Sebastian Brosche · 14 min · 881 words
Previously titled: Video 2 - Achilles Tendon Rehab
Welcome back today to our Achilles tendon pain program. So we're going to use some of the same kit as yesterday. We've got our massage ball and our band. I'm also going to need a step.
Bottom step of your staircase works just fine. You don't have to have any special equipment for that. I'm going to start with the massage ball, just placing it under the calf. Just like we did yesterday, we can roll it around and find those tender spots.
So what I'm going to add today, I'm just going to work into the muscle and starting at the end nearest the knee, I'm just going to find that slightly tender point and then I'm just going to pull my toes back. Roll it around again, find another tender point, pull the toes back. So I'm just stretching the muscle over the ball there. Again, I'm going to be guided by how it feels, so I don't want to take it to a point where it's excruciatingly painful.
Just looking for mild discomfort. As I get down towards the ankle, you might start feeling a bigger stretch between the pressure on the ball there. The movement of your toes. There we go.
I've done that. I'm just going to move the foot backwards and forwards. A few circles, just to get some movement in the ankle. We're just going to go to standing and we're going to do that mobilization.
So dropping the feet in, letting the knees come in and then going on the outside edge of the foot, just alternating. Again, I'm just taking it as far as is comfortable in each direction. And then when I've done that, I'm going to find my step. And we're going to start by doing some calf raises.
Now, it's fine to start on the flat if you need to. If you're able to, we're going to do the calf raises with the heels off the step. So you can decide which of those is best for you at the level that your injury is at at the moment. Okay, so if we're going to go onto the step, I'm just letting the heels drop back.
I may want to be able to put a hand on a wall here just for balance. Need be, that's fine. And again, I'm only taking it as far as I can reasonably comfortably. If I'm getting pain here when I'm getting towards that end point, then I may wish to go back to just doing these on the flat for a little bit longer.
Then when I've done that, I'm going to mix that up with a lateral step up. So this is the foot that's painful. I'm going to put that on the step. I'm just going to do a step up from there.
And there we're going to go straight back to the calf raise again. And the other way you can do these is just putting the toes on the edge of a mat. That's fine as well. So and then back to side on position.
So so One of the common mistakes I find people make with tendon pain is that they think they need to rest it in order for it to get better. And often with tendons, that can actually make things worse. Tendons respond really well to a loading program. So a lot of people are quite surprised that when we start putting a load on the tendon, they feel better.
And they can feel better quite quickly, even within the space of a day or two. That can start to have an effect. And we're going to go back, we're going to do a third set. And finally And rest there.
Now, for the final sequence today, we're going to combine an exercise that we did yesterday. So we've got the band exercise for the muscles on the front of the shin. This is tibialis anterior. It's actually a really important muscle in jiu-jitsu.
But anytime you're using your hooks, whether it's for butterfly guard or anything like that, you need to make sure that this muscle is really strong. So this is a good one to do anyway. What I'm going to start doing now is I'm just going to go backwards and forwards. So instead of just doing the static hold, I'm going to do a variation on the bridge.
So for this one, I'm going to have my heels quite close to my butt. I'm going to go up, push up onto my toes, and then keep my hips high. I'm going to drop my heels towards the mat. I'm just going to go up and down onto my toes while keeping my hips high.
And back down. Go back to the band. And rest there. Back to the bridge position.
Same again. So come as high as I can, drop the heels down and back up. And back down. And one last time.
So this is an easy exercise to add weight to. I'm going to just add a weights plate or a sandbag on my hips. Rest there. And that's all for day two.
So we'll see you back here tomorrow, and we'll look at a few more exercises.
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