Achilles Tendon
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Achilles Tendon
Achilles Tendonitis - Three Easy and Successful Ways to Treat Achilles Tendonitis
Shoes
Most runners take really good care of their shoes and spend loads of money on running shoes each year. A good running shoe provides support and protection for your feet. What most people tend to forget about are their normal shoes that they wear when they do not do sports. A pair of Converse sneakers does not give any heel protection at all. They are very stiff and do not provide any cushioning at all. A pair of Johnstone & Murphy shoes is even worse. I remember a while ago when I had done an early morning jog of 12k without any problem. In the evening I went for a business trip and I was late for my flight. I ran 800 meters to the gate at the airport on a marble floor in my Johnstone & Murphy loafers and I immediately got problems the day after. Action number one; have a look at your everyday life shoes and make some changes. Especially, you need to make sure that your shoes provide enough cushion protection for your feet.
Pressure on the back of your foot
I cycle around 6000 km per year and I have never had problems with my Achilles Tendon in combination with cycling. A year ago I went by bike from the most north point in Sweden (Treriksroset) to the most south point in Sweden called Smygehuk. It is a trip of more than 2100 kilometers. A friend and I did it in eight days. That is almost 300 kilometers per day. After four days I got a severe pain in my foot. I kept on biking but I had big problems. My analysis afterwards is that the pressure put on the Achilles Tendon by the cycling shoes caused the Achilles Tendonitis. A friend of mine had severe problems with Achilles Tendonitis. He could not do any running at all. He got the same advice as I recommend. When he could, he wore sandals that did not put any pressure at all on the Achilles Tendon. During business hours he wore custom made shoes, where he had removed the cap at the end of the shoe and replaced it with a soft textile ribbon. The trick helped him a lot.
Eccentric Rehab Training
The most important single action I have taken in order to solve my Achilles Tendonitis problem is to do Eccentric Rehab Training. It is regular calf raises done in the opposite direction. The training should be done two times a day. Do 15 repetitions and repeat 3 times morning and evening. Don't mind if it hurts. Just keep going. The Achilles Tendon is the thickest tendon in the body and it will not break, at least not due to this exercise.
Good luck with your efforts and remember. Reading will not solve your Achilles Tendonitis problem. Taking action will. Act now!
About the Author
Lars Henriksson - Two time Ironman finisher and Achilles tendonitis expert.
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Is it OK to stretch a pulled achilles tendon?
Hi. I pulled my achilles tendon 2 days ago, because I'm really tight all over. It was a pretty good pull, and now it's sore and a little swollen, but not ruptured. I'd like to stretch it even though it hurts a little when I stretch it. Again I'm really tight all over! Is it OK to stretch it some?
Why would you wanna stretch it? That'd make it worse! What are you looking to accomplish?
Static stretching reduces speed, power, force production, and doesn't decrease (can actually increase) the chance of injury.
What you want to do is a dynamic warm up. Either biking or jogging, running, for 7-10 minutes (more or less depending on the person), or if you're doing sports:
High knees
Butt kickers
Side shuffles (feet nearly touch in between each rep)
Backwards running
Lunges (get low)
Karaokes
Arm Swing, circles
Running, sprints
Push ups
Or even a hot shower for 10 minutes. The goal is to raise the body temperature 1-1 1/2ยบ C.
Now, why is that?
"When muscles are stretched beyond natural voluntary ranges of motion, the muscles and tendons are stretched unnaturally. Excessive stretching damages tissues and promotes inflammation [which is really bad if you're going to start lifting or doing explosive movements (ie. sports)]" (Yang, Im, & Wang, 2005). Continual stretching can lead to "lengthened" muscles. That condition leads to two performance altering states.
1) The range of movement of the joint about which the lengthened muscles gird is increased. That results in the range of effective contraction of the muscles being altered. Maximum muscle performance will have to occur in a different range of motion to the original natural range. IF a lengthened muscle is required still to perform in the orginal natural range, then performance in that range will be reduced because of the extra stretch. Maximally lenghtened muscles about a joint are associated often with a loosening of the joint. Increased leaxity can expose the joint to increased injury through collisions or simply through maximum efforts. Intra-joint movements can also stimulate aggravations to other structural tissues as well as bony structures.
2) If continued for a long time, muscles, tendons, etc... will start to loose some of their elastic properties, which would further decrease power and speed while increasing the risk of injuries.
From The Science and Art of Baseball Pitching (which in this section, discusses why one wouldn't want to stretch, and the literature out there that supports it), 44.4: "Running economy is actually improved when muscles are stiff. Craib, Mitchell, Fields, Cooper, Hopewell, & Morgan (1996) concluded running economy needs natural tightness in lower leg muscles and connective tissues to maximize the storage and return of elastic energy, and reduce the need for stabilizing activity. Continuing with the theme that the elasticity of muscles needs to be preserved for high performances, Jones (2002) attributed running performance to metabolism in the muscles and stiffer musculotendinous structures that facilitate a greater elastic energy return during the shortening phase of the stretch-shortening cycle. A certain level of muscle stiffness preservs the storage and return properties of elastic energy that can be used to generate energy in an activity. The contribution of elastic energy to overall muscle performance is as much as 25-40% (Cavagna & Margaria, 1966; Cavagna, Saibene, & Margaria, 1964).
Nelson, Driscoll, Landin, Young, and Schexnayder, (2005) found that stretching before sprinting, slowed 20-meter sprint times. A review of data-based investigations led to the conclusion that stretching did not improve performance capability (Ingraham, 2003)."
From The Science and Art of Baseball Pitching (It has over 500 scientific references), page 44.9: " When an athlete participates seriously in a sport, that sport develops flexibility of sufficient ranges to meet its most common demands. Turner (1977) found that after six weeks of playing basketball, flexibility changed significantly in a control group that did no particular stretching program. Two forms of stretching programs (PNF and SAS) improved flexibility to a greater degree but a large proportion of those gains were lost within two weeks of cessation (which means they stopped playing) in the sport. Athletes in the stretching program regressed to the level that was stimulated by the activities of the game of basketball itself. The excessive flexibility that resulted from training was lost because it was not stimulated by basketball-alone activities. This phenomenon was also noted by Chevrier (1981) with ice-hockey players.
Chevrier trained collegiated male ice-hockey players to use both PNF and SAS procedures. He found that the training did not increase flexibility over that which already existed. The ranges of movement caused by a pre-scrimmage warm-up were not maintained during the scrimmage, where two-thirds of the time was spent sitting on the benches. However, upon completion of the scrimmage and its warm-down routine, flexibility once again was at pre-scrimmage pre-stretching levels. An interesting finiding of the study was that flexibility was not retained during the simulated competition. It appears that the bench-sitting was sufficient to allow players to parcially 'tighten-up'."
And it even increases DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness).
Achilles Tendonitis