Achilles Tendon Research

Our aim is to spread information to help prevent and treat Achilles Tendinopathy successfully.

We are actively engaged in research to try and improve current rehabilitation methods for Achilles Tendinopathy, if you have Achilles Tendinopathy and would be interested in participating in our studies then please contact Seth for further details.

Achilles Tendinopathy is a term that encompasses any problem with the Achilles Tendon, this can mean inflammation (Tendinitis) or degeneration (Tendinosis) and includes both mid-tendon and insertional disorders. Contrary to popular belief the Achilles is not normally inflamed, this explains why the typical approach of rest and anti-inflammatory medication fails to resolve the issue. Most experts except that the problem is degenerative, and the symptoms link to changes in chemical, neural and structural constituents. Whilst degeneration sounds scary to most it is a rectifiable issue.

Put simply the body is constantly being strained/degenerated with activity and repaired during rest, if you tip the rate of wear to be faster than repair the tissue degenerates until the point it produces symptoms. A little wake up call, will normally allow a reduction in activity and gradual re-introduction and you recover well. However if you rest the tissue (tendon and muscle) degenerates/wastes because of disuse. Sometimes gradual re-introduction alone does not work and we need to use load/training to make the tissue adapt, a bit like a weight trainer making the muscles bigger, although in this case we want to affect the muscle and tendon.

You can access our recent paper on why eccentric exercises work here , we do not think eccentric exercises are best, its just that most of the research has been done using them.