09 Dec Relieving Achilles Tendon Pain
Chris Andreano demonstrates a useful technique to get relief from achilles tendon pain.
Full Video Transcript
Chris Andreano: Okay, everyone. This is the next little video in the tendon series that I wanted to be putting out to all of you. Now, what’s been shown with some tendons in particular, not all tendon problems but in some, is that stretching is actually, it can be unhelpful. It’s not to say it’s unhelpful in all tendons, as I said. Now, what we find in an, particularly in an irritated tendon that’s quite painful, is that it’s better to be rolling out the muscle of that tendon, rather than trying stretch the whole lot together.
A perfect example is the calf. Now, the calf is the muscle associated with the Achilles tendon, and commonly when people start to get Achilles pain, they’re naturally gonna try and stretch out the calf, because, you know, it’s sort of natural feel that that’s gonna be the helpful thing. Now, I’ve got a little trick today to sort of, you know, to substitute out the stretch, and sort of still achieve that sort of calf release and that calf length, which actually does help to improve the tendon problem.
Now, what I want you to do is try and get your hands on a foam roller, all gyms have them. It’s good to have one yourself at home. It’s a bit of a tool. You know, it needs to be down on the floor. I want you to pop your calves on top of the roller, and you’re just gonna gently lift yourself up, and roll up and down the calf muscle, okay? And the important thing is not to roll over the actual Achilles tendon itself. You’re just above the Achilles and all the way up to the top of the calf, almost behind the knee.
Now, this is the first progression, I’m on two legs. If you sort of progress through that exercise comfortably, you can then get all your weight onto one leg, and you roll out the calf a bit more firmly, on the one leg with all of your body weight. Okay? Well, most of your body weight. Okay, guys. And you should find that’s really a way to release off the calf muscle tissue, which does help to take pressure off the Achilles tendon.