Eccentric Calf Raises and Achilles Pain

They usually recommend doing that exercise once the pain has stopped. You should probably hold off on doing it, let the pain subside, and then start doing them.

And, just to make sure you're doing them correctly, "eccentric" is the lowering portion. So, the heel drop is the part you want to emphasize. Lift up on both feet, lift one off the ground, then slowly lower with the other. Repeat till failure, then switch legs.

One more thing - do these on level ground, barefooted. You don't need to do it on a step, where your heel can go past horizontal. In fact, that can add additional stress to your achilles and cause injury.

Good luck. The eccentric heel drops is the only thing that helped mine. That, and also diligently stretching my calves & hamstrings for 4-5 minutes immediately after every run.

Yes, I have been putting the emphasis on the down portion of the exercise, lowering slowly through a count of five. But, I have also been doing them on a step, which may be the problem as maybe it was too much stress. I will try them on level ground and if I still get pain, knock off until the pain has subsided. Thanks for the advice. It helps to hear from others who have travelled this route already.

Try doing them on a leg press at the gym. Push the press down with the good leg. Catch the press with the injured leg, starting with your foot flat or slightly up on the toes. Then, go into dorsoflexion against the resistance of the leg press. Repeat by pushing the press down with the good leg. Start with body weight and increase weight every few days. 3x15 reps up to 3 times a day. Do not do any work pushing down (away from you) with the injured leg. Just use the resistance on the eccentric motion. That should not hurt that much. If it does, you need to wait until it doesn't. I suspect that you are getting pain when pushing back up on your toes to start the eccentric motion over again. You need to eliminate that motion until your achilles really starts to heal.

I agree with this if you have insertional achilles tendonitis. Stopping at floor level made a big difference. My achilles was inflamed all the time when using stairs.

Know what else is effective? Lifting your toes towards your shin as a stretch you can do any time. True story.

You may be interested to see a similar post I made and the responses I got.

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=2091497&page=2

I have discontinued the eccentric exercises for the time being. I did them pretty intensely for 4 weeks. I was under the impression that one should use enough weight so that the exercises are painful. For the first two weeks, things actually did get a tiny bit better but I kept adding weight in order to keep the exercises sufficiently "painful". At a certain point, it stopped getting better and took a turn for the worse. One it became painful to walk all day, not just in the morning, I decided to leave the exercises alone for a while. It took several weeks to get back to not being constantly in pain all day. I might start the routine again but next time I will not do the the full 2x(3x15) every day. Perhaps, less reps and once daily instead of twice, and I'll see what happens.

good luck and please keep us posted on your progress. This is a tough injury to kick.

Those calf raises made mine worse. Listen to your body. Not everyone is going to cure themselves doing the same thing. I cured mine with the soleus stretch (bent knee pushing against wall, both feet together) like 8 times a day. Ran 1/4 mile stretched before and after each time and then soaked in ice cold water for 10 minutes. Rubbed 1 per cent hydrocortisone (massage) after my leg warmed up from the ice water. Changed all my insoles. Got rid of mine in less than a month. Do what works. Don't try to copy everyone else. I held all of my stretches for 1 minute. The tendonitis went away little by little until I didn't feel it anymore. The most important thing you can do is listen to what your body tells you.