Top Tips for Insertional Achilles Tendinopathy

In this video, Maryke discusses why you can't treat an insertional Achilles tendinopathy in the same way as a mid-portion one and gives some tips on how to settle the acute pain during the first few weeks.

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[m.farhanjanjuah]

Was doing the wrong heels down for almost two months and after watching your video stopped it 3 weeks feeling much much better thanks a lot

[xbadandyx]

For anyone early on in your insertional achilles injury - sharing my experience.

My first 3 months - I avoided dorsiflexion basically as much as possible. Calf raises / heel drops all done from the floor, always.

By month 4 - I was feeling like I was really coming along well and nearing fully healed. I had not been adding heavy weight to my calf raises, yet. But at this point my tendon was at least accepting of the forces I was putting it under from walking. Walking daily, for exercise, 2.5 miles a day Monday-Friday. On the weekends I would sometimes walk 2.5 miles again, but sometimes more - maybe 4-5.

I began to mix in 30-60 second jogs to my walks. After about 2 or 3 days, I re-aggravated my heal / tendon. I realized foolishly it was because I hadn't been loading it incrementally with weight while doing calf raises.

After resting it for a few days - and getting 0 improvement. I grabbed a 30lb kettle bell weight and through it into a backpack. I did 3 sets of calf raises, from the floor.. with the added weight. While doing this I was also near my fireplace at home that has a shelf on the wall. I added even more resistance by pushing my hands up into the bottom of the shelf basically putting even more force on to my tendon.. with the added weight and my resistance it was about an additional 50lbs of weight beyond my body weight.

After doing this every day, twice a day... for about 5 days - my flare up pain disappeared almost entirely.

I continued on for another week of this, getting better and better. Now for the last four days - I am now doing calf raises / drops with added weight off a step.. and it's no longer causing my heel / achilles to flare up like it would early on.

So my advice - and your experience may differ.. You eventually may find yourself stuck, not advancing after a few months of being conservative. Adding that extra weight is definitely the answer to getting to the next "phase" of recovery. Theres going to be pain and setbacks. But I promise you, sitting around resting or trying the same things over and over isn't going to work. My PT finally pushed me to move forward. And its working.

I've spent months wondering when I could dorsiflex again. The answer is - you'll know when its time. It takes a while to get there. And for me, it was 4 months.

I plan to continue and gradually add more and more weight to my raises over the coming weeks. There will be some pain.. but, it doesn't mean you're starting back on day 1 again. Good luck.

[buffsurfer]

Thanks a lot for this video and other ones. They are very helpful. I'm pissed off to see how well paid (by me unfortunately) doctors and physio suggested wrong exercise and cannot understand patient feeling/needs and let me say also the PAIN. Nowadays, you need to be a physio expert to control a normal physio "expert". I'm grateful that you are online and explain us all. Thanks for it.

[osuchabro]

I have chronic Achilles Tendinopathy and tried literally everything and nothing gave me much relief.
I came up with a little stretch which got rid of my pain overnight.
I placed my achilles between my big toe and second toe on the opposing foot and gently push down the heel and stretch everything.
I did this about ten times and followed it up with massage working downwards around the back of the heel.
Finally something that works!
Give it a go it worked for me.

[BlackBackLioness]

I have this on both sides and plantar fasciitis, both sides. I've had to drop shifts over the years because of the pain, full time to barely part time.
My sympathy to anyone experiencing the same pain!
Thank you for your videos, super helpful!

[IamVel]

You are great! Thank you so much for your videos. This is finally it after a couple of doctors who said that I am already too old so it is ok to have my feet hurt (I am 41) and another one who told me to do those stretches that absolutely made my problem worse. Even if I told them I have pain in the back of my heel bone they would prescribe me exercises against plantar fasciitis. I figured a shoe thing myself already, were adding massages and work with my foot stability, and now this. Thank you again.

[lazzasamuels]

Wow. Recurrent insertional tendonitis for over a year due to incorrect rehab strategy. Kept thinking I wasn’t doing enough heel drops and calf stretches.
I was doing them too early and too often and setting myself up for flare ups! This video is a game changer. Thanks!

[natefergeson]

I found my solution. I’ve been wearing a boot for two weeks and it helped but only a little, as well as strengthening. Two days ago I relentlessly used a massage gun and lacrosse ball on my calf muscle on my injured side. My heel pain pretty much magically disappeared immediately after. Probably not the solution for most people, but it helped me immensely. I’m guess my tight and injured calf muscle was creating a lot of tension and causing the insertion point to be very irritated.

[danielleedmonds]

Omg this is brilliant! So that’s why the exercises they gave me haven’t ever fully helped! And oddly I had noticed that wearing a shoe with heel on occasion feels better that day for some reason. Goodness. Thank you so much!

[davidgriffiths]

Good video, Covid helped mess up my Achilles. Nothing but zoom meetings for 6 months and the occasional day at the office then suddenly 8 hours a day standing at work and around 8kms a day of walking. Sudden achilles agony. Trying to take some painkillers and ice it up a bit to help. Maybe slightly better now a week after it began but hoping it might be good enough to walk on without stabbing pain in a couple of weeks.

[lisacarney]

But what exercises do you recommend for insertional Achilles tendinitis??? I want to strengthen my Achilles but you mentioned many exercises not to do. What ca we do? Thanks

[mikec]

Thank you for this specific, detailed explanation. I now feel well-informed about how to correctly plan my recovery efforts.

[masterable]

Yes, this is my pain. trying to read comments here that would really help me with my self-rehab. Thank you.

[enigma]

Thank you so much, I have suffered with insertional tendonitis probably from years of Skateboarding! You are a life saver with the advice on NOT! streching the calf in the early stages of inflamation and injury, and not walking round flat shoes or bare feet. I have struggled for a week now as I thought it was better then decided to walk to work invloving a steep hill and felt or heard a faint click or pop in my heal and carried on then the next morning Boom! it was back with a vengence! swollen, red and sore to the touch! So now, Patience and your advice is giving me hope that in a few weeks it will have settled then maybe I will start cycling to build up strenght. Thank you 🙂😇😇😇😇😇

[scottjames]

Thanks for the tips. I have been suffering from this for some time as a result of running. Its an annoying painful injury

[tymgetbizeee]

I've been doing it all wrong!!! I'm so glad I found this video. I work as a bellman/valet parker and I'm a 100% sure I have this issue. I thought stretching it out would help and what you said makes sense. I'm going to buy some heel inserts today and hopefully it helps. Thanks for making this video.

[Travel_with_Amy]

Thank you for the vedio. I have insertial tendonities for 1 and half year but no doctors or physio is able to understand my pain. Please let me know the excercise for this

[naveen]

Thanks for the vedio, I tried almost all the excercises that was recommended in other YouTube channels but l the pain was not getting reduced. Your vedio helped me to recover but still I expirence some pain when I press. I have been a barefoot runner since 5 to 6 years. stopped running and heel stretching since 3 weeks and I m doing better. Thank you once again:)

[SOE]

Your explanation is so easy to understand and logical. Many thanks.