Achilles Tendon Overuse Injury | Tim Keeley | Physio REHAB
Channel: Physio Fitness | Physio REHAB | Tim Keeley
Date: 2020-10-23

#achillespain #achillestendon #achillesrehab #tendonitis

Today we are looking at Joe's acute onset Achilles pain during the warm up before playing football 3 weeks ago. He played the game out through, worsening the pain which aggravated the problem and flared up the tendon further. This occurred due to a 2-week increase spike in total tendon load, as he played increased game time and started mixed netball mid-week as
well – this increased load was obviously too much too soon for his Achilles
tendon, leading to this breakdown. 

We originally thought it was a reactive Achilles tendinopathy – so after a week’s rest to let the acute inflammation settle we started loading the tendon daily – first with bodyweight isometric single leg
calf raises then progressing to heavier weighted isometrics, then progressing first to bodyweight through range calf raises before adding weight.

After 1 week with no improvement, and some days feeling flared up and worse, we realised there was still a decent amount of inflammation in and around the Achilles tendon – which isn’t normal in a true tendinopathy. So what it needed was rest and anti-inflammatory measures to let the area settle, plus some soft tissue release to the calf muscles.

With appropriate rest and anti-inflammatory measures this should settle in 1-2 weeks, and Joe will be able to return to his normal exercise of running and sport, without having to do any formal calf rehab or strengthening. 

We'll touch base in 2 weeks and show you with some return to exercise testing and see how it's improving!

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