates healing (pun intended). I've had some amazingly quick
cures using ice.
4. For hard cases, a heel lift often helps, but I've avoided that crutch,
and just let the thing heal.
5. I do mild stretches (leaning up against the wall, or letting the heel
drop while my forefoot is on the edge of a step) a few times a day.

Reason: my calves tend to get tight, and I suspect that tight calves put
excess pressure on the Achilles tendon. I tend to get strains when
everything is fine and I stop stretching for awhile.

The longer you run with pain, the longer it will take to heal. My rule is
the number of days to heal is the square of the number of days you ran in
discomfort.

-- Dan

"Dave" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Long story short....I was a runner for several years back in my 30's.
I took up running again for a new years resolution. BTW I'm now 49.
Anyway I seem to have developed a case of achilles tendinitis. I'm
stretching now and not running, which is really bumming me out because
I was running with my daughter who is taking up cross country as a
freshman in high school. I want to keep running with her because she
told me I do a good job motivating her. And if any of you that have
teenagers know, that complement doesn't happen very often. How should
I try to start back running and does any one have any miracle cure
other than "time" Thanks for any advice!

Don't listen to Rodgerz - he's a quack.

TGRRABR

On 21 Aug 2004 02:19:54 GMT, [email hidden] (TheBillRodgerz)

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Long story short....I was a runner for several years back in my 30's.
I took up running again for a new years resolution. BTW I'm now 49.
Anyway I seem to have developed a case of achilles tendinitis. I'm
stretching now and not running,

STOP STRETCHING! The most recent evidence suggests stretching before running
actually causes more injuries than it prevents, and that has been my personal
experience.
If what you're doing now isn't working (it's obviously not) then do the
opposite.
Cheers!

There is no miracle cure, Dave. As others have posted here, icing is an
important first step and a good maintenance plan after any activity where
your achilles is called into play. See a sports physical therapist for best
results if you are interested in a long-term solution.

Bob, MSPT

"Dave" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Long story short....I was a runner for several years back in my 30's.
I took up running again for a new years resolution. BTW I'm now 49.
Anyway I seem to have developed a case of achilles tendinitis. I'm
stretching now and not running, which is really bumming me out because
I was running with my daughter who is taking up cross country as a
freshman in high school. I want to keep running with her because she
told me I do a good job motivating her. And if any of you that have
teenagers know, that complement doesn't happen very often. How should
I try to start back running and does any one have any miracle cure
other than "time" Thanks for any advice!

"Dave" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Long story short....I was a runner for several years back in my 30's.
I took up running again for a new years resolution. BTW I'm now 49.
Anyway I seem to have developed a case of achilles tendinitis. I'm
stretching now and not running, which is really bumming me out because
I was running with my daughter who is taking up cross country as a
freshman in high school. I want to keep running with her because she
told me I do a good job motivating her. And if any of you that have
teenagers know, that complement doesn't happen very often. How should
I try to start back running and does any one have any miracle cure
other than "time" Thanks for any advice!

It's somewhat counterintuitive, but the source of your pain is your
calves, not your achilles. When I had achilles pain, I would
use a stretch on stairs, placing my toes on the edge of the stairs
and dropping my heels below my toes for a few minutes at a
time. In my case, at any rate, I needed to take a long term approach,
stretching them morning and night every day, whether I ran or
not. Another thing I used to do (but don't have to anymore) is put
a pad under the heel of the cushion of my shoes about a 1/4 - 3/8
inch in height. This kept my achilles from stretching to full length
during a run. I would say this is a short term fix.

This worked for me. It might be useful to you.

Mike

Quoted message said:

When I had achilles pain, I would
use a stretch on stairs, placing my toes on the edge of the stairs
and dropping my heels below my toes for a few minutes at a
time.

Very bad way of doing it. Try this, stand arms length from the wall, and lean
forward until your head touches the wall (if your a republican you have a tiny
head or none at all, so you'll need to improvise). Hold for 40 to 60 seconds.
Then from that position, bend your knees, and hold 40 to 60 seconds. Less time
holding and you aren't going to get much for results. This is much more
controlled than the stair method you describe, which can easily leave you over
or under stretching.

Dave said:

Long story short....I was a runner for several years back in my 30's.
I took up running again for a new years resolution. BTW I'm now 49.
Anyway I seem to have developed a case of achilles tendinitis. I'm
stretching now and not running, which is really bumming me out because
I was running with my daughter who is taking up cross country as a
freshman in high school. I want to keep running with her because she
told me I do a good job motivating her. And if any of you that have
teenagers know, that complement doesn't happen very often. How should
I try to start back running and does any one have any miracle cure
other than "time" Thanks for any advice!

Dave,

I suffered from chronic achilles tendonitis for the past 20 years, but
finally got rid of it this past year. The pain was too much to run on
until I started doing the exercises detailed at
http://www.sportsinjurybulletin.com/archive/0031a-achilles-tendonitis.htm

After that I could run, but the pain was still there, but tolerable. It
was also taking me ~3 days for my muscles to recover from a run. This
past year I started taking vitamin D plus 1000mg of calcium citrate. At
first I started with 1000 IU of vitamin D, then slowly upped it as I
felt the difference. Now my achilles pain is gone and my muscles are
recovering overnight. Be careful not to take too much vitamin D - in
the summer you are getting a lot from sunlight, so ideally have your
doctor monitor your serum levels.

Good luck,

Ed Friedman

I had Achilles tendonitis for years and tried a bunch of different
things, most of which did not work. During one of my many "rest"
phases I started working out with weights while waiting for my
Achilles tendons to heal enough so that I could resume running. It
turned out that doing the leg strengthening exercises really helped my
Achilles tendons. Some people believe that runners who suffer from
Achilles tendon injuries have disproportionally weak calf muscles,
which might have been the case with me.

The other thing I did while resting is to try to read as much about
Achilles tendon injuries as possible. There are tons of books and web
sites. However, even though most are written by or reviewed by
doctors, there is a lot of contradictory recommendations out there. I
found that Lore of Running by Tim Noakes and the web
www.AchilleTendon.com present the most thoughtful research and
recommendations. Part of why I liked them is that it reinforced my
own accidental finding: strengthening the legs helps the Achilles
tendons a lot.

Another interesting point is that most doctors misdiagnose Achilles
tendinosis as Achilles tendonitis. With Achilles tendonitis there is
an actual inflamation, which is very seldom the case. In most cases
it is Achilles tendinosis (also called Achilles tendinopathy). Either
way the exercise treatment works.
Murph

Dave: I agree with Frank and www.AchillesTendon.com - strengthening the
leg muscles helps the Achilles tendons more than rest. Go for it.
Phoebe.