Strengthening Achilles Tendon

Peak Performance has really good rehab stuff.

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I'm in the same situation, but no ultrasound and I have mostly tried rest. I've done the linked exercises a few times so far and I'm part way back. Has anyone done them consistently and had no serious injury from doing them? I've also tried to massage the heel and tendon lightly to break up scar tissue, which I assume is causing a tingling in the heel.

A bump for someone good article/study link by the way.

The exercises discussed by Owen Anderson in the linked article are effective.....but for some they may not bring full recovery.

There are cases where the root causes stem from having weaker glutes and/or hamstrings on the same side as the achilles injury and this is where doing the SAS mentioned in the article will concurrently address.

But if you also have weaker adductors/abductors on that same side you might find yourself still in pain (albeit reduced somewhat) after doing every one of those strengtheners for months.

Also, if you consistently run track work doing the same left turns or run on cambered surfaces mostly on the same side, you are also going to feel frustrated, because these are only going to aggravate your physical imbalances, which are probably the initial injury causes in the first place.

I have found that once you investigate and discover the root causes of your problem, working to train differently allows you to continue running while reaping the gains from the strengthening exercises.

Complete rest may not truly help in the long run because you allow the root causes to go unaddressed. Just doing more strengthening on the weaker muscles is insufficient; you need to change your technique so that you do not regain those imbalances again.

Staying off track completely will also not help in the long run because you still haven't addressed the imbalances and awkward style that curve-running develops in your physique. You need to try a more efficient curve-negotiating method that works better for you and you also need to run making right turns (clockwise) also to off-set some of the imbalances/misalignments in your body.

Go ahead and do all those exercises in the article; but remember to check if the muscles of the rest of your afflicted leg are the same size as those of your good leg. If u discover a noticeable difference, u will need to address those differences before u get full healing.

Heavy eccentric calf exercises - both seated and standing will help the Achilles. This is scientifically proven to be very effective (research of Alfredson), and I have seen good results with it. But as another poster implied, finding other out-of-balance areas and targeting those will help.

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After struggling with chronic Achilles issues for years, I got dedicated and really dealt with the thing aggressively. I don't know if you're at this state yet--you've only been having problems for 5 weeks it sounds. You probably don't have much nasty scar tissue built up, or wrong-way collagen. I think those were my main issues (along with some tightness and lack of ankle strength maybe).

Here's what helped me.

Painful cross-friction massage at least 5 days per week.

Ice at least 10 times per week.

Stretching of the hamstrings glutes and IT bands.

Uphill bounding.

Uphill sprinting.

More track work in spikes.

With this type of work I've been pain and even discomfort-free at least 90% of the time lately.

Oh, this all took several months during which my Achilles pain waxed and waned, but generally trended toward improvement.

The massage seemed to make things more painful at first, but after a couple of weeks was making a noticeable improvement.

Ice after any of the more aggressive Achilles work seemed to be key, and the next day always felt better than if I hadn't iced.

Days after explosive work (bounding, sprinting, spikes) seemed to have noticeable relief almost immediately as long as I iced after. After a couple of months ice didn't seem necessary.

Had Some Myself,

Did you do the cross friction massage yourself, or did you have a PT or someone else do it? If you did it, can you please explain it in detail. Thanks.

Too poor to get a professional to do it.

I used a bit of emu oil to get the area lubed up (heard it was a transdermal anti-inflammatory, so I got some, but I've also used coconut oil, and honestly I'm not sure if I noticed much of a difference).

Then I just dug in to the afflicted area (easy to tell where because of the lump of scar tissue) with my thumbs using as much pressure as I could stand to do strokes perpendicular to the Achilles. I'd make sure to work along both sides and the back of the tendon, and some times work my two thumbs going in opposite directions at the same time over the tender areas. I also massaged a bit up and down the tendon, but not as much.

I found that keeping the area loose (not flexed)was important for getting good massage on the area. If I tensed the muscles around the Achilles it didn't hurt as much with more pressure, but I don't think it worked as well. I tried to make the thing hurt as much as I could take.

The lump of scar tissue is much diminished from my worst days, but still there to some extent. Now that I'm to the state of almost never noticing my Achilles anymore I don't tend to do the ice and massage. I probably should, but I have a hard time keeping up the motivation for all that extra stuff when I'm not in discomfort. Maybe it'll start hurting again some time and I'll jump back in to this stuff.