Foam roller for Achilles Tendonosis - anyone tried it?

[Oldisthenewblack]

Anyone tried this? And does it EVER get any less painful?? I have achilles tendonosis and have always been told my calves are shockingly tight. I've been using the foam roller for a few days now and bloody hell, it's still agony. Does it ever get better? Does it really work?

[CMOTDibbler]

I don't do the foam roller thing, but when I've had achilles tendonitis the only thing that helps is doing eccentric loading exercises and being really conscientious about my running form.

[Oldisthenewblack]

Thanks for that, CMOT, I will have a look. Have heard of eccentric loading before but failed to pursue it...

[familygermsareok]

I've got horrible Achilles tendonosis at the moment which has kept me off proper running for weeks now
Physio has me doing calf stretches, eccentric loading exercises and foam rolling. I have huge knot in affected calf muscle and it is really painful to roll, but I am gradually breaking it down. Is taking weeks though, not just a few days. Physio says to keep at it, will work in the end. Here's hoping!

[Oldisthenewblack]

I feel for you, familygerms - it's awful. All that you've mentioned are exactly what I've been told to do. I'm trying to foam roll every night but it's always so painful. I was a bit hit and miss with the programme until this week when I realised I just can't live like this; I can barely walk! So I've been slapping on the anti-inflammatory gel too. Are you using an anti-inflammatory?

Do you mind me asking what kind of foam roller you're using? Mine is a 15x44cm - I wasn't sure which size to get and originally it was for my iliotibial band.

Oh, and I've just bought a rolling pin as I read that that do the same job as a foam roller, but I thought I could get a helpful friend to run it up and down my calf

[familygermsareok]

Thanks Old, it is awful and I am getting really frustrated! I've had chronic Achilles problems for years but usually it was manageable by just reducing my mileage and going a bit easy for a few weeks during flare ups. This one is just not settling though. So if it's a new thing for you I would really really recommend doing the exercises diligently to try and get it settled. Physio said eccentric exercises can take 3+ months to see improvement
I'm not using any anti inflammatories, I've tried the gel and tablets previously but didn't find they made much difference. I do ice my tendon, used to help, not so much this time.
At my worst I could barely walk too, but find I'm much better after calf stretches. Currently doing these 3-4 times daily and eccentric ones twice daily.
I'm using The Grid Trigger Point foam roller (I'll try to link if I can) . It is bloody painful, but it is def reducing my calf knot, and I don't have one at all on the unaffected side so I can really feel the difference. Just hope that will eventually translate into healed Achilles.
Rolling pin sounds even more painful, I think I would be way too chicken for that

[familygermsareok]

The Grid
Mine is orange

[balletgirlmum]

Some of the Excercises cmot linked to look very similar to those Dd does (on the advice of her physio & ballet teachers) to help with her tight Achilles. Especially the bottom stair one.