Been rehabbing the hell out of my achilles... still feels like crap after 6 weeks. What now?

Yeah, see a professional. Depending on what it's like, or still like, they might suggest immobilizing it.

Never stretch an injury.

The site is already compromised.

Stop the stretching, and stop the eccentric calf raises.

Soaking in ice water is good.

Remove the ongoing cause, which is something in the heels of your shoes,

perhaps hard heel counters rubbing on your achilles when you walk and run.

It is tempting to overdo rehab. A whole industry depends on it. I find eccentrics to be useless, only inflaming the Achilles. I'd roll the calfs and remove all heel lifts.I'd also run gently in order to keep it loose and get blood flow. Most therapists and doctors will sign you up for extensive rehab, keeping you inflamed. You need to nail the causes, which are probably too much heel lift, tight calfs and possibly too much speed work.

OP,

How old are you?

The older you are the longer this is going to take.

Does it hurt when you do the calf raises or any of your rehab or walking?

If you have any pain after exercising it you are going in the wrong direction.

Sometimes pain during is ok but you most likely need a professional to help you decide.

Like the others have said you need to find the cause and come back very slowly.

Eccentric calf RAISES??? No no no no no no no. I have an achilles injury as well. You must do eccentric heel DROPS. Don't even use your injured leg to raise yourself up.

Icing is good. Stretching of any type is bad. The raises, the drops...that's all a bunch of bull. Your achilles has been destroyed by shoe manufacturers. As was mentioned, go to a low heel. NEVER run in a shoe with a heel cup. And take a pair of scissors and cut off any heel tabs that exist on your shoes. You'll have to begin at ground zero and re-learn how to run in a good pair of shoes.

AJJ wrote:

Eccentric calf RAISES??? No no no no no no no. I have an achilles injury as well. You must do eccentric heel DROPS. Don't even use your injured leg to raise yourself up.

I'd read that the drops are the way to go, using the good leg to raise back up. Just started these myself. Mine is still swollen after 3 weeks. I know I need to ice more and I've added heel lifts to minimize the pain of walking around to try to get back to running.

Boston dreams are dying a little more each day.

Greatly reduce the activity (running, walking, raises). Increase massage (deep and all types, accupressure, cross friction and DEEP). Ice the hell out of it.

Golf ball under the feet when you watch TV. Go deep and clean up all the tension around your plantar and metatarsals.

Soak in Epsom salts. Do heat therapy when swelling is low. Consider applying plant oils like wintergreen to promote blood flow. Arnica is good too.

Elevate. Compression socks. Rest. Keep massaging.

As the pain subsides, very slowly increase light activity. Focus on range of motion and stay out of the hills. Good luck!

Instead of stretching the injury, which invariably makes it worse, do loosening exercises for the rest of the legs.

Loosening the other areas will help to reduce the pressure on the injury.

All kinds of gentle leg stretches are good, except avoid any stretching of the injured areas.

SpartacusAchilles wrote:

Soak in Epsom salts.

I never understood this. If we absorb salt from water through our pours, wouldn't we all die from having too much sodium and not enough water if we spent too much time in the ocean?

truth876 wrote:

If we absorb salt from water through our pours

NO

SpartacusAchilles wrote:

Greatly reduce the activity (running, walking, raises). Increase massage (deep and all types, accupressure, cross friction and DEEP). Ice the hell out of it.

Keep massaging.

As the pain subsides, very slowly increase light activity. Focus on range of motion and stay out of the hills. Good luck!

BINGO! WE HAVE A WINNER!

drunk runner. wrote:

truth876 wrote:

If we absorb salt from water through our pours

NO

exactly. So how does soaking in epsom salt have any benefit?

Speaking from personal experience, rest, ice and heel drops really seemed to improve my achilles.

You are over working your achilles...and re-injuring it.

You have torn it a little, no amount of stretching will help, it will just tear it again. Ice, rest and if you must run, stop immediately when it start to fatigue. Otherwise it will last until you do stop running.

Achilles injuries are nasty and you really can do much because there is so little blood flow in that area.

Have you tried running barefoot?

I have cable.

Ok, this is a real question that is probably going to get lost in here but what the hell.

Several people suggested going with a LOWER heel in shoe selection. There is stuff all over these boards about low heel drop CAUSING Achilles problems? Am I skimming to quickly or what's the damn deal?!

Stretching seems like it helps a lot actually. It feels much better after I stretch, and if I stretch and go for a walk, it feels fine. If I don't stretch and go for a walk, it tends to feel crappy afterwards.

It's been really weird in that it seems to get better, then suddenly one day it will feel as bad as ever. I can't even put my finger on any specific reason why.

Thanks for all the input.

re: Eccentric calf RAISES??? No no no no no no no... You must do eccentric heel DROPS. Don't even use your injured leg to raise yourself up.

I'm a female masters runner with "retro-calcaneal bursitis" and 4 wks of PT (heel drops, calf stretches) made it worse. The best info I've found is an article titled "Ultimate Runner's Guide to Achilles Tendon Injury" (www.runnersconnect.net). I learned your exercises must be determined by the SITE of your injury: either MIDPOINT (halfway between heel and calf - about 2/3 of cases) or INSERTIONAL (low - within 1" of heel). Heel Drops should NOT be done if your injury is INSERTIONAL; ditto for bent-knee calf stretches. Toe Raises: I believe they are too stressful during the early healing stage. By the way, I've had this injury for 8 mos now. I took 2 mos off, seemed to be healed, only to have the Bursa become inflamed with any signif run (8+ miles). Then I use anti-inflammatories/ice/rest and it settles down. Appears I'm stuck in the cycle. I ordered heel cups and will see if that helps.