Sebastian Brosche · 13 min · 1,075 words
Previously titled: Video 1 - Achilles Tendon Rehab
Welcome to our rehab plan for Achilles tendon pain. So this is your Achilles tendon. Pain in this area often comes from the Achilles but if you're not sure if this is the right plan for you or if the pain you're getting is severe then do see a professional first for a diagnosis. This plan is intended for mild to moderate Achilles tendon pain.
Each day progresses in difficulty so you should progress at your own pace. With more severe pain you may need to stay on the earlier sessions for a bit longer. The exercises may be a little bit uncomfortable when you do them but they should never be painful. If they are then do stop and slow down.
If you've got any doubts at all then consult a local sports injury professional for individual advice. Moving on to the exercises for the first day we're going to need a few bits of equipment. So I've got a massage ball. Now you can use a tennis ball.
Tennis balls are a little bit soft though. Ideally you want a lacrosse ball or maybe a hockey ball. I've got my jujitsu belt, should be easy. I've got a bit of theraband.
Now I've tied this to a sandbag but you can equally tie it around a table leg. I've also got an edge of mat. I'm going to start with the massage ball and I'm just going to start by putting it under the calf. I'm just going to work into that calf muscle.
I'm looking for those points which are a little bit tender and I can hang out there for a bit longer. I don't want to overdo it because you can make it quite sore. I'm just looking for that point where it's a nice sort of pain. That's what I'm looking for.
This is quite a nice exercise that you can really take your time with. You can do this while you're doing other things like watching the TV. Again the only caveat is that I wouldn't overdo it particularly at first. At the same time as I'm doing that I can do a little bit of work into the foot muscles as well.
This can feel quite nice. Again I'm staying away from the area where most of the pain is. I'm working around it into the muscles above and also below it. I'm going to start with the jujitsu belt.
I'm going to loop it around my foot. I'm just going to pull it into a little bit of a stretch just so I can start to feel some tension on the tendon. From there I'm going to push back with my toes against the belt. I'm pushing down into it and I'm going to push it as hard as is comfortable.
I'm going to hold that at a steady level. Making sure I remember to breathe. Again you want to hold it at the point of discomfort ideally so you can feel something but it's not really painful. From there I'm going to take the band which I've tied around something which isn't going to move.
I'm going to loop it around the top of my foot. Now I'm going to pull the foot back towards me. Again I want some tension this time on the front of the shin. The muscles that I'm using.
Again I'm just going to hold that at the static hold. I'm just going to repeat those two again. Go back to the belt and take it up to the point of tension and then just push back. Again I can push quite hard into the belt there.
And switch to the band. Pull back against the band. And rest. We're just going to do that one final time.
So for early stage tendon problems these isometrics are quite a nice way of settling the pain down. The nice thing about them is I find that they're really well tolerated. They tend not to flare things up. Whereas a lot of the other strengthening exercises that I see prescribed in the early stages they can sometimes make things more sore before they make them better.
When they make things more sore people tend to stop doing them. So that's why I like these isometrics as a nice place to start. And then switch up. And pop those to one side.
So coming up to standing. What I'm going to do now is I'm going to roll my feet in and out. So again being guided by how it feels and how sensitive it is. So you may want to make this movement smaller.
I'm just going to roll onto the inside edge of the feet and then onto the outside edge of the feet. Just going to repeat that. Nice little mobilization for the ankle. Often we forget about this direction when we're talking about ankles.
So it's your pronation, supination. And then I'm just going to go into a single leg balance. If you've got an ankle injury this may feel a lot more difficult on your injured side. Feel free to have a chair or a wall or something to hold onto if you need it to give yourself a bit of support.
We're just going to go back into the rolling in now. And then back to the single leg balance. And then back to the single leg balance. And rest there.
Now finally we're going to finish with some squats. So some of you may have enough flexibility that you can do the squats with the feet flat. But if there's an Achilles tendon problem you may wish to elevate the heels. So one way to do this is just to use the edge of the mat.
Or you can use a book or some magazines just to put under the heels. It just takes some of the tension off the Achilles for the time being. So I'm just going to go down and up. Again you can adjust the depth of the squat based on how the ankle feels as you go into it.
Right there we go back to our single leg balance for a second. And then a second squat. And then a second set of squats. And rest there.
And we'll leave it there for day one. Day two we'll come back and we'll start advancing some of those exercises on a bit.
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