Achilles Tendon Injury Rehab (Part 1 of 4) - Why You Should STOP STRETCHING!!

Sports Rehab Success Show

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Everybody loves to stretch the Achilles Tendon, but is it the best thing for you?

Please understand that more mobility in the Achilles is not often the solution. Especially for athletes who need stiffness in their tendon to produce force and create stability and co-contraction when the foot hits the ground and applies a force.

Sure stretching might feel good while you do it....But often it leads to zero lasting relief and once you go back to the painful task again, it remains painful to do it.

This is because the body has yet to either restore it's lost levels of capacity from being injured.

Or...

It simple never had either

#1) enough strength to begin with to withstand the demands of the task.

#2) never understood how to properly and at the correct moment in time create co-contraction and stiffness in the muscle (as well as the surrounding muscles not just the achilles) to apply and absorb force.

Finally the stretch position of the achilles will apply the max amount of compression to where the tendon inserts. If this insertion point is painful or sensitive, then you may actually be irritating it more by stretching and compressing the tendon to bone at its insertion.