Achilles Tendonitis

What is it?

Achilles Tendonitis may account for up to 11% of all running-related injuries. Simply put, it's an inflammation of the Achilles tendon. People suffering from it often complain of pain along the tendon and/or back of the heel (especially early in the morning or after exercising). 

There are two forms-- Non-insertional (the fibers in the middle portion of the tendon break down, swell, and thicken; more common in younger, active people) and Insertional (this affects the fibers in the lower portion where the tendon attaches to the heel bone; can occur at any time, even in people who are not active). In either form, the damaged fibers can calcify, and bone spurs often develop in the Insertional form of the pathology.


What causes it?

• Sudden increase in activity without adequate time to recover
• A change in footwear or training surface
• Running uphill
• Wearing high heels consistently
• Tight calf muscles (puts excess stress on the tendon) 
• Bone spur (causes the tendon to track improperly)

What can I do to prevent it?

• Calf stretches and strengthening exercises
• Warm-up and cooldown properly

What can I do if I already have it?

• Rest and/or low-impact activities 
• Ice (fill a foam cup with water and tear off the rim or use a cold compression wrap)
• Heat (to stimulate blood flow to the area)
• Tape the back of the tendon to support it
• Anti-inflammatories
• Cortisone injections
• Extracorporeal Shock Wave Therapy (ESWT) or therapeutic ultrasound
• Surgery 

What are the best shoes for it?
Flexible (or just not overly stiff) sneakers... also, make sure you're in a stability shoe if you need one.

Turkey Tendons

Tendons are the shock absorbers of the body. Their elastic nature allows them to dissipate some of the initial impact force to protect the leg muscles from damage. In order to learn more about this muscle-tendon interaction, researchers at Brown studied turkeys, whose leg structure and manner of walking are very similar to ours. The broke the gait cycle down into two phases: (1) force rise (when the turkey first lands) and (2) force decay (following the initial jolt of landing). During the rise phase, the muscle fascicles remained a constant length, which means that tendons are absorbing the force by stretching like a spring. In fact, the muscle "pre-activates", becoming stiffer to resist forcible stretching. During the decay phase, the tendon recoils to its original length, transmitting the energy it stored during landing to the fascicles. Because of this delay, the fascicles have enough time lengthen by an appropriate amount to safely absorb the energy from landing. So, what does that mean for runners (whose knees can absorb up to 8x our body weight with each step)? Keep your tendons healthy!