How do you rehabilitate an achilles tendon injury?

First of all is it inflamed or just sore? How would you rate the pain on a scale of 1–10? If it is inflamed then you need to ice. A good protocol for that is 20 minutes on 40 minutes off for up to 5 cycles. Once the inflammation has gone down, in a few days, then you can start slowly stretching it. I suggest you go to a massage therapist.

You go to your primary care physician and get them to write you an order for physical therapy (so that your insurance will pay for it), then you go to all your sessions and do exactly as the physical therapist tells you to do.

Physical therapy helps for giving you exercises; however, they usually won’t work on it. So it depends on what you want exercises or massage. Both are important, see what is available in your community. Search for sport massage or structural integration. Usually when we have an injury in one area of our body another area that is not aligned is causing it.

When I went to physical therapy for tendinitis in my Achilles tendon, they massaged it, applied a hot pack and did a therapy that involved putting electrodes on the problem area for 15 minutes. Then there were exercises to do, which included using a stairmaster-like machine (where you sit instead of stand) and standing on the edge of a step on my toes and raising myself up and down. In addition, I had a number of exercises to do at home, all using a resistance band, like Thera-Band. Here’s a link for the type of exercises I did: http://www.thera-bandacademy.com/exercises/showroutine.asp?erID=137&cat=bodypart&id=11&valname=Ankle&t=2%3A25%3A22+PM I’m not sure if clicking the link will work, as I had to login to see that page. You might need to register first.

Hot and cold with ice and water in a bucket – 10 on, 10 off to reduce the swelling and after a workout or therapy. As for exercise, lots of stretching of both the achilles but also the whole leg, esp calf muscles. Specific exercise that work are leg raise from a flat floor, leg lowers (i.e. lower heel from level position) on a step, side to side (wiper blade) using a band, squats, jumps (when it get s a bit stronger, step up/down. I would avoid running or other high impact exercise for a while.

As almost everyone else has said, go to a professional, preferably your doctor or a sports doctor if possible. They will most likely refer you to a physical therapist. Follow the rehabilitation program to the tee or you will end up back where you are now or your injury will become far worse with possible longer term consequences.