Achilles tendon

Wurst said:

I've somehow injured my achilles tendon, probably from pre breakfast runs and lack of warm up. If I don't run it's fine after a week or so but when I start running again the pain returns and it takes another week to subside.

Has anyone experienced a similar injury, can it self heal or should I be heading for a doctor / physio? I can still cycle and do so on a daily basis without pain but i really enjoy running and was training for a local race in September, so wonder how long for it to take to heal ?

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Hi Wurst,

I started exercising again in mid life after a long period sedentary living. The tendons in both my ankles flared up, that was about 20yrs ago and the pain has never completely gone away,


The quack refused to give me an anti-inflamatory injection for reasons I won't go into here. But if you're taking sport and exercise seriously then I'd suggest you get it looked at. If memory serves correctly, there used to be some suggestions for simple stretching exercises on the NHS website.

Wurst said:

Has anyone experienced a similar injury, can it self heal or should I be heading for a doctor / physio?

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Do both, see your Dr first and if anti-inflammatory's don't work they'll refer you to physio.

I had problems a few years back with the tendons just above my right knee, took an anti-inflammatory and my Dr said to start on Cod Liver Oil taken from the spoon and not in the capsule form, did that and not had any problems since, can't say if the CLO made the difference but as a keen sportsman my gp swears it does and takes CLO himself..

you don't need anti inflammatory injections, at the most ibuprofen for immediate acute pain relief.

I did one of mine last year 6 weeks before a 40 mile race. I managed to rehab sufficiently to come in 13th in that, would have been top ten, pushing top 5 otherwise - lots of hard work required. Your September race should be fine, but you may not be entirely sypmtom free by then

My advice having doen this is that you do need to seek some professional advice, I would go to a sports injury therapist who specialises in rehab and getting you back racing again.

What you need to understand right now is hte degree of damage and the site of the damage. This sounds like chronic inflammation, but it could be concentrated at various points along the tendon, or the tendon sheath. WHat the sports injury therapist will do is assess immediate damage, short term rehab, any underlying causes (tight hams, calves in my case) and help you deal with that as well.

Where are you located as I know people in London, Lincoln, Cambridge, all of whom are part of a network that grows through word of mouth and all are excellent.

In the mean time... the absolute best rehab exercise for Achilles is eccentric stretching.
Stand both feet on edge of stair, use the good leg to push up on toes, shift weight to bad leg and slowly drop the heel to stretch the Achilles/calf. Use good leg to return to the start point. Repeat 10x, 3x per day - and keep doing it 1x per day even when better as part of your daily routine.
It really delivers results. I has improved my very flaky achiiles no end, and they have been bad for many many years.