Coastal Podiatry Foot & Ankle Therapy Centre

Are You Getting Pain In Your Achilles Tendon?

Achilles Tendinitis

What do Brad Pitt, Russell Crowe, George Clooney, Judi Dench, Tiger Woods and David Beckham all have in common?

They’ve all had problems with their Achilles tendons.

Here’s the thing, you don’t have to be an Olympian athlete to have problems with your Achilles.

If you’ve been experiencing pain in your tendon, here’s what you need to know about what’s causing it and what good Achilles tendon pain management looks like.

What is Your Achilles Tendon Exactly?

The Achilles tendon is a tough band of fibrous tissue that connects the calf muscles to the heel bone. You can feel it at the back of your ankle as a springy band of tissue.

The Achilles tendon is the largest and strongest tendon in the body. When the calf muscles flex, the Achilles tendon pulls on the heel. This movement allows us to stand on our toes when walking, running, or jumping. Despite its strength, the Achilles tendon is also vulnerable to injury, due to its limited blood supply and the high tensions placed on it.

What Causes Pain in the Achilles?

Although sometimes you can land the wrong way and experience Achilles pain as a result, a lot of the time it’s just the result of stress and overuse. A lot of the time we hear of people getting a little stiffness in the Achilles but decide to ignore this and push on in the hope that it will go away. It’s important to listen to your body and stop and seek help when you experience things like this.

Sudden changes to your exercise routine, increase in intensity, change of training surface, tight calf muscles, previous injury, Foot misalignment, poor footwear or even just plain old bad luck are common culprits as well.

Signs & Symptoms.

  • Pain at the insertion (on the heel bone) or further up in the middle of the Achilles tendon.
  • The tendon getting thicker
  • Continuous swelling in the tendon
  • If the pain in either your heel or your tendon gets worse when you’re active
  • Severe and extreme pain on your post-exercise day
  • A stiff and painful Achilles tendon

Achilles Tendon Pain Management

The good news is that Achilles pain can be managed and treated with a little time, patience, and knowledge.

The first step is getting a thorough assessment of your condition to see exactly what is going on and why you are getting the pain you are experiencing. Once we have found the underlying cause and made a diagnosis we can then go about offering a suitable treatment program to help you get back to your best.  If left untreated you risk further degeneration of the tissue and prolonged healing and even further damage.

At Coastal Podiatry we are very proud to be able to offer an array of world class treatments for musculoskeletal problems such as this and have a great success rate in treating Achilles tendon problems.

Shockwave Therapy is a fast and extremely effective way of managing many painful musculoskeletal conditions and is also non-invasive. Shockwave therapy has been shown to be up to 80-90% successful if all underlying issues are assessed as well. It is great for us to help resolve many painful conditions and get you back to doing what you love quicker.

Coastal Podiatry belong to an elite few to have this technology available to us here on the Sunshine Coast.

To find out more information or to book online please visit www.coastalpodiatry.com.au or you can call our friendly admin team on 5492 2944.

Healthy feet provide the foundations for a healthy body and an active life!

Dr Peter Shelton BSc Hons. Accredited Podiatrist.

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About The Author

Dr Peter Shelton

Dr Peter Shelton BSc Hons. is an Accredited Podiatrist based in the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia.

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