Achilles pain and stiffness: Stretching is not the answer
Getting tightness in your Achilles from walking or running and tried stretching?
Found no matter how much you stretch your Achilles that it doesn’t help to loosen them? It may not surprise you to learn that stretching is not the answer.
Achilles tendon stiffness, also known as Achilles tendinopathy, happens from a sudden increase in exercise or a repetitive increase in exercise over a four-six week period. With this increase in exercise, the tendon isn’t strong enough to cope with the amount that is being put through it. This causes a stiff and sometimes very painful tendon.
Different types of exercise put varying amounts of stress on the tendon; think walking versus running, or basketball versus swimming. The tendon functions a lot like a spring in these instances, whereby it stores and releases energy to propel you forward or jump with varying speeds and heights. We call this tensile strength. In contrast, stretching puts a compressive stress on the Achilles tendon, as it gets squeezed or elongated during this movement. This compressive stress requires the tendon to work a lot harder than the usual tensile stress which allows the tendon to spring off the ground. Running is a great example of both tensile and compressive stressors and thus requires the tendon to be tolerant to both and therefore is the hardest type of exercise. It’s not too hard to see how you can easily injure your Achilles if you increase your exercise without a graduated approach or an appropriate strengthening program.
Getting from a painful and/or stiff tendon to a healthy strong tendon for walking and running, involves an appropriate tendon strengthening program (progressive stress/load program). This is applied in three separate stages targeting different symptoms and training. Starting with reducing pain, this is followed by increasing tendon strength with kinetic chain strengthening (ability for the body to work together) and then finally sports or exercise-specific conditioning (speed/plyometrics). (1)
Physiotherapists are experts in helping you find the right starting point of the tendon strengthening program, and progressing this to get the tendon pain free with good flexibility to cope with all types of exercise. Importantly, resting your stiff and painful tendon is the least helpful treatment as this further reduces your tendon’s ability to tolerate both tensile and compressive load. Our Physios are experts and guiding you through a tendon specific rehabilitation program so book in for your Free Injury Assessment at Back In Motion, Melbourne On Collins, to get started.
(1). Ganderton, Charlotte & Cook, Jill & Docking, Sean & Rio, Ebonie & Ark, Mathijs & Gaida, James. (2015). Achilles tendinopathy: understanding the key concepts to improve clinical management. Australasian Musculoskeletal Medicine. 19. 12-18. Online: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/282001490_Achilles_tendinopathy_understanding_the_key_concepts_to_improve_clinical_management