How long do achilles injuries take to heal?

Long time.

noitall wrote:

I second the motion on no stretching. Stretching is good for preventitive measures. Once injured though, especially achillis problem, do not stretch it until healed. It will only make it worse.

The advantage of stretching is it loosens the CALF. Not really so much the achilles. When you calf is loose and stretched, it does not tug as sharply on the achilles until you're really dorsiflexing

Geb had surgery on his achilles because he supposedly runs

most of his work on his toes. If you could change the way

you run to land more on your heels and not toe off, but

maintain speed and higher heart rate while doing so, you

might have a way around the problem.

I found a good article by Owen Anderson on achilles tendonitis research that some of you might find interesting:

http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/0031.htm

I used heel lifts for both feet in order to maintain symmetry. Sorry not to have replied sooner, I lost track of this thread. And when your tendon heals, take the lifts out to avoid the permanent shortening. But wear them for a month or so in order to allow yourself to heal up and run. Maybe start really easy for 20-30 minutes on a treadmill (8-8:30 minute/mile pace), that's what I did, combined with an hour to 75 minutes of hard biking on the indoor stationary bike (that's where I got my real workout). Slowly switch the two timewise and effort-wise until the times and efforts are reversed. Once you can run for an hour, you should resume your base-building and training and junk the indoor bike work unless you like that sort of thing :). The indoor training in Boulder sucked, but it was in the dead of winter, and with the ice and crap outside, I had no desire to test my freshly healed Achilles on that surface in those conditions.

My worst case of achilles tendinitis I did not stop running, due to a running streak of twelve and a half years and counting.

The following are a few things to add to what has already been said.......

1. Submerging your achilles in a bucket of ice with cold water added, seemed to be the most effective way of icing achilles.

2. Laser- Didn't do squat.

3. Ultrasound with a cortisone cream - May have helped a little.

4. Advil - Always a standby, but didn't do anything to help it heal.

5. The thing I would have to say that really helped to bring my achilles around was accupuncture. Let me say I was a total sceptic about having it done, but I was at the point I would try anything. My physio suggested it early, but I thought he was crazy. I finally tried it after about 3 weeks of him pressuring me. The next day it seemed a little better. Had another treatment. Following day it was noticeably better. Continued treatments for 2-3x per week for 3 weeks. Was able to started doing light track workouts again 1 week after the initial treatment. Felt a little stiffness, but nothing too bad. You might say that time was part of the healing in my case, but it just seemed to be too much of a coincidence that it improved so quickly with no other variable.

A few other things to keep in mind......

~ Stay off the uphills.

~ Stay off the soft surfaces.

~ Make sure your shoes are in good shape and that you are wearing the proper shoe for your foot type.

~ Heel pads may help.

~ Running on a slight downhill grade on a treadmill seemed to be a little easier too.

Best of Luck,

Old Streaker

I've got to agree with mirunner et all.

I was holled up for about a year because I tried to run through a f***ed up achilles.

Rest. When I say rest I mean cease running, don't do any stretching--AT ALL!, ice like a mu-f***a, take anti inflamitories. Try and figure out how you got achilles tendonitis, and don't make the same mistake. I'm not a big believer in cross training, so I would just take a total rest. Try not to fatten up much though. If you do this you will heal much faster than if you try and run through it. You may loose a season, but it's better than 3 like that one cat lost. Be resposible.

When you make your come back, take it slow, bro. Ease into it real smooth like. Stay on hard surfaces. Don't to any workouts which involve speed.