Achilles pain and stiffness
Stiffness and pain in the tendon above the heel, worst in the first steps of the morning and after sitting. It builds slowly over weeks and responds to loading, not to rest alone.
This is general training information, not medical advice, and nothing here is a diagnosis. The same pain can have very different causes, and only a qualified professional who can assess you in person can tell which one is yours. If pain is severe, getting worse, or not settling, get it looked at.
- · Marked stiffness for the first steps out of bed that eases within a few minutes.
- · Tender to pinch, sometimes with a thickened section you can feel.
- · Warms up during a session and hurts more the following morning.
- · Worst on push-off: sprinting, hills and the sled push.
- · Added speed work or hill running, which load the tendon far harder than easy mileage.
- · A switch to lower-drop shoes that lengthens the tendon's working range.
- · High sled and calf load stacked onto an already high running week.
- · Age and training history: the tendon adapts more slowly than the engine driving it.
- · Sled push, which loads push-off under heavy resistance.
- · Running intervals and hills.
- · Double-unders and box jumps.
- · Standing calf work at speed.
- · Heavy slow calf work, which is usually the treatment rather than the thing to avoid.
- · Squats, deadlifts and all upper-body training.
- · Rowing and ski erg, generally comfortable.
- · Easy running at a volume that leaves the next morning no worse.
Like-for-like substitutions that keep the training stimulus while the niggle settles. A swap, not a rest day.
- · Progressive calf loading, straight-leg and bent-knee, built up over months, which is the best-evidenced route back.
- · Tolerance for speed reintroduced last, after volume is comfortable.
- · Shoe changes made gradually rather than overnight.
- · The morning-stiffness test as your guide: if tomorrow morning is no worse, yesterday's dose was acceptable.
None of the advice above applies if any of these are true. These are the signs that this is not an ordinary training niggle. Stop managing it yourself and get assessed.
- · A sudden sharp pain like being kicked in the back of the leg, and you cannot push off: a possible rupture, get seen the same day.
- · Pain and swelling at the very point where the tendon meets the heel bone, which behaves differently and needs specific advice.
- · You have recently taken fluoroquinolone antibiotics and developed tendon pain.
- · Nothing has improved after several months of loading.
Sweatlas is not a medical provider. Everything in the niggle index is general information about training, written for healthy adults, and it is not medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Do not use it to self-diagnose or to delay getting care. If you have pain that is severe, worsening, or not settling, or you have any of the warning signs listed on the page, see a doctor or a qualified physiotherapist.