achilles tendinopathy and eccentric calf drops

Going through the same thing - I don't think it ever goes away. Doing Alfredson now. Don't think it actually helps. I tried an ART massage and I thought I got something out of it.

Sounds like you need rest. Once you aren't feeling any pain from the achilles anymore, wait two more days, then start eccentric heel drops. Just 3 sets of 15 either side, no need for that bent knee then straight knee bs. Just do three sets of 15 with slight knee flexion. Do it on the flat ground if you like to stop yourself going below parallel. Do it again every 48 hours. If you feel pain at any point, stop and take another week off. You sound like you are headed for the surgery. Does you achilles have a swollen bump on it?

What's the swollen bump mean? I have that.

thanx for the replys, no at the moment they do not have a swollen bump.

Head case wrote:

What's the swollen bump mean? I have that.

I copy and paste from a website: "Many patients will notice a bump either in the tendon (midsubstance Achilles tendinosis) or right behind the heel bone (insertional Achilles tendinosis). "

It just means that part is really inflamed, if you're still running I would stop but I'm no doctor,

reading on forums I see so many people taking risks with their bodies for no reason,

I mean we are not professional athletes, we can take months off and nobody cares!

edo wrote:

thanx for the replys, no at the moment they do not have a swollen bump.

Good, then it can't be that bad. Definitely some time off will fix the problem, followed by the introduction of some heel drops to prevent it recurring. In the future if you feel it coming back, stop what you are doing.

I used to get Achilles tendinopathy a bit (I'm a sprinter so I would feel it doing calf exercises in the gym, I was smart enough not to do any running/sprinting when it was hurting). Now I do heel drops at the start of each gym session (I warm up on a bike for 2 min first) and I rarely feel pain from the achilles (maybe three/four time a year). When I feel pain I do no more calf work that day, nor the next stay. I can still work the upper body, the quads via the leg extension, the hip flexors, the glutes etc.

I'm just a casual runner, I used to run 15km twice a week, heel striking, never had achilles problem,oviously, I tried switching to forefoot landing and, by doing it wrong for 10km, I injured my self. So I did a combination of incredibly lame mistakes, like doing something you've never done before for 10 km for example lol

I should add that I'm not young, I'm 35 years old, so that might be a factor as well.

Tendons DO NOT heal from rest. Stop the activity that hurt it, but do other active recovery/strengthening for the muscle group.

Answers to your questions:

1) No - pain will settle but tendinopathy still present and will recur quickly

2) Yes - 9 months of dedicated heel drops -> pain free running for the first time for 5 years! Need to continue maintenance program because if you slack off, problem eases back

ClonedDuck wrote:

Tendons DO NOT heal from rest. Stop the activity that hurt it, but do other active recovery/strengthening for the muscle group.[/quote]

So in your opinion I should keep doing eccentric exercises?

And where exactly did you get that idea that tendons do not heal from rest? Last year I had elbow tendinitis and I simply rested for a couple of weeks and it went away without massaging it and especially without any sort of strength or stretching exercise, how would you explain that?

R-squared wrote:

Answers to your questions:

1) No - pain will settle but tendinopathy still present and will recur quickly

2) Yes - 9 months of dedicated heel drops -> pain free running for the first time for 5 years! Need to continue maintenance program because if you slack off, problem eases back

thanx for your reply,

so should I ignore the fact that pain has slightly worsen and keep doing eccentric calf raises?

Did you take a break from running?

If you did how long before you went back to running?

ClonedDuck wrote:

Tendons DO NOT heal from rest. Stop the activity that hurt it, but do other active recovery/strengthening for the muscle group.

inflammation goes down with rest. strengthening the tendon requires rehab. Rehab can make injury worse if it is still inflamed. Don't heel drop while you still have pain, you're stretching a frayed rope, not a good idea.

One-way heel drop stretches are the remedy for Achilles. This I learned after a lifetime (I'm now 76) of recurrent Achilles problems, which halted entirely some ten years ago when I met a running doctor who prescribed the one-way drops. I had been doing two-way stretches, which did not work. As a result of this amazingly simple stretch, my running decade between 65 and 75 has been the most gratifying and injury free of my life. Although I was mediocre in high school and college, I have been able to race all my life and run more than 100 trail and road races and several age group course records in my 70s. Just stretch down on the stairs and then pull yourself back with the other leg.

edo wrote:

thanx for your reply,

so should I ignore the fact that pain has slightly worsen and keep doing eccentric calf raises?

Did you take a break from running?

If you did how long before you went back to running?

The drops made me limp all day. So my first goal was to get rid of the limping with 4 aleve a day for a week. Once i wasn't limping, i started doing the drops just to ground level. I did these with no weight both bent and straight legged. I then went to doing these weighted. This is when things turned around and i could run without pain.

I still feel mine and since this all just happened in the past year, i'm a bit hesitant to go back to the drops on a step.

ggilder wrote:

One-way heel drop stretches are the remedy for Achilles. This I learned after a lifetime (I'm now 76) of recurrent Achilles problems, which halted entirely some ten years ago when I met a running doctor who prescribed the one-way drops. I had been doing two-way stretches, which did not work. As a result of this amazingly simple stretch, my running decade between 65 and 75 has been the most gratifying and injury free of my life. Although I was mediocre in high school and college, I have been able to race all my life and run more than 100 trail and road races and several age group course records in my 70s. Just stretch down on the stairs and then pull yourself back with the other leg.

Hello ggilder,

thanx a lot for your reply,

I keep repeating the same question over and over, I feel like I'm a broken record, sorry for that haha:

-Would you do those stretches while still having pain,

or would you rest for a couple of weeks waiting for the pain to go away and only then perform those one way drop streches?

Because the doubt I have is this:

are this one-way heel drops useful to cure achilles tendinopathy or are they useful only to prevent it?

By the way running in my 70s would be fantastic, guys like you are great inspiration I hope I will be like as tough as you seem to be!

Yes, they work. And, yes, do them even when you're in pain. I suffered from a misdiagnosis of Achilles bursitis for 6 years. When I finally figured out (in an aha moment) that it was undoubtedly an Achilles insertion injury instead, I started up the heel dips: 3 sets of 20 reps each side, at least 3 times a week, eventually holding extra weight via a dumbbell in the same side hand, in coordination with other lower body strengthening (I wanted to strengthen all the muscle groups through their full range of motion). After not being able to walk without a severe limp for 6 years, I found after 6 months of the exercises that I could run with zero pain (I took those 6 months off from running, as I figured the daily pounding was interfering with healing). And do track work again. And race in flats with zero pain the next day (just raced an 8K XC in Asics Piranhas on Saturday ... not even a hint of post-race pain). I've been writing about heel dips for years (magazine articles, both my books), but this was the first time I really put them to the test. And they worked!

Hello SoCal Pete,

thank you for your reply,

ok you guys are convincing me I have to admit,

I heard that for insertional achilles tendinopathy one would perform the heel drops on the floor and not on a step so to avoid having the heel below the toes, is this accurate in your experience?

may I ask what other lower body strengthening exercises were you doing?

Hey XoCal Pete

Did the drops make it worse to start with?

edo wrote:

Hello SoCal Pete,

thank you for your reply,

ok you guys are convincing me I have to admit,

I heard that for insertional achilles tendinopathy one would perform the heel drops on the floor and not on a step so to avoid having the heel below the toes, is this accurate in your experience?

may I ask what other lower body strengthening exercises were you doing?

On the drops for insertional AT, yes. just do them to the floor. I don't have insertional AT but found that i was able to not hobble if i just did them just to the floor instead of on a step.