AchillesTendonitis

 
This injury is one of the most common of the garden variety running injuries. It presents as pain and inflammation of the Achilles Tendon that attaches the strong posterior calf muscles, the Gastrocnemius and Soleus, to the back of the heel bone, the Calcaneus. The injury can range from minor pain to nagging chronic pain to acute pain.

The bulk of Force Production should fall to the torso: shoulders and hips, and when that area is tight or out of alignment the calves may be called upon to pick up the slack. This can become habitual. If you have a sore and/or inflamed Achilles tendon, you are overusing your calf in either the landing phase or take off phase of the stride, or both.

In these before and after still shots you can see that the upper body is more tense and pulled back with toe strike in the before photo, which was causing the injury, then in the after photo you can see a more relaxed forward lean with the upper body and mild heel strike, all of which helped heal the injury.

The degree of tension and Range of Motion issues in the muscles of the Shoulders, Back, Torso and Arms play a big role in what happens in the legs. Any holding tension and/or muscle imbalance that limits trunk and torso mobility will result in more work falling on the legs for power production. That is often the cause Achilles Tendonitis and other foot and ankle issues.

To heal a sore Achilles Tendon requires two focuses; first the core must be activated which requires good posture and full torso and pelvic mobility, and second a relaxed and grounded full foot contact during ground contact phase of the gait cycle. Mid-foot strike is fine as long as the heel drops into the ground after initial contact. Often mid-foot strike is misunderstood, heels don’t ground out, and the calves pay the price.

It is being able to recognize and teach the skills needed to correct this misuse in real-time that is at the foundation of my Physical Therapy for Runners practice.