Is achilles tendonitis permenant?

Recently been suffing really badly from tendonitis in my achilles is it cureable with exercise and rest or will it always come back?

Comments

  • RicFRicF ✭✭✭

    Well if it's an overuse injury, then no.

    Exercise just makes it worse.

    Only time I've known this condition clear up completely is when the subject gives up exercise for good, ie, retires.

    Once they stop mucking about with the thing, it clears up. It takes months, even years, but eventually it goes.

    But not if being tested to 'check it out', just won't get better doing that.

    That's my experience. Others will encourage you to continue to hurt and strain the area and claim success.

     

    🙂

  • So what your saying is it is permenant?
  • I had to stop running completely 5 years ago as i had chronic tendonitis in both legs which i ran through for many years. It didn't improve though. It would hurt after walking the dogs and if i sat down for more than 20 mins or so.

    I found some clinical trial details online and managed to get hold of the patches they used (my doctor wasn't interested). Started using them at the beginning of this year for 6 months and am now running again which i never believed i would.

    It's only been 15 weeks and i suppose i could break down again but i have to say i am completely injury free at the moment which hasn't been the case for over 20 years.  

     

  • I've had it on and off for years but, touch wood, it's been good lately, despite a heavy year of racing (2 x 10ks, 1 x 15k and 5 x half marathons, with another half in a couple of weeks).

    What's helped:

    * After a very nasty bout, I got laser therapy at the physio and started doing heel drops on the edge of a step regularly. That plus rest (I had to have a cyst removed from my foot at the time, which meant I couldn't put weight on the affected leg for about 5 days) did the trick. This was in 2012.

    * Monthly sports massages.

    * Bikram yoga. Not because it's hot but because it involves a lot of balancing on one leg and has helped strengthen my glutes and all the little stabilising muscles in my ankles. I suppose other more vigorous forms of yoga would work, but the thing with Bikram is that the postures are always the same each class so you get better at them, and at using the core and glutes.. I've been doing this for a year, since suffering a minor calf tear in 2013.

    * Not running too often. I'm a low mileage runner. Typically I only run twice a week, plus one spin class, 3 x 3 mile walks, 2 gym session and 3 Bikram classes. Being 48, my muscles take longer to recover, so your mileage may vary (literally!) Despite the low mileage, I've set PBs in every race I've done, so it works for me.

    What hasn't worked:

    * Anti-inflammatories (pills, gels and more natural supplements such as rosehip or turmeric).

    * icing.

    Essentially, if your tendonitis keeps coming back, you need to find the root cause. It's likely a muscle imbalance somewhere which is causing stress further down the kinetic chain. See a sports physio (not a GP, they tend to be useless) for an analysis.

  • T RexT Rex ✭✭✭

    Liam R - the answer is, with careful management, 'no'.  Few injuries are completely showstopping - a ruptured achilles might be, but not this.

    The best advice is to get active treatment and, as Cal J says above, professional help with finding the cause, or else it will keep coming back.

    But it is a long term condition.  Fortunate people overcome it in about 4-6 weeks - for most it can go on for months.  I had it for 15 months, finally getting rid of it in the left foot three years ago and it re-emerged this year in May in my right and I'm battling with it at the moment.

  • T RexT Rex ✭✭✭

    Do:

    • get deep tissue massage from a sports injury therapist.  I suggest weekly to start with.  You need to get the tendon moving freely within its sheaf of muscle.  If you let scar tissue build up the whole area becomes inflexible.
    • ice regularly - try immersion in a bucket of iced water
    • otherwise keep the tendon warm
    • do calf stretches such as heel drops - gentle at first
    • keep active - this can include low-paced running on smooth, flat surfaces, as well as some uphill work
    • try cutting the back of your running shoes lower by making one or two vertical slits with a knife.  The heel tab can irritate the tendon.

    Don't do:

    • denial, continuing to train at the same intensity.  This will cause further damage.
    • any downhill running, or speedwork sessions
    • long periods of sitting or driving.  If at a desk keep the foot flexed upwards by resting the toes up on something.  I find driving very difficult - the action of depressing the pedals with the right foot.
    • exercises which lead to standing on tiptoe, such as heel raises
    • high heels
  • NessieNessie ✭✭✭
    Gosh, "csorthofeet", you seem to have a lot of biomechanical issues.  Back pain, hip pain, achilles tendonitis, plantar fasciitis, ball-of-foot pain. 

    And all of them cured by these wonderful shoes.  You'd almost think you were promoting them........
  • My physio told me heel drops are the best exercise  for this issue. 

    I have had it on and off for years and they do work key as always is to listen to your body is it getting better or worse and adapt your training accordingly.

    With me it was overuse that bought it on.

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