Help! Cure for tendinosis?

I'd be curious as well!

Stretch your calves each day for 15minutes. That can be spread out..for example 5min in morning, 5 in afternoon, and 5 in evening.

Where is it tender to touch? Swelling? Have you tried eccentric calf exercises? Does it hurt when not running? When does it hurt running? first steps? later in the run? Hills aggravate? Does the running surface make a difference? How many single leg heel raises can you do? right and left (all the way up and all the way down on the edge of a step)

Sorry about all the questions...pieces of the puzzle

I am sorry to hear about your injury. I have had tendinosis in my calf (not sure which muscle but they think the soleus) since October/November. I have not been able to get back to where I was which like you was about 60-70 miles a week. I have tried everything you have done, but two things that seemed to help the most were eccentric calf raises, and prp treatment.

I thought the injury was mostly gone in May but it came back very quickly after I was only running for a week. My best advice is to try to find the best doctor in your area (if you live in a big city maybe ask the runners at a respected running store).

Also it is important to know that with tendinosis, the collagen have been damaged. Collagen will take a very long time to heal (could be over a year), so you need to be patient even though it is frustrating.

Good luck, and if you ever find something that works let us know.

Eccentric calf drops seem to have the best results from everything I've read.

The idea is that the pain in your achilles is NOT from inflammation, and therefore anti-inflammatories won't do anything to actually help heal the injury.

Instead, the way I understand it, is that when your achilles gets overworked for an extended period of time, it can't repair itself fast enough with the right type of collagen, and therefore a different type of collagen is laid down instead, but it's the wrong type of fibers for the achilles tendon. So basically the healing process is all messed up. Eccentric calf drops work the tendon in a way where it tears down these fibers/collagen (in good, natural microscopic tears, not like a rupture or anything, and thus "restarts" the healing process in a normal and healthy way with all the right materials.

That is probably not the best scientific explanation, but the general concept is right. Below is a youtube video with an example of the eccentric calf drops. Feel free to search more on google and on youtube. This just happens to be the first video I found on the subject.

Also, I've never had too many achilles problems, and although it may start helping in a matter of a week or two, depending on how severe your tendonosis is, just be patient and don't give up on the exercises unless it gets worse over a period of several weeks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJPfzTHpbAM&feature=related

Have you gone to a PT yet? You may need to address your core as a reason behind the injury. Some of the things like calf stretching etc address the injury with out what really caused it. Though as you state could be from over training. When talking with PT's a majority of these injuries can be linked to a weak core and weak hips. While addressing your rehab, try doing planks and various core exercises as well if you have not tried that.

I am a manual therapist in Canada and deal with achilles tendonosis almost weekly.

By what you said I am pretty sure there is no swelling, moderate pain in the achilles, maybe pain in the side of your heel?

Your peroneals, calves & soleus are tight boy, and the tension is pulling on the peroneal & achilles tendon with some REFERRAL PAIN to the achilles.

Screw stim and all that. Get some hands on help.

Myofascial release of peroneals, gastroc & soleus then reposition everything inferiorly (down)

Also do the core stuff the previous poster mentioned.

I had the same injury as described by poster above - bet

it doesn't hurt until about 10 to 15 minutes into

the run, well after a month of doing calf raises and all the Achilles exercises with no results, I finally

went to a Physical Therapist. 1 session on his table, he had me back and running pain free. He also had

me address my core with various exercises and also have bands to do work on my legs. I continued to

work with him for about 2 months 2X a week. And then another month 1X a week and am now back up

to 40 to 60 MPW pain free.

1) It is tender to the touch pretty much the entire length of the achilles tendon, as well as on the exterior side of my heel below the ankle knob. there is no swelling, just pain and tightness :(

2) No I have not, but I have been recently been show a few by a friend. Do you think this will help?

3)It hurts not running only after prolonged periods of walking or moving about on my feet. or -after- a hard run, its tender.

4)It hurts running only during the initial 2 miles, or if I stop at a light and then abruptly begin running again. Downhill definitely aggravates, not so much uphill. The surface definitely helps ease the pain if its softer than say concrete.

5)Idk, off the top of my head, 40? 45? I know I can hold my balance and do quite a few, but they hurt my achilles tendow quite alot so i avoid them.

Yes, there is no swelling, the pain is mostly located around the heel and the achilles only hurts if i really aggravate it with a strenous workout or lots of walking (such as being a stockboy for home depot on an 8 hour shift :/)

Thank you, thank you, thank you for your insight. sincerely, and of course everyone else who is trying to help me out. this means a hell of a lot to me and others im sure

This is the most extensive advice ive gotten on my problem so far, and I thank you very much for it. it makes sense, since I have not been doing any of these excercises and have left my lower body to the whims off my running/biking routine. I will get on this immiedietly, thank you so much.

thanks everyone for all the suggestiosn and advice, im writing all this shit down. definitely saving up some money to see a PT asap. sounds like my best bet

Where do you live? Google and see you does some form of myofascial release in your city.

If done correctly, it shouldnt take long for your to run with decreasing levels of tenderness.

One of the reasons I am very good at dealing with achilles tendonosis is that I had this very same problem a few years back.

A person should be able to do 27 single leg heel raises...that is all the way up and all the way down.(no bouncing and assisting with arms; obviously should be pain free)

Most tendon problems develop because of a lack of strength and/or flexibility. Good soft tissue work and eccentric strength work very beneficial. Good advice on this thread. ASICS and Adidas shoes tear me up, but that is just me.

Id highly recommend looking for a PT Who has access to "shock wave" treatment. This has worked for both my Achilles tendinitis and patellar tendonosis after months and months of frustration. It is basically another way of beating the tendons up a little in order to force them to heal better.

This all good advice but this thread scares me because its all giving you advice but stuff could easily make it worse if you do too much too soon.

Okay lets recap:

Your an over-trainer and you have an overuse injury. So, two issues i see here is that one, you consistently do too much and you are trying to progress a rehab and causing the inflammation to get worse. The key thing here is that you either didnt back down or take time off to let the tendon heal.

So now you the question i have for you is what does the wear pattern look at on the bottom of your shoes. If you see a ton of loading on the heel of your shoe, it means you strike first with your heel which cause an increase loading on the achillies and calf muscles. Your body also goes through a braking motion meaning that is absorbs the force instead of turning it into potential energy.

Now, the best advice instead of going through all these excerises you could easily make it worse. Go see a orthopedic specialist in your town (mainly one with a running background) and get a reccomendation for physical therapy.

Your biggest issue here is that you need to break the runners mentailty of i can run through anything. It happened to me as well (my ankle kept me out of my spoh year due to atrophy and a muscle imbalance.)

Hope that helps

Read libereman on google scholar on barefoot running vs shod.

Now with this i am not suggesting you go and be barefooot. I am trying to get down to the cause of your problem. While it could also be muscle tightness, weakness.

The main point is that you should not be do anything that causes

I had achilles/peroneal tendinitis for 25 years. It started to go away as soon as I bought a decent pair of shoes. Unfortunately, there are very few good shoes being made right now. To begin with, make sure that it has no heel cup. Those pointy tabs in the back will destroy your achilles as well. Some of the very light racing shoes fit the bill.

I used extensive core & hip work and this did the trick. An occupational therapist told me that weak hips are often the reason for peroneal tendinitis & even knee issues. After doing core work each day I noticed that the pain went away within 3 weeks (and I'd been in pain for just over a year at that point). Since then I've backed off a bit on the core stuff (3x per week) and have been fine ever since. I hope you are able to correct his issue really soon.

I've been dealing with moderate hamstring tendinosis for ~2 years following a partially torn tendon. I tried the following non-invasive treatments without success:

- time off

- cross training

- P.T.

- myofascial release

- graston technique

Then I received a platelet rich plasma (PRP) injection in mid June. The doctor who admiinstered the injection said the PRP treatment has ~80% overall success rate (70% success rate for hamstring tendinosis). I see the physical therapist again next week.

I will echo what others have said about the healing process. Collagen takes a LONG time to lay down new fibers--think in terms of months instead of weeks. Here's quick summary of what awaits me:

weeks 0-2: daily living activities only

weeks 3-5: stationary bicyling, no resistance; walking

weeks 6-16: add elliptical machine, no incline

weeks 17: possible return to running

I would highly recommend considering getting a PRP injection if all other treaments have failed.

Do you do your eccentric calf drops wearing shoes? I've always done them barefoot, but the video people were wearing shoes.

Thanks for the vid.