Achilles Tendon Injury!

I tore my achillies tendon last saturday and i had surgery this past wednesday. Im in a non-weight barring cast for two weeks then on a walking boot for a few months, I should be able to train again in a month at the longest but that will be upper body only, no lower body training is allowed, is there anything i can do in the mean time to limit the amount of muscle loss, my diet, anything! I pretty much have to lay around all day and its driving me nuts!!

I popped mine 4 yrs ago…to this day that calf is an inch smaller than the other. (didnt have good calves to begin with).

Within a couple weeks I did the state fair on crutches. The end of the day I had blisters on the palms of my hands…so I dont understand 2 months of nothing.

It’s a slow road back for the injured leg thou.

I totally understand where how you feel. I tore my achilles last August preparing for a basketball tournament and for the first 2.5 weeks, I was miserable. I couldn’t walk, (get to love your crutches cause you’ll have them for a while) and was worried that not being to do any cardio would negate any recent gains I had made.

But having 1 leg immobilized doenst mean you can’t train the rest of your body! After those 2 miserable weeks, I took my a$$ back to the gym where I started doing weights again. Obviously any standing exercises were ruled out, but I’m sure you can find others to do.

In the end, I just took it as just another challenge. I know it sucks now, but stick with it. Don’t push too hard and don’t slack on the PT. You can still work most of your body, just give it time for your achilles to catch up. Good luck!

yikes… a lot of peeps have done this. I thought the Achilles was the strongest tendon in the body. Any words of wisdom on avoidance of this injury from you fellas?

My husband blew his too about five years ago, he was pretty miserable for a couple of weeks, but he wasn’t totally out of commission for months.

That calf is still smaller than the other side, and I think his blowing his patellar tendon on the same leg last year is due in part to the achilles injury.

To avoid - stay the hell away from basketball!

2 friends of mine have blown there’s. One was a complete tear, about 7 years ago, he still can’t do a single calf raise on his left leg. The other was 3/4 torn, both had surgery, the one with the 3/4 tear can run and jump at about 95% 2 years later.

[quote]DJS wrote:
yikes… a lot of peeps have done this. I thought the Achilles was the strongest tendon in the body. Any words of wisdom on avoidance of this injury from you fellas?[/quote]

It is but think about the force going through it, just jogging you land with twice your body weight in force on one leg. The push off the line when sprinting can generate over 800lbs of force.

The friends I have that completely tore his playing baseball, he did it jumping against the outfield wall to rob a homerun.

I ruptured the achille’s tendon once while at work, it force of the rupture popped all the tendons and ligaments down there…

Minus a 9 hour hospital trip for nothing, not even cructhes, it wasn’t a bad experience.

[quote]BodyByGame20 wrote:
I ruptured the achille’s tendon once while at work, it force of the rupture popped all the tendons and ligaments down there…

Minus a 9 hour hospital trip for nothing, not even cructhes, it wasn’t a bad experience.
[/quote]

If you could flex your foot, it wasn’t a full rupture.

I couldn’t flex my foot, not for a few weeks and I still have issues with feeling in it sometimes.

My dad had to help me out of the hospital… we ended up buying crutches that night because I couldn’t walk really at all.

i was in a road traffic accident in 2008 serious one where i broke a lot of bones pelvis etc. awiting more surgery next week where my heel will be broke and reset and the joint difused which will leave me on 2 crutches for a few months. is anyone going tru the same thing and have ye any tips for training? am new to this thing does anyone know how to start your own post? thanks!

[quote]DJS wrote:
yikes… a lot of peeps have done this. I thought the Achilles was the strongest tendon in the body. Any words of wisdom on avoidance of this injury from you fellas?[/quote]

Conventional wisdom says to make sure to adequately stretch and warm-up. But in talking to my Orthopedic surgeon and a couple other specialists, its simply a result of the wear and tear of the muscle. Especially if you participate in sports/activities with explosive movements. When mine went, I thought I had simply twisted my ankle. Until I realized I couldn’t put any pressure or plant on it.

Otherwise, just be sure to work those calf raises to strengthen that area as a whole.

i fucked up my achilles tendon pitching in highschool. was out for the season for my senior year, lost my scholarship. fml.

[quote]KirbyNYC wrote:

[quote]DJS wrote:
yikes… a lot of peeps have done this. I thought the Achilles was the strongest tendon in the body. Any words of wisdom on avoidance of this injury from you fellas?[/quote]

Conventional wisdom says to make sure to adequately stretch and warm-up. But in talking to my Orthopedic surgeon and a couple other specialists, its simply a result of the wear and tear of the muscle. Especially if you participate in sports/activities with explosive movements. When mine went, I thought I had simply twisted my ankle. Until I realized I couldn’t put any pressure or plant on it.

Otherwise, just be sure to work those calf raises to strengthen that area as a whole.[/quote]

When I blew mine I simply thought I rolled my ankle too, when I tried to walk it off, I realized it was worse when I couldn’t plant off of it. I could barely walk on it, well I’m just over two weeks from my surgery, I’m in a boot and I still have the stitches in, they should come out this monday. I am not allowed to put any weight on it either, hopefully I can start my pt soon, and get back to training, I am sick of keeping my foot elevated and laying on the couch, Its frustrating laying here watching that hard work go away. I cant believe how fast my leg has shrunk while it was in the cast either.

I understand this may not be particularly applicable to you, but I had one arm in a cast last year - Any training you do as far as lower body goes will be damage limitation, but I was advised that if you can train your other side (in this case your other leg) unilaterally then when you’re able to train again your injured side will catch up 30% faster. Obviously you will be limited as to what you can do, just trying to help though. Hope you have a swift recovery!