Chronic,long lasting achilles pain

Hi,

I had it for about a year. I was recommended to do all of these stupid progressive exercises and all it did was inflame it. It only healed when I RESTED and also when I used appropriate shoes (not completely flat ones, as I'd been advised). It started to get better when I stopped doing calf raises.

Mild heat (washing up bowl filled with warm water) helped it.

Mine gets worse with eccentrics as well. I believe there are different cases with the achilles that change the treatment.

How long did you have it before taking time off?

LIPUS has worked for mine

mine has been $hit for 3 years, I'm in the middle of a 4-week downspell. I'm still not walking awkwardly, I'm not sure what hope there is for me. I bike/swim and elliptical, but its just not right.

I'm nearly crippled as just walking my dog a couple blocks has me limping a bit so as to not stress my achilles, and I cant push off the ball of my foot on that side without stressing it.

Stretching /eccentric/down only merely seems to aggravate it. I'm going to a physio in about 2 weeks as I've given up hope of it recovering by itself.

In my latest bout I aggravated it training for the turkey trot late last year with some aggressive training. Hasn't been right since. I've taken almost 8 complete weeks off since then, with one aborted week where I tried to do short 3-5 mile jogs every other day. I'm back to where I was if not worse.

It developed over one summer but it only bothered me when wearing spikes at first. I put it down to buying sprint spikes instead of distance ones, which was a big mistake, for 400/800, it was stupid.

At first it only bothered me during track sessions but it got worse and worse, I ran the last race of the season in August and it was bad after then. I was in a lot of pain walking as the other person describes. So I think I ran on it for a complete summer. It then took about a year to clear.

If it helps, I did get what I consider full and complete recovery. However, due to a different more traumatic injury, I had to give up running shortly after, so I don't know if that played a role. From what I remember, it started to clear up after about 3 months of complete rest. The very worst was in August, I remember being annoyed at having to take 'two weeks off' after the track season. I'd give anything now to hear I could run after two weeks. I think by December time it was a LOT better.

All of the advice I was given was utter rubbish for me at least. The guy I got advice from was studying this area for a PhD, he was adamant rest was the worst thing for it and you had to do the calf raises/drops to have any chance of recovery. And to do this thing were you walked in progressively flatter shoes. It aggravated it so much. It used to 'pull' when I walked, every step, when my foot was behind me. It was when I stopped doing all of that it started to get better.

The washing up bowl with warm, not hot water really seemed to help. Ice made it a lot worse. Even cold water made it bad at one point, it would like creak if I tried to walk after having my foot in cold water.

I have recurring achilles issues. I have noticed that when I do a lot of jumping rope, I never have an Achilles problem. When I get lazy and stop jumping rope, I manage to have an achilles flare up within a couple of months. My suggestion is to start jumping rope easily and build up to a couple of thousand jumps per day. It doesn't take much time and has been a very effective prehab for me over the years. If I could only follow my own advice.

track chick wrote:

Hi,

I had it for about a year. I was recommended to do all of these stupid progressive exercises and all it did was inflame it. It only healed when I RESTED and also when I used appropriate shoes (not completely flat ones, as I'd been advised). It started to get better when I stopped doing calf raises.

Mild heat (washing up bowl filled with warm water) helped it.

I've known a few go though the same bullshit routine.

It's comes from these practitioners who are trying to differentiate themselves from others, (the same ones promoting kinesiology taping) or BS artists with a book to sell or BS artists with so called low/zero drop shoes to sell. So called low/zero drop shoes for achilles pain lol, complete opposite to what you should be doing, same with the exercises.

Sorry you had to learn the hard way.

I have always found that eccentric heel work. Whether for myself or athletes on my team, it has worked in every case. Maybe because we do it right away at the first sign of discomfort? I do believe that once the injury has reached a certain point that rest is needed.

Double unders give me Achilles pain but way more impact.

I’ve also always made mine worse. Every time I’ve had to take off due to the pain was caused by starting an eccentric routine. Getting/keeping it warm before runs has allowed me to train relatively well over the past couple months. I plan to untimely take an extended break (about 3 months just as you did) + an operation called tenex to see if that does the trick.

I think ours may be due to a problematic layer around the achilles - the paratenon. It might explain why the eccentrics only aggravated it more, since it’s targeting the wrong thing and only causing painful friction.

I can also crack my achilles fairly well. If I put my finger on there I can even feel it too.

My worry right now is it progressing into something worse, to the point where it’ll actually force me to take a break

Osis wrote:

Eccentrics have also always made mine worse. Every time I’ve had to take off due to the pain was caused by starting an eccentric routine

Maybe the person above hit the nail on the head. I certainly did not do the raises/drops at the first sign of discomfort. It wasn't discomfort! I wish! It was pain on walking, I mean pain that stops you from walking to buy a sandwich or across a campus.

Have you tried putting it in warm water? I know it probably sounds a bit fluffy but what about a foot spa or warm bath? You can buy those salts (dead sea salts) to put in as well, they provide minerals which who knows, anything is worth a try once it gets like this.

Yes I could feel movement in mine. It was like it got stuck. If I moved it I could feel things crinkling inside it.

I had the same thing for 3-4 years in my late 40s. I tried several multi-week layoffs but I didn't really want to give up the fitness a longer layoff would cause or take a longer break from racing. (I like to race about once a month anything from mile to 1/2 marathon). Finally, it got bad enough that I decided I would quit running until the pain went away. It took a 4 month layoff for that to happen for me. I only did a little easy cycling and swimming during the layoff. I started back with a very conservative mileage build up and took a full year to get back to about 50mpw. I try to be very conscientious about regularly doing the eccentric heel drops and doing hamstring stretching to keep stress down on the Achilles. I now am at close to 10 years without further Achilles problems.

It´s time to get a bike, if you haven´t already. Why keep doing something that you know will hurt and affects your mood negatively? I promise that if you get a road bike and a power meter with it, you´ll enjoy the number watching. Even if you just ride indoors. Of course you can still run, but keep it to minimum.

I dont believe that those suffering from achilles tendonosis [non-insertional] should run during acute moments where they experience pain even from walking and not just in the morning.

If it's restricted to only in the morning or only in the first part of a run and doesnt seem to be getting worse day after day [beware 'boiling the frog' dilemma, whereby you'll think even more and more limping == 'this is fine' ]

Young87 wrote:

It´s time to get a bike, if you haven´t already. Why keep doing something that you know will hurt and affects your mood negatively? I promise that if you get a road bike and a power meter with it, you´ll enjoy the number watching. Even if you just ride indoors. Of course you can still run, but keep it to minimum.

Because it does not actually ‘hurt’. If it does begin to hurt, even while I walk, I will take a day off or two. Otherwise at worst it’s like a tenderness/irritated feeling. I will eventually take time off, but I want to finish this season because it’s all I have left.

sit and kick wrote:

I dont believe that those suffering from achilles tendonosis [non-insertional] should run during acute moments where they experience pain even from walking and not just in the morning.

If it's restricted to only in the morning or only in the first part of a run and doesnt seem to be getting worse day after day [beware 'boiling the frog' dilemma, whereby you'll think even more and more limping == 'this is fine' ]

Yes, this is basically how it goes for me. As long as it’s not getting progressively worse after each day + not giving pain while walking, then running seems to do no damage and sometimes even makes it feel better. I’m guessing because of blood flow + more flexibility to the area

no, you're not getting any better, you just haven't slipped down another couple rungs in how severely injured you are yet.

You need a boot and crutches to recover

You should explain why. I’m in a similar spot, and I’d say it’s gotten better over the past months. Definitely not healed by any means, but it has not gotten worse at all