When my cast finally came off, my calf had atrophied to less than half its former size. According to Tony Gallo, a physical therapist at the Grinnell Regional Hospital in Grinnell, Iowa, the goals for rehabilitating an Achilles tear are to control swelling, to initiate range of motion exercises, and to improve the quality of a patient s gait with increasing weight-bearing exercises. To help with my agility and balance, my therapist put me on a Baps Board, which felt like surfing without water, with the idea of increasing my strength and balance. A mini-trampoline allowed me to put masked pressure on the tendon without worry about reinjury. With strength and balance returning, I began an intensive cross-training program to bring the tendon itself back to a somewhat normal state.
Some patients combine different activities, such as aqua-jogging, swimming, and stationary cycling.
I ran the treadmill forward and backward, uphill and down. Biking, which I dread, became a part of my weekly training, as did rigorous weight training, especially calf raises and leg presses. Whereas before my injury I pumped up only my upper body, afterward nearly all my workouts centered around rehabbing my Achilles. Stretching the limits The most important component of my rehab, though, was stretching. Many Achilles injuries are caused by the loss of elasticity in the calf muscles.