How to Prevent Achilles Tendonitis: Part 2

A couple months ago I posted the first blog of our three part series on, “How to Prevent Achilles Tendonitis”. Keeping true to my word here is the long awaited part two, where I will introduce some house keeping things that could help you reduce your chances of obtaining Achilles tendonitis. But before we start lets revisit some of the key points that were highlighted in part one.

Simply, Achilles tendonitis is the irritation or inflammation to the Achilles tendon, which is often classified as an overuse injury. There are many factors that can contribute to the development of this injury. In the first blog we discussed three major contributors that inhibit the function of one of the strongest tendons in the human body:

1.                    Fitness level- Knowing your limits or where you currently stand physically will save you a lot pain and disappointment as you continue to work towards your fitness goals. Although, I do agree that you should push yourself each and every time you workout to get the best out of your routine, at FLO we rather relay on the side of caution. We often tell our athletes that they should earn the right to do any progression or a harder exercise.         

2.                    Activity- The amount of activity you do daily, how often, and for how long can highly influence the development of this overuse injury. High explosives exercises such as, plyometrics (box jumps) can also cause the development of this –itis. There is nothing wrong with plyometric exercises; in fact I use them all the time with our athletes, but they must first demonstrate that they are able to absorb their bodyweight as it drops to the ground in a controlled and proper fashion. 

3.                    Foot type/wear & Training surfaces- Individuals with a rigid or an inflexible foot are predisposed to this condition because gait must be modified to compensate for their foot type. Improperly fitting footwear may cause friction between the heel counter and the tendon, and shoes with a rigid sole may not permit adequate range of motion in the midfoot and forefoot, altering the biomechanics of the foot, ankle, and leg. Unstable training surface can also influence tendonitis, as the achilles tendon needs to produce double the effort to both assist with stabilization of the ankle and load to do the task at hand. These are also some of the same reasons as to why we have our athletes train barefoot.

The Achilles tendon is part of a lever system that contributes to our ability to walk, run, skip, and jump. This lever system was highlighted in our “Plantar Fasciitis Prevention” blog, if you wish to read more about it. As you can see, the Achilles tendon plays a major role in basically everything we do in our daily lives, so you are probably asking yourself, what can I do to keep myself away from inactivity, pain, and disappointment?

Well to answer your question, I believe that our dear friend/mentor Dr. Emily Splichal, a Podiatrist and Human Movement Specialist said it the best when she stated, “Our ability to interact with the ground is the foundation to movement efficiency.” This is a powerful statement because it highlights every major component as to why someone might not only develop Achilles tendonitis but also other lower body injuries. Movement efficiency define by Dr. Emily is the ability to take in impact forces quickly, store them and use them as elastic energy with minimal loss of energy.  Which in a nutshell explains everything we must work up to in order to decrease the dangers of all three key contributors to this overuse injury. The key exercise that we often use at FLO that will help the most with the prevention of this injury is called “Short Foot”.

Thoroughly explained and demonstrated by Dr. Emily herself in this video: Short Foot 

Progression video: 

Short Foot Progression

Soft tissue work such as foam rolling to the bottom of your feet, hamstrings, and gluteus muscles will also help. 

Take a look at our e-book “The Five Levels of FLO”, where we speak in depth about our assessment, training philosophy, and exclusive look into our exercise library. It can be purchased in our website www.flofitnesbh.com under the “The Five Level of FLO book” tab. You can also email us at flofitness@gmail.com or 

johnny.flofitness@gmail.com for any questions.

Hope you enjoy!!

-Johnny Rodriguez

Injury Prevention Coordinator

FLO Fitness LLC