Runners Pain Dictionary – Part 3

ACHILLES TENDINITIS – The Achilles Tendon is the tendon that connects the calf muscles (the soleus and the gastrocnemius) along the back of the leg, to the heel. It is the largest tendon of the body with ability to store great potential energy and is used in walking, running and jumping. This tendon allows the foot to push down. It also works to extend the foot to point your toes towards the floor. When it becomes swollen and painful the condition is called Achilles Tendinitis. Keeping the foot flat puts more tension on it.

It manifests as a pain along the back of the leg towards the heel (along the length of the tendon) and there may be pain in the heel itself while walking, running or jumping. Symptoms may appear in the form of stiffness, tenderness/pain on touching and moving the area, swelling, and pain when you stretch the ankle or point toes down or try to stand on toes. A severe Achilles Tendon injury can cause it to tear partially (Achilles Tendinosis) or rupture (snapping or popping sound).Unfortunately, this is a rather common injury, spanning several sports such as running, squash, tennis, basketball, dance, gymnastics etc. Very often a sudden spurt/start of movement causes a tear in the tendon when the sudden tensing of the surrounding muscle is more than the tendon can handle. For eg at the start of a sprint.

Some common causes include a rapid increase in exercise intensity without giving body enough time to adapt, such as rapidly increasing frequency and/or mileage of runs (overuse), running on hard surfaces like concrete, tight calf muscles, over pronated feet (fallen arches that cause a stretch of the tendon), improper shoes, feet turning in or out suddenly, lot of jumping (such as while playing basketball) and growth of a heel spur (extra bone growth where the tendon attaches to the heel).

Achilles Tendinitis does not typically require surgery but can take time to address and for the pain to go away. Icing helps. It may be wise to suspend the activity for a bit and switch to alternate forms like cycling and swimming to ease pressure on the tendon. Switching to smoother, softer surfaces if possible, would help. Changing worn out shoes or when the adequate support feels compromised is a good decision.To prevent recurrence you’ll need to be careful about returning to the activity and focus on maintaining the health and elasticity of this powerful tendon with exercises and stretch/release program.

Perhaps now the expressions, “to have an Achilles heel” or “you are my Achilles heel” to represent one’s weak or vulnerable spot, makes more sense.