Achilles Tendonitis Preventive Tips

Posted: Sept. 1, 2004

• Choose your running shoes carefully. They should provide sufficient cushion for the heel strike. Using a prescribed orthotic to change the position of a poorly aligned heel bone may also help. Perhaps the best precaution is to know your limits and to follow a sensible program when you exercise.
• Walk and stretch to warm up gradually before running. It’s better to spend few minutes warming up than to spend months on the sidelines with a ruptured Achilles tendon.
• Focus on stretching and strengthening the muscles in the calf.
• Increase your running distance and your speed gradually, in increments no greater than 10% a week.
• Avoid unaccustomed strenuous sprinting, hill running and the like.
• Cool down properly after exercise.

SOURCE: American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons

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