This article is a transcribed edited summary of a video Bob and Brad recorded in February of 2023. For the original video go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hslYSi8Xfs&t=44s
Mike: Most people make this one common mistake while treating heel pain.
Brad: Well, I know, I strained my heel. We've got to stretch it out, don't we?
Mike: When you have Achilles tendon pain, you actually don't want to stretch out the calf muscle. It causes compression on the tendon and can increase the degeneration of it.
Brad: Okay, oftentimes heel pain is felt and experienced right where the tendon connects to the calcaneus. And when you stretch it, compression forces are experienced here, which actually damages the tissues in the tendon. So we want to not stretch, and we're going to show you an option that's going to improve this. Occasionally, there'll be pain experienced up higher, that's a different scenario. So we're talking about right here at the Achilles tendon junction with the calcaneus.
Mike: If you'd like to learn more about treating Achilles tendon pain, you can check out the book, “How to Treat Your Own Achilles Tendon” by Paula Clayton.
Brad: Now, Paula has four different treatment approaches to this problem. We're going to go through them and show you the four. Okay so, the first thing you need to do to take stress off the area when you're wearing shoes is a heel lift. Now, here is an actual heel lift that fits on your heel. You simply put that in your shoe, and that'll take stress off it so you don't have the pain when walking.
Brad: There are other options which you don't have to buy if you just have some felt and you can put it underneath the insert and tape it there, and that works very good as well. Actually, I have one right here. This is for a Morton's neuroma in a different location, but you would put this right here at the heel. Works good.
Bob: A piece of carpet would work.
Brad: A piece of carpet. I've cut cardboard and put cardboard in there so it's the right shape. You're going to use this for maybe a couple of weeks until it starts to feel better along with the other treatments we'll show.
Mike: The second thing you want to do is try massaging your calf muscles. You can do this with a foam roller. It's good to internally or externally rotate your leg to get different parts of the calf. You can do it manually, like Brad is over there.
Mike: You can also use a nice rolling stick like this, which is a little easier if you're stuck in a chair or you can't get down to the ground to foam roll. Just roll different parts of it. And another option, if you have a massage gun, use that.
Brad: Yeah, my hands are getting tired, so a massage gun does not get tired. It gets in deeper and they really work well. I'm using the round head, which I find is really comfortable on this part of the body. So yeah, make sure you get a nice reciprocating massage gun. This is our mini. This works really well for a lot of people. Cost is good and it works. The third way to address this is cross fiber and a deep cross fiber, Mike will tell you all about it and show you.
Mike: So you're going to dig more into the lower part of the Achilles tendon right above the calcaneus. You want to pinch the tendon and you want to go forward and back in this direction, not up and down, but forward and back towards your toes and away. You really have to pinch hard because the Achilles tendon is very thick.
Brad: So it may hurt at first, but after about 20 seconds, you should start feeling numb sensation or it's going to just feel better. If it gets worse and worse, it's probably too soon for this treatment. And then give it a break for a day or two.
Mike: Are we going to use the massage gun?
Brad: Oh, yeah. If you get tired, you can use again, the massage gun, if you happen to have one. The round head again works good. You can do the cross friction as long as you've got a massage gun that reciprocates like this. And I'm going to go not straight on, that's beating it up. We're going to go on te side of the ball. And you can vary the angle a little bit. You can put the tendon on slack and you'll get in a little deeper. You'll know, it'll feel right. If it's really, really painful, stay away from that area, work upwards, and then down towards the Achilles tendon as tolerated. Don't get too aggressive. Boy, this is a good treatment. I'm enjoying this. All right, let's go to the next one.
Mike: And the fourth thing to try is some isometric strengthening. So with this, you go up on your toes. If you're weak, you can do both feet at once. If you have the strength, you can do single leg and you're going to hold it there for 45 seconds. After you've done 45 seconds, make sure to rest for 2 minutes and you're going to do this 5 total times a day. So remember, when it comes to Achilles tendon pain, try these four exercises to see if they help.
Brad: That's right. Let us know in the comment section, if it did help, we'd like to know we are all in this together, helping each other out, feeding back and forth off of each other. What say you, Mike?
Mike: Goodbye.
Brad: Yeah, we're feeding back and forth. Goodbye.
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