Anyone here training with achilles tendonitis?

fad3r

Mandirigma
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My doctor recently diagnosed me with achilles tendonitis and told me not to train or else it won't heal. Achilles tendonitis is when the area that connects the calf muscle to your ankle gets inflamed/sore from not being flexible and a lazy fatass like me. Anyways, its a bitch when I get up after laying or sitting around for a while and I start walking around. The pain usually goes away after I start walking around for a few minutes. Other than take ibuprofen and keep off it, my doctor says to wait until it heals to start training again which can take weeks. I've also found that wearing shoes with an elevated heel helps keep pressure off the affected area. Has anyone here figured out a way to train around achilles tendonitis?
 
^lol

RSI's are a bitch and can take MUCH longer than a few weeks to heal. It took me a year and a climate change to fix my hands (both).

Heres a bit of old guitarist advice endorsed by Yngwie Malmsteen: Bananas and Gatorade are your friends.
 
I've got self-diagnosed heel/achilles tendonitis, and I also don't train MMA, but I do a lot of running. So take this for what it's worth ;)

It took me months to heal up when I first got it; then I re-injured it when running daily on concrete.

At its worst, I've used the RICE method. From wikipedia: "RICE is a mnemonic for a treatment method for soft tissue injuries which is an acronym for Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation.[1][2][3] When used appropriately, recovery duration is usually shortened and discomfort minimized."

At this point, I've had it for 5+ years - it's chronic and always nagging at me, but as long as I run on treadmills (and never on concrete/pavement), it mostly keeps it in check. I'd imagine training MMA would be exponentially more stressful on the achilles however.

Hopefully helpful.
 
Tendinitis is one of the worst injuries just because there isn't much you can do for it, and if you don't rest it it'll stick around a long time.

Rest and Ice are the big things for the first 1-2 weeks. Then once it's out of the acute stage slowly start stretching the muscles and strengthening it back up. Kinesiotaping can also help speed the recovery during the acute stage.

Also NSAIDs(like Ibuprofen) aren't good to take right away(first couple days) as they interfere with the early healing process. Tylenol would be a better choice since it doesn't effect the inflammation process.
 
Never had it but I will tell u to listen to ur doctor. You'll only do more damage if u train with an injury as serious as that.
 
went through a phase of this for a few months, trained on it fine not that i would recommend it, mine used to be worst when i woke up in the morning, i got rid of rid by stretching off my calves before i went bed each night and luckly that got rid of it quite quickly
 
I had para tendonitis of the achilles and ultrasound really speeded up the healing process. But you have to rest it or it will just be chronic. Get rid of the inflammation and don't do anything explosive. Stretching definitely helps.
 
Get a referral for a Physical Therapist and follow their instructions, especially in regards to resting. Try to find a Physical Therapist that has a DPT and works closely with a hospital. Since PT's in the early 90's mostly received a BS degree, many of them run Mc-Clinics, however, this is changing at a swift rate.

When you return to your gym, properly increase your range of motion (i.e., static stretching & dynamic stretching) and do pre-hab/control drills/activation drills of the ankle/lower leg daily.

You might want to also wear a loose fitting ankle support with a heating ointment of your preferences on your ankle during training. This combination will help keep your ankle joint and tendons very warm.
 
I've had tendonitis in my elbow and knee before. I'd say listen to the doctors advice and stay off it completely. A few weeks may seem like a lot but the more you agitate it the worse it will get and the longer you'll be out for. I had it in my elbow really badly last summer and got it from over-training and working (construction). I stopped training hard and then all together but I couldn't stop working. After agitating it several times it go so bad I had a bending range of motion of about 10-15 degrees, I could hardly move it and the slightest touch caused a lot of pain. I could have easily gone on workers comp at that point but they just trained me to be an operator instead so I could lay off the physical labor for a while.

Anyways, it took 4 months until my elbow was 100% again, I shit you not I couldn't train from September until late December. When I got it in my knee I knew better and decided to take off work and just let it heal and ice it. It only took a week and then I went really easy on it for the next 3 weeks and it has been fine since. I've always been careful with my knees lately as I've torn both mcls and know that knee injuries are no joke but the elbow injury kind of caught me off guard. I certainly learned my lesson though.

Don't push it, just rest.
 
I was given a boot. It keeps your foot in Dorsiflexion. You wear it while you sleep, so about 7-8 hrs a night. After a few weeks of that my condition started to improve.

Stop training as directed. If when returning, it still gives you trouble, take a longer break. Consistently wearing the boot after that i.e. Wear it while you are on the computer, watching TV, whatever, from here on out, and you problem should be resolved.
 
Take the time off and do all the right things. Consider rolling a tennis ball under your foot, consider the night boot, massage the calf muscle and take that guys advise about letting it move from acute condition and into a stage where it is safer to treat it.

For training, do't train with your class but evolve by taking the time to be a smarter fighter. Learn about what you do well, not well, improve by breaking down small movements (slowly) and figure stuff out. Ride a bike for cardio and do other workouts.
 
Sorry to necro this, but I have been experiencing achilles tendonitis for three months now. Went for a doctor, stopped using my injured leg on pivots, did more than 10 phisioterapy sessions, etc.

Does anybody knows if using ankle support in training helps?
 
I suffered with Achilles tendonitis for about 3 years. I didn't stop training though, just suffered though it. There is a increased risk for a total rupture, but I was careful to warm up well and was careful about pushing off too hard with that foot.
 
I suffered with Achilles tendonitis for about 3 years. I didn't stop training though, just suffered though it. There is a increased risk for a total rupture, but I was careful to warm up well and was careful about pushing off too hard with that foot.

Do you use Thai ankle supports while training?
 
I found that they rubbed on the lump and made it worse. I also cut off the elastic strap on my Top King shins, for the same reason.
 
I found that they rubbed on the lump and made it worse. I also cut off the elastic strap on my Top King shins, for the same reason.

Thanks. My doctor said it won't help at all and my phisiotherapist said I probably shouldn't use it.
 
if you want it to heal you must stop training and do therapy on it. if you continue training then the risk of total rupture highly increases and then you will be really fucked.
Rest, therapy and heal.
 
I cut my achilles on a piece of metal in 2006. Totally sliced it in half. It was a year recovery. It still isn't 100%.
The tendonitis developed in the other achilles. It never got so bad that it stopped my training. I still managed to go to Thailand three times a year to train. It was always in the back of my mind though.
 
I got it when I got off my ass and started boxing again. Age and neglect contributed greatly.

Nothing really to do but rest, take it easy, and ice it up as you start being active again.

When you start up, WARMING UP properly is key.

Can't stress that enough.
 
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