by athletica on Fri Dec 30, 2011 9:32 pm
Thanks.
As with most of my athlete with chronic issues I plead with them to reduce the load of training if the initial treatment does not result in lasting improvement! Most are compliant if immediate results are produced.
With regard to achilles tendinitis I avoid external glide (gliding techniques), focusing on internal glide (ART, or whater movement based techn.). I like active movement to allow the patient to control the intensity of treatment. I usually will retest the achilles several times during the treatment with whatever provacative test irritates the area. If it's a case of tendinitis/tendinosis I generally won't introduce any sort of exercises or stretching until the inflamationis reduced. At that point eccentric calf drops 2 sets of 15 twice per day, ultimately increasing the load in a progressive fashion in which patient will add weight to a backpack. And even though I'm not a huge fan of kinesiotape in a lot of cases I feel with many achilles issues the masking the pain with the tape is ok for temporary relieve or patient compliance.