How to Reduce Your Risk of An Achilles Injury
I always thought the name Achilles was appropriate. When you’re a soccer player, runner, or any other athlete it seems to be the most vulnerable tendon and the one that hurts the most. Of course it was the warrior Achilles only weakness.
Sometimes it feels like it’s everyone’s biggest weakness. Especially on the pitch.
The Achilles is a tendon. It’s not a muscle. Tendon’s can’t be stretched. Their role is to connect muscle to bone. The Achilles tendon is the largest and strongest tendon in your body. It’s job is to connect your calf muscle to your heel. Two very important areas if you’re a soccer player.
Two areas that are also vulnerable to injury because of their high level of use during practices, training and games.
Your Achilles tendon is active anytime you move your ankle. I’m sure you can see how important taking care of this tendon and the surrounding muscles and joints are.
If your Achilles feels tight, it’s not the tendon. The surrounding muscles and joints are either tight, weak or immobile. I’ll show you a few strategies to fix that.
Common injuries to the Achilles are partial tears, strains and tendinitis. The only way to heal these injuries are to rest them and them begin a plan to reduce future injuries. The worst thing you can do to an injured tendon is to stretch it.
1. Increase Ankle Mobility
Mobility refers to the way a joint moves. Flexibility refers to the length of a muscle. If you have a stiff ankle that does not move in its entire range of motion your Achilles will be more vulnerable to injury. If your ankle lacks range of motion it will directly affect your calf, which will hinder your Achilles. Ideally you should be able to keep your foot flat on the ground and push your knees over your toes, without your heel lifting off the ground.
Here’s how to gauge and build ankle mobility.
2. Take Better Care Of Your Feet
The sole of your foot has 20,000 nerve endings and everything starts with our relationship with the ground. Nerve endings are very important for proprioception and movement in general. They’re especially important when it comes to absorbing force from the ground.
You cannot stack a healthy body on top of a weak or unhealthy foot.
If your foot is weak or in pain it’s going to refer pain up the chain to your knee, your hip or even your shoulder. A weak foot will cause dysfunction in your entire body as you try to compensate for it. Taking care of your foot is stupidly simple and it can reap huge rewards. All you need is a lacrosse ball.
3. Get Stronger
Getting stronger is most likely the best way to prevent any injury. The more resilient your muscles are the more they will protect your tendons and joints. This principle can be applied to reducing almost any injury. When it comes to reducing the risk of injury to your Achilles tendon you want to strengthen your calves, glutes, hamstrings and quads. Basically your entire lower body.
To strengthen the calves you can perform slow calf raises both seated and standing. To make the movement most effective you should pause for a few seconds at the stretched bottom position of the movement, and pause again when the calves are fully flexed at the top of the movement.
The best way to strengthen your quads is to learn how to properly goblet squat and progress the weight.
The best way to strengthen your glutes and hamstrings is to learn and perfect the Romanian Deadlift.
These 3 movements will form the building blocks of a proper lower body strengthening program. Form is going to be incredibly important, as improper form will lead to movement patterns that might actually increase your risk for injury.
Always pay attention to how you move, and place a greater emphasis on form instead of weights. Make sure your form is perfect.
To truly become less prone to injury you should strengthen your whole body, including your torso and upper body.
In Conclusion
Your Achilles tendon is a large, important tendon. It connects from your heel bone to your calf muscle and can be impacted by all the muscles and joints surrounding it. If you have an Achilles tendon injury the best strategy is to rest it. Do not stretch it while it’s injured. Once you’ve recovered from that injury your best course of action is to increase your ankle mobility, take better care of your foot and get stronger.
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