Achilles Tendinitis

[supergolfdude]

This is my first bout with Achilles Tendinitis. It's the most frustrating injury I have ever experienced.

Here are some notes about it:

• I am a 56 year male. I gained a lot of weight last winter. So far, I have lost 35 of the 40 lbs. I put on. I still want to lose twenty more.
• I first noticed it back in April. It hasn't gone away and isn't getting better.
• I'm told that the only thing that heals tendinitis is "time".
• I had to give up my favorite exercise - walking. If I walked, I had to ice my injury every time, and take Aleve. I could still walk, but my fear was that I was going to do more damage if I continued to do so.
• I am still able to do some cardio - for some reason, if I ride a bicycle - both outdoors and stationary, I don't have pain afterward.

Can anyone give me any good advice, or tell me about your experience with it? I know the tendon isn't torn since I can still stand on tiptoes without feeling added pain. 

[Baltoscott]

Hi @supergolfdude.  These repetive stress injuries may be disguised blessings as they cause us older folks (I’m 58) to appreciate the usefulness of cross-training.  Adding some biking to your workout makes a lot of sense as a way to keep your fitness up without making the injury worse.

I developed planter fasciitis a couple of years ago as I enthusictially increased my daily fitbit step count from around 20K to 40K.  Go figure.  It started slowly, feeling mostly like a nail in my heel.  Thought it was a bone spur. Mostly thought I could cure it by increasing my bike mileage and decreasing my walking/hiking.  But still, you have to walk to get around, so it never got extended rest.  It  gradually got worse, extremely painful in the mornings.  At some point I realized the problem had been going on for over a year!  What ultimately seemed to make the difference was daily stretching exercises. Cleared up in about 3 months after I started the exercises.  My daily steps have gone back to around 20K, and about 25% of that number consists of ‘steps’ Fitbit picks up from my daily bike commute.  The rest of the exercise comes from walking/hiking and weight-lifting in the gym.

You’ve probably already looked up exercises you can do, but if not, this website had a couple you could try.

[emili · Accepted solution]

@supergolfdude.. I completely get your frustration. I don't have tendinitis, but I have had heel pain and I am now recovering from runners knee. It is the result of a lot of cardio and I see it over and over in the folks at the gym who are runners and walkers. In the past few weeks, I have been forced to add different things into my routine and it actually makes me happy. I went from lifting twice per week to three. I stopped running and have gone on the elliptical and have gone back to high incline walking which is not only cardio but excellent for strength. Add more things to your routine to keep active, don't stress the injury and mostly don't stop moving in some capacity... 

[supergolfdude]

Excellent suggestions, Emili! There are always more things I can add into my workout that I haven't already been doing. You inspired me. Thanks for writing!