stretch help needed: achilles

[metamorphosis]

My legs and calves are so tight that my achilles actually pop when i go up and dwn stairs. Asides frim the typical stretches of lunge and lean or wall press what are some good examples of stretches for the backs of your legs? I'm not sure what caused the initial tightness but i need some way to relieve it. Thanks!

[chairohkey]

http://www.mobilitywod.com/?s=achilles

[oystergirl]

Sorry for the question, but you do not say if you are a girl or a guy. If a girl and you wear high heal shoes a lot or even a low wedge, this can shorten your achilles and lead to this problem. If you are either sex and as a kid, you walked on your toes or put the front of your foot down as you strided instead of your heal, you could naturally have a short achilles. I know two kids who had surgery as children to correct this. If the clicking is not painful then simply stick to the stretches you are doing and do them consistently but not excessively. If you over stress or tax the achilles, it can rebound and shorten even more and then can cause serious plantar fasiitis and that my friend is serious pain in the foot. Best of luck!

[metamorphosis]

I'm a girl and actually don't wear heels. I wear tennis shoes at work but walking has gotten painful. None of the strectches I do seem to help

[Grendelsfork]

Try downward facing dog, a basic yoga pose. Work into and try (gently) to push your heels towards the ground. Work at it, it may take months but that should fix any inflexability

[Elastigirl]

As somebody already suggested Mwod.com, has great stretches. One thing I noticed was that he said to do the typical stretch leaning against the wall for 1 minute, 10 x during the day. I did that, with a timer, and it helped. If I don't time it I don't do it long enough.

He also said make sure you are not dehydrated. If you need to put a little salt or eloctrolites in your water after you excercise.

[Waldo]

I have gained in leaps and bounds in that sort of flexibility in the last month. I stretch every single day after working out (or in the case of Sundays, stretching (Yoga) is my workout), and every morning I do a few Yoga sun salutations.

Basically I had to commit to stretching, make it a habit, and not fear light cold stretching in the AM. Prior to about a month ago I stretched 3-4 times a week. Sometimes doing it after a workout, sometimes not.

I had been stuck at barely able to touch my toes for several months after progressing to that point very quickly. Now things are moving fast again and I'm getting closer and closer to being able to put my palms flat on the ground in the basic touch your toes stretch.

In other words stretch. A lot. Multiple times a day. It doesn't have to be big and involved, just something simple. But don't push cold muscles too hard, keep it light if they aren't already warmed up.

And I second above, downward dog is a great stretch. Hits the ankles, rear of the legs, arms and shoulders all at once.

[The_Lonestar]

First off...don't stretch cold. Do something to warm up, like the oft hated "side-straddle hop", or, what we civilians like to call "jumping-jacks." I know, I know...they make you feel like you're back in grade-school, the neighbors below your apartment get ticked off and people point and stare (or, at least that's what they do to me), but they are one of the greatest warm up exercises on the planet. After 150 years of military advancement towards PT, all soldiers, marines and even SEALs do jumping jacks to warm up.

Then, to an actual stretch. If you are going to do something after the warm up (like running, jogging or walking), do dynamic stretches. These are stretches with motion. The best dynamic stretch you can do for achilles that I know of is a pike stretch. Basically, get yourself on all fours in an inverted "V". Put your right foot behind your left ankle, and with your legs straight, press the heel of your left food down GENTLY. Release. Do this 10 times for each leg.

Once your done running, walking, skipping, or parkouring, do static stretches. These are the stretches that the other kids used to do that pissed us off. You know, the kids that could scratch their shoulder blades with their toes. There are several good achilles stretches. I would suggest a very simple toe-pull stretch. Sit on the ground with your knees slightly bent. Hold onto your toes with your hands and pull your toes towards your body.

It's very important that you don't do static stretches while cold. Doing that is a fast way of hearing the fateful "snap" of your tendons parting company with themselves. Use static stretching as a cool down from exercising, or after a good warm up of 5-15 minutes.

I hope that helps. I'm no fitness genius...but I rub shoulders with a few.

[Waldo]

It's very important that you don't do static stretches while cold. Doing that is a fast way of hearing the fateful "snap" of your tendons parting company with themselves. Use static stretching as a cool down from exercising, or after a good warm up of 5-15 minutes.

Stretching cold can be done as long as you realize that it is totally different than warm stretching and that you shouldn't push yourself when doing it (stretch lighter and hold it for a lot less time). People naturally stretch cold anyway. It is pretty normal for people to do a big stretch when getting out of bed (good mornings didn't get their name from nothing), noone does jumping jacks first to make sure they are warmed up. You can stretch the crap out of your muscles when warm (most people could go much harder than they do too).

For years and years and years and years, until quite recently, static stretching was considered a warm up and was done first thing before performing sports or in gym class. This did not result in a huge rash of injuries that recently have been cured. It is much like SIDS in babies. Yes preaching to parents to make their babies sleep on their back as opposed to the previous preaching of sleeping on their bellies made a pretty big difference in the incidence of SIDS, but it is basically taking a rate of 0.0001% and making it 0.00005%. The advice to not cold stretch is the same way. It did reduce the incidence of injury a little, however the indicince of injury was already very, very low anyway. Is it better to stretch warm? Sure. However many of the cold stretching injuries are the result of overzealous cold stretching, and not because stretching cold itself is bad. Likewise this has caused people to understretch when warm, because many people learned to stretch when cold.

[The_Lonestar]

@Waldo--your logic is valid, and thanks for pointing out a flaw in my thinking: the ever-present polarizing of opinions.

That being said, however, research (what little there is) has shown that static stretching while cold can a) reduce your effectiveness if you engage in an exercise immediately after the stretches, and lead to injury if (as you pointed out) one is overzealous. Dynamic stretching is a good way to get your muscles loose prior to a workout.

I advocate both, utilizing the static as a cool-down after exercise.

Regardless, I think we can both agree that stretching, if done properly, is an often overlooked and underused piece in the fitness puzzle.