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What
is Achilles Tendinitis?
Preventing
Achilles Tendinitis
Improving
Sports Performance
Achilles
Tendinitis Rehabilitation for Athletes
How Athletes
Can Prevent Achilles Tendinitis
Achilles tendinitis is best prevented by stretching your calf muscles
and Achilles tendons before activities. If you have tight Achilles tendons
or calf muscles, it is a good idea to stretch these twice a day whether
or not you are doing any sports activities that day. If you have a tendency
to get Achilles tendinitis, it is a good idea to avoid doing a lot of
uphill running.
Here are six steps to reduce your risk of Achilles tendinitis:
- Choose your running
shoes carefully. They should provide sufficient cushion for the heel
strike. Using a prescribed orthotic to change the position of a poorly
aligned heel bone may also help. Perhaps the best precaution is to know
your limits and to follow a sensible program when you exercise.
- In addition to
custom-fitted orthotics, all runners should be encouraged to wear well-designed
shoes that provide good heel stability with a small amount of additional
heel lift. This helps to prevent Achilles tendon problems and is especially
important in athletes running more than a few miles at a time.
- Walk and stretch
to warm up gradually before running. It’s better to spend few
minutes warming up than to spend months on the sidelines with a ruptured
Achilles tendon.
- Focus on stretching
and strengthening the muscles in the calf.
- Increase your running
distance and your speed gradually, in increments no greater than 10
percent a week.
- Avoid unaccustomed
strenuous sprinting, such as hill running.
- Cool down properly
by stretching after exercise.
Improving
Sports Performance
The key to improving sports performance after a diagnosis of Achilles
tendinitis is a proper rehabilitation
program, and adhering to some of those same principles after the injury
is gone.
The single most important
aspect of improving performance is stretching before and after you step
onto the field, court, ice, or golf course.
Benefits derived from stretching
include:
- increased physical
efficiency and performance
- decreased risk
of injury
- increased blood
supply and nutrients to joint structures
- increased coordination
- improved muscular
balance and postural awareness
- decreased risk
of lower-back pain
- reduced stress
- enhanced enjoyment
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more about Achilles Tendinitis
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