The Guru says Sandip’s achilles pain has to be in conjunction with adequate tissue length of his calf and control of his foot and hip.

I’ve been suffering Achilles pain on and off for the past 2 years. The pain
goes all they way up my calf muscle which is really tight and feels like its
about to pull. Also my thighs muscles and extremely tight and they cause
pressure on my knees making simple tasks like tiling my shoe lace a struggle
and cause my knees to click.

I’ve done a number of physio sessions ranging from massage to 12 weeks of leg
strengthening  using stair exercises and even shockwave therapy. This does
cause the symptoms to subside for a few months but then it reoccurs.
Any advise?

Hi Sandip

Time to start doing the right stuff rather than just “stuff”! You’ve been allowed to feel better, but feeling better isn’t the same as getting better….

It sounds as if you’ve got a degenerate tendon – these can take a notoriously long amount of time to resolve, but they do as long as you’re putting the right amount of load through your tendon. A bit like Goldilocks – no too much, not too little but just right.

This has to be in conjunction with adequate tissue length of your calf and control of your foot and hip.

Your knee issue also plays into this too – if you’ve got short and tight quads then the pressure behind your kneecap build and becomes painful. You can stretch all you like but if you don’t know why it’s tight in the first place, the tightness will simply return after being stretched.

Finding the cause is unfortunately more important than dealing with the symptoms – and I think this is what you need to establish.

The Guru

Six Physio