Loading protocols for achilles tendinopathy.

We all know now that the smartest way out of a chronic tendinopathy is painfree, progressive loading. We, as many others have found, that isometrics serve the initial process well because there is no movement through a painful arc, the isometrics can help reduce the neurologic pain loop, and we can more easily find positions where there is no pain in the tendon. This allows us to load the affected tendon, without adding insult to the tendon portion that is injured. It them prepares us for the weeks to months of eccentric and concentric loading that is often necessary to restore function. Keep in mind that some of the literature indicates that some tendons never fully heal, but we replace things with a better functioning of the remaining competent tendon.

This study found that there was an improvement in pain and function as early as 2 weeks. You might find this interesting because on imaging tendon structure does not change within 2 weeks and muscular hypertrophy is not seen for at least 4 weeks following inception of a loading protocol (Murphy). Thus, we all need to continue our education and understanding of central pain mechanisms. Meaning, that these initial early changes, are in part, and maybe a huge part, are neurologic.

Sports Med. 2018 May 15. doi: 10.1007/s40279-018-0932-2. [Epub ahead of print]
Rate of Improvement of Pain and Function in Mid-Portion Achilles Tendinopathy with Loading Protocols: A Systematic Review and Longitudinal Meta-Analysis.
Murphy M1,2,3, Travers M4,5, Gibson W4, Chivers P6,7, Debenham J4, Docking S8, Rio E8,9.

When your calf is weak, things can dorsiflex too much sometimes.

When your calf is weak, things can dorsiflex too much sometimes. Maybe this is why you have Achilles tendinopathy. Maybe.

When we run, we either heel strike, midfoot strike, or forefoot strike. The literature is pretty clear on this now, that any one of them is not better than the other and there are many variables that need to be taken into consideration (even though many folks, who stopped reading the studies long after the barefoot craze began, will proclaim at the grave of their mother that rearfoot strike and anything but zero drop shoes are the root of all evil).

However, if you are a forefoot striker, the calf complex must be durable, strong and have enough endurance that when the foot strike occurs, that over time the complex does not allow the heel drop to become excessive or uncontrolled to the point that the achilles tendon proper exceeds its capacity to tolerate the drop, the stretch load capacity. It is more complex than this, because when the heel drops too much, too far, too fast and the arch is not durable enough, the metatarsals may dorsiflex too much and compromise the arch and stiffness of the midfoot, this can also have its complications. A weak calf can impact the rest of the foot. Remember, when the forefoot is engaged on the ground, and the heel drops in an uncontrolled fashion, we are increasing ankle dorsiflexion too, and this may not be welcomed during a stance phase of running where we are hoping for sufficient foot stiffness to load across it and propulse off of it.

This study showed that "analysis revealed that male recruits with lower plantar flexor strength and increased dorsiflexion excursion were at a greater risk of Achilles tendon overuse injury".

Intrinsic risk factors for the development of achilles tendon overuse injury: a prospective study.

Mahieu NN, et al. Am J Sports Med. 2006.

Chronic achilles tendonitis? Transferring a tendon ?

On occasion we understand extreme measures are necessary, some things just do not heal sometimes. But tendon transfers have always boggled our mind. We can see the value in someone of senior age who is not all that active anymore and won't express some of the more extreme side effects of a tendon transfer, and benefit more from the positive effects of the outcome.
But, this article outlines just a portion of the concerns we discuss with our clients who have had these types of issues proposed.
First of all, what is crazy to us, is that these were just chronic achilles cases. We wonder if these cases had undergone some similar work following Jill Cooks tendon reloading paradigm. One has to wonder if ever outlet was attempted, surgery should always be the last option.

But, if you are tendon transferring the FHL (long hallux flexor) or the FDL (long digit/toe flexors) to the achilles to piggyback load, there is gonna be changes in biomechanics obviously.
- the balance between long and short hallux flexors and extensors will be disrupted, possibly leading to windlass mechanism impairments, leading to 1st MTP joint impairment and thus toe off impairment. This could also create complications in hallux extenson (dorsiflexion) which we know can change the foot's arch dynamics.
- the balance between long and short toe flexors and extensors will be disrupted, possibly leading to hammer toes, swan neck deformities of the toes and thus impairment of the lumbricals and thus proper metatarsal loading at late stance phases of gait, there might be fat pad migration issues, gripping attempts for foot stability, more or less pronation-supination events etc. The possible lists are long and winding.

This study also mentioned some changes in "single leg heel rise test in the operated extremity, although there was significant difference when comparing operated and uninvolved sides. One patient reported weakness for plantar flexion of the lesser toes, without balance or gait disturbances."
There are going to be biomechanical changes, and knowing the normal mechanics and gait cycles will help you determine what the post-operative impairments mean, are, and what things you might do to help your client in terms of coming up with some new forced compensations to teach your client.
However, we say, exhaust all of your options. For these chronic achilles problems, safe, pain free, progressive isometric loading does really well for these cases. It just takes time and lots of work for the client. Progressive loading seems to be a huge key though.

Foot Ankle Surg. 2017 Dec 19. pii: S1268-7731(17)31364-4. doi: 10.1016/j.fas.2017.12.003. [Epub ahead of print]
Outcomes of flexor digitorum longus (FDL) tendon transfer in the treatment of Achilles tendon disorders.
de Cesar Netto C1, Chinanuvathana A2, Fonseca LFD2, Dein EJ3, Tan EW4, Schon LC2.

Podcast 109: A clinical case of a total knee replacement and achilles tendonopathy.

Great open clinical discussions today on things we see in the clinic. We start with a great case that opens up the dialogue, a case of a total knee replacement and achilles tendonitis.  Hope you will join us on this clinical journey today.

Interested in our store ? Want to buy some of our lectures or our National Shoe Fit program? Click here (thegaitguys.tumblr.com) and you will come to our blog. In the left tab, you will find tabs for STORE, SEMIANRS, BOOK etc. We also lecture every 3rd Wednesday of the month on onlineCE.com. We have an extensive catalogued library of our courses there, you can take them any time for a nominal fee (~$20). 

A. Podcast links:

http://traffic.libsyn.com/thegaitguys/pod_109f.mp3

http://thegaitguys.libsyn.com/podcast-109-a-clinical-case-of-a-total-knee-replacement-and-achilles-tendonopathy

B. iTunes link:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-gait-guys-podcast/id559864138

C. Gait Guys online /download store (National Shoe Fit Certification & more !)
http://store.payloadz.com/results/results.aspx?m=80204

D. other web based Gait Guys lectures:
Monthly lectures at : www.onlinece.com type in Dr. Waerlop or Dr. Allen, ”Biomechanics”

-Our Book: Pedographs and Gait Analysis and Clinical Case Studies
Electronic copies available here:

-Amazon/Kindle:
http://www.amazon.com/Pedographs-Gait-Analysis-Clinical-Studies-ebook/dp/B00AC18M3E

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-Hardcopy available from our publisher:
http://bookstore.trafford.com/Products/SKU-000155825/Pedographs-and-Gait-Analysis.aspx

Show Notes:

Loose dialogue  on Anterior pelvis tilt and training it out

https://www.t-nation.com/training/dont-be-like-donald-duck?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=article3173

Ivo put up 2 articles recently on “Why is your muscle tight” and “iliocapsularis” muscle.
Why training the upper body might help integrate arms into gait for sporthttp://thegaitguys.tumblr.com/post/141990433844/gait-and-climbing-and-dns-part-2-introducing

http://journals.lww.com/acsm-msse/Abstract/publishahead/Influence_of_Step_Rate_on_Shin_Injury_and_Anterior.97596.aspx
- cross over looked at ?- ankle rocker looked at ?  endurance of anteiror compt looked at ?

Achilles Tendonitis/Tendinopathy and Needling

Achilles pain. You can’t live with it and you can’t live with it. Can needling help? The obvious answer is yes, but there is more as well.

There appears to be sufficient data to support the use of needling for achilles tendon problems . Perhaps it is the “reorganization” of collagen that makes it effective or a blood flow/vascularization phenomenon. The mechanism probably has something to do with pain and the reticular formation sending information down the cord via the lateral cell column (intermediolateral cell nucleus) or pain (nociceptive) afferents sending a collateral in the spinal cord to the dysfunctional muscle, affecting the alpha receptors and causing vasodilation. 

Loss of ankle dorsiflexion is a common factor that seems to contribute to achilles tendinopathies . It would seem that improving ankle rocker would be most helpful. In at least one study, needling restored ankle function and in another it improved strength. 

And don’t forget to go north of the lower leg/foot/ankle complex. The gluteus medius can many times the culprit as well. During running, the gluteus medius usually fires before heel strike, most likely to stabilize the hip and the pelvis. In runners with Achilles Tendonitis, its firing is delayed which may affect the kinematics of knee and ankle resulting in rear foot inversion. Perhaps the delayed action of the gluteus medius allows an adductory moment of the pelvis, moving the center of gravity medially. This could conceivably place additional stress on the achilles tendon (via the lateral gastroc) to create more eversion of the foot from midstance onward.

Similarly, in runners with achilles tendoinopathy, the gluteus maximus does not fire as long and activation is delayed. The glute max should be the primary hip extensor and decreased hip extension might be compensated by an increased ankle plantarflexion which could potentially increase the load on the Achilles tendon. 

So, in short, yes, needling will probably help, for these reasons and probably many more. Make sure to needle all the dysfunctional muscles up the chain, beginning at the foot and moving rostrally.

Effectiveness of Acupuncture Therapies to Manage Musculoskeletal Disorders of the Extremities: A Systematic Review. Cox J, Varatharajan S, Côté P, Optima Collaboration. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther. 2016 Jun;46(6):409-29. doi: 10.2519/jospt.2016.6270. Epub 2016 Apr 26

Acupuncture’s role in tendinopathy: new possibilities. Speed C. Acupunct Med. 2015 Feb;33(1):7-8. doi: 10.1136/acupmed-2014-010746. Epub 2015 Jan 9.

The effect of electroacupuncture on tendon repair in a rat Achilles tendon rupture model.  Inoue M, Nakajima M, Oi Y, Hojo T, Itoi M, Kitakoji H. Acupunct Med. 2015 Feb;33(1):58-64. doi: 10.1136/acupmed-2014-010611. Epub 2014 Oct 21.

KIishmishian B, Selfe J, Richards J A Historical Review of Acupuncture to the Achilles Tendon and the development of a standardized protocol for its use Journal of the Acupuncture Association of Chartered Physiotherpists Spring 2012,  69-78

Acupuncture for chronic Achilles tendnopathy: a randomized controlled study. Zhang BM1, Zhong LW, Xu SW, Jiang HR, Shen J. Chin J Integr Med. 2013 Dec;19(12):900-4. doi: 10.1007/s11655-012-1218-4. Epub 2012 Dec 21.

The effect of dry needling and treadmill running on inducing pathological changes in rat Achilles tendon. Kim BS, Joo YC, Choi BH, Kim KH, Kang JS, Park SR. Connect Tissue Res. 2015 Nov;56(6):452-60. doi: 10.3109/03008207.2015.1052876. Epub 2015 Jul 29.

Tendon needling for treatment of tendinopathy: A systematic review.
Krey D, Borchers J, McCamey K. Phys Sportsmed. 2015 Feb;43(1):80-6. doi: 10.1080/00913847.2015.1004296. Epub 2015 Jan 22. Review.

Acupuncture increases the diameter and reorganisation of collagen fibrils during rat tendonhealing.
de Almeida Mdos S, de Freitas KM, Oliveira LP, Vieira CP, Guerra Fda R, Dolder MA, Pimentel ER. Acupunct Med. 2015 Feb;33(1):51-7. doi: 10.1136/acupmed-2014-010548. Epub 2014 Aug 19.

Electroacupuncture increases the concentration and organization of collagen in a tendon healing model in rats.
de Almeida Mdos S, de Aro AA, Guerra Fda R, Vieira CP, de Campos Vidal B, Rosa Pimentel E. Connect Tissue Res. 2012;53(6):542-7. doi: 10.3109/03008207.2012.710671. Epub 2012 Aug 14.

Changes in blood circulation of the contralateral Achilles tendon during and after acupunctureand heating.Kubo K, Yajima H, Takayama M, Ikebukuro T, Mizoguchi H, Takakura N. Int J Sports Med. 2011 Oct;32(10):807-13. doi: 10.1055/s-0031-1277213. Epub 2011 May 26.

Microcirculatory effects of acupuncture and hyperthermia on Achilles tendon microcirculation. Kraemer R, Vogt PM, Knobloch K.
Eur J Appl Physiol. 2010 Jul;109(5):1007-8. doi: 10.1007/s00421-010-1442-6. Epub 2010 Mar 28.

Effects of acupuncture and heating on blood volume and oxygen saturation of human Achilles tendon in vivo. Kubo K, Yajima H, Takayama M, Ikebukuro T, Mizoguchi H, Takakura N. Eur J Appl Physiol. 2010 Jun;109(3):545-50. doi: 10.1007/s00421-010-1368-z. Epub 2010 Feb 6.

 Insertional achilles tendinopathy associated with altered transverse compressive and axial tensile strain during ankle dorsiflexion. Chimenti RL, Bucklin M, Kelly M, Ketz J, Flemister AS, Richards MS, Buckley MR.
J Orthop Res. 2016 Jun 16. doi: 10.1002/jor.23338. [Epub ahead of print]

Forefoot and rearfoot contributions to the lunge position in individuals with and without insertionalAchilles tendinopathy. Chimenti RL, Forenza A, Previte E, Tome J, Nawoczenski DA.Clin Biomech (Bristol, Avon). 2016 Jul;36:40-5. doi: 10.1016/j.clinbiomech.2016.05.007. Epub 2016 May 11.

Ankle Power and Endurance Outcomes Following Isolated Gastrocnemius Recession for AchillesTendinopathy. Nawoczenski DA, DiLiberto FE, Cantor MS, Tome JM, DiGiovanni BF. Foot Ankle Int. 2016 Mar 17. pii: 1071100716638128. [Epub ahead of print]

 In vivo quantification of the shear modulus of the human Achilles tendon during passive loading using shear wave dispersion analysis.
Helfenstein-Didier C, Andrade RJ, Brum J, Hug F, Tanter M, Nordez A, Gennisson JL. Phys Med Biol. 2016 Mar 21;61(6):2485-96. doi: 10.1088/0031-9155/61/6/2485. Epub 2016 Mar 7.

Changes of gait parameters and lower limb dynamics in recreational runners with achillestendinopathy. Kim S, Yu J. J Sports Sci Med. 2015 May 8;14(2):284-9. eCollection 2015 Jun.

Gastrocnemius recession for foot and ankle conditions in adults: Evidence-based recommendations. Cychosz CC, Phisitkul P, Belatti DA, Glazebrook MA, DiGiovanni CW. Foot Ankle Surg. 2015 Jun;21(2):77-85. doi: 10.1016/j.fas.2015.02.001. Epub 2015 Feb 26. Review.

Limited ankle dorsiflexion increases the risk for mid-portion Achilles tendinopathy in infantry recruits: a prospective cohort study. Rabin A, Kozol Z, Finestone AS. J Foot Ankle Res. 2014 Nov 18;7(1):48. doi: 10.1186/s13047-014-0048-3. eCollection 2014.

Perry J. Gait Analysis: Normal and Pathological Function. Thorofare, NJ: Slack 1992.

Chan YY, Mok KM, Yung PSh, Chan KM. Sports Med Arthrosc Rehabil Ther Technol. 2009 Jul 30;1:14. doi: 10.1186/1758-2555-1-14.

Bilateral effects of 6 weeks’ unilateral acupuncture and electroacupuncture on ankle dorsiflexors muscle strength: a pilot study. Zhou S, Huang LP, Liu J, Yu JH, Tian Q, Cao LJ. Arch Phys Med Rehabil. 2012 Jan;93(1):50-5. doi: 10.1016/j.apmr.2011.08.010. Epub 2011 Nov 8.

Franettovich Smith MM1, Honeywill C, Wyndow N, Crossley KM, Creaby MW. : Neuromotor control of gluteal muscles in runners with achilles tendinopathy.
Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2014 Mar;46(3):594-9.

Forefoot strike running: Do you have enough calf muscle endurance to do it without a cost ?

Below you will find an article on footwear and running. Rice et al concluded that 

“ When running in a standard shoe, peak resultant and component instantaneous loadrates were similar between footstrike patterns. However, loadrates were lower when running in minimal shoes with a FFS (forefoot strike), compared with running in standard shoes with either foot strike. Therefore, it appears that footwear alters the loadrates during running, even with similar foot strike patterns.

They concluded that footwear alters the load rates during running. No brain surgery here. But that is not the point I want to discuss today. Foot strike matters. Shoes matter. And pairing the foot type and your strike patterns of mental choice, or out of natural choice, is critical. For example, you are not likely (hopefully) to choose a HOKA shoe if you are a forefoot striker. The problem is, novice runners are not likely to have a clue about this, especially if they are fashonistas about their reasoning behind shoe purchases. Most serious runners do not care about the look/color of the shoe. This is serious business to them and they know it is just a 2-3 months in the shoe, depending on their mileage. But, pairing the foot type, foot strike pattern and shoe anatomy is a bit of a science and an art. I will just mention our National Shoe Fit Certification program here if you want to get deeper into that science and art. (Beware, this is not a course for the feint of heart.)

However, I just wanted to approach a theoretical topic today, playing off of the “Forefoot strike” methodology mentioned in the article today.  I see this often in my practice, I know Ivo does as well. The issue can be one of insufficient endurance and top end strength (top end ankle plantar flexion) of the posterior mechanism, the gastrocsoleus-achilles complex. If your calf complex starts to fatigue and you are forefoot striker, the heel will begin to drop, and sometimes abruptly right after forefoot load. The posterior compartment is a great spring loading mechanism and can be used effectively in many runners, the question is, if you fatigue your’s beyond what is safe and effective are you going to pay a price ? This heel drop can put a sudden unexpected and possibly excessive load into the posterior compartment and achilles. This act will move you into more relative dorsiflexion, this will also likely start abrupt loading the calf-achilles eccentrically. IF you have not trained this compartment for eccentric loads, your achilles may begin to call you out angrily. Can you control the heel decent sufficiently to use the stored energy efficiently and effectively? Or will you be a casualty?  This drop if uncontrolled or excessive may also start to cause some heel counter slippage at the back of the shoe, friction is never a good thing between skin and shoe. This may cause some insertional tendonitis or achilles proper hypertrophy or adaptive thickening. This may cause some knee extension when the knee should not be extending. This may cause some pelvis drop, a lateral foot weight bear shift and supination tendencies, some patellofemoral compression, anterior meniscofemoral compression/impingement, altered arm swing etc.  You catch my drift. Simply put, an endurance challenged posterior compartment, one that may not express its problem until the latter miles, is something to be aware of. 

Imagine being a forefoot striker and 6 miles into a run your calf starts to fatigue. That forefoot strike now becomes a potential liability. We like, when possible, a mid foot strike. This avoids heel strike, avoids the problems above, and is still a highly effective running strike pattern. Think about this, if you are a forefoot striker and yet you still feel your heel touch down each step after the forefoot load, you may be experiencing some of the things I mentioned above on a low level. And, you momentarily moved backwards when you are trying to run forwards. Why not just make a subtle change towards mid foot strike, when that heel touches down after your forefoot strike, you are essentially there anyways. Think about it.

Shawn Allen, one of The Gait Guys

Footwear Matters: Influence of Footwear and Foot Strike on Loadrates During Running. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise:
Rice, Hannah M.; Jamison, Steve T.; Davis, Irene S.

http://journals.lww.com/acsm-msse/Abstract/publishahead/Footwear_Matters___Influence_of_Footwear_and_Foot.97456.aspx

This is apparently a growing thing, INTERVAL walking. Oy. We are not particular fans at this point, nothing exciting or earth shattering at this point (other than the concerns we hi light below) but we will look into it more.
What you need to see, and be aware of, is that this is what happens when you wear a shoe that has too soft a rear foot. At heel strike, instead of progressing forward into the mid and forefoot, the rear foot of the shoe deforms and forces you into more HEEL rocker, sustained heel rocker. If you stay in heel rocker too long, you won’t progress forward into ANKLE rocker (ankle dorsiflexion). This often causes knee hyperextension. If you have a good trained eye, you will see both of these things, prolonged heel rocker and never any ankle rocker/ankle dorsiflexion. IT is like the ankle in this video is frozen at 90 degrees the entire time, train your eye to see this absense of ankle rocker. This will cause premature heel rise and premature posterior compartment contraction which can cause premature forefoot loading. This is what happens when the heel of the shoe is too soft. A perfect example of “more cushion” is not always better. IT can be a liability as well. Remember the angry revolution over the MBT shoe and its mushy rear foot?. Same principle, same risks and concerns. Welcome to round two of the same old problems ????? Maybe. you decide. To be clear, this is a comment on the shoes being used, the technique is , well, perhaps interesting. That is all we are willing to comment on at this point until we look into it more. Look at the heel and ankle mechanics during the slow mo clips.
Sorry Ben Greenfield. We are not impressed, as of yet. We like your podcast Ben, you are doing us all a great service, but this one is promoting some potential problems that people need to know about.
Start with our “Shuffle Walk”. Google search it under the Gait Guys. That is a good start.

- Dr. Allen

Calf strength screen?  Um, maybe not. Specifics matter.
Thanks to barbellphysio.com for putting this up. We would like to take this deeper, because it is very important.
This screen in our strong opinion is mostly for testing sub optimal endurance, sure there is some strength assessment going on but if you are trying to determine strength, is it single rep strength ? Very likely what he truly meant is how does the calf strength hold up at a 20 rep endurance challenge.  This is more accurate and we are fussing about specifics here, but specifics matter.
*However, the potentially BIG HOLE here in the assessment, is that “perceived” top end calf/heel raise ROM is not necessarily top end FULL ROM. If one side is truly weak, and you cannot get to top end strength (say the heel is 10% lower than the other side) someone has to be there to assess and notice that top end strength failure (a top end ROM that could reduce as endurance challenge continues, but someone has to be there to observe. Going on just “feel” alone is a bad recipe there). One like is not going to feel that top end range loss even if it is large, you will perceive the effort which could feel the same as the good side but actually be a loss.  And is 20 reps enough? Sure, it is a start but is your test really telling you what you think it is telling you ? This is being shown as a gross screen in our opinion but it has holes even as a screen.  Top end strength, something we talk about here often, is critical to performance. Top end loss means  terminal plantarflexion ROM is insufficient, and this can lead to a whole host of injuries and biomechanical flaws including achilles tendonopathy to mention just one. Remember, the gastroc does  not play alone here (and gastrocs crosses the knee joint posteriorly, some of the other posterior compartment muscles do not). There is soleus, peronei, tib posterior, long flexors etc. So are you doing your test with bent knee or locked ? It makes a difference if you are trying to tease things out.  Are you ramming your toes into flexion to get more out of them to make up for a loss elsewhere ? Is the forefoot or rearfoot inverting or everting  on the up or down phase ? These things matter. Specifics matter.  For example, you can see in this video that the hip is a little lateral to the foot placement. This will mean that the heel rise will result in a lateral forefoot weight bearing load. Do you want to see if the peronei are doing their job during the heel rise ? Well then you should go into a hip hike to posture the hip over the foot so that you can get the weight bearing transition to occur terminally over to the big toe, the peronei and lateral gastroc help drive that last little shift and if they are weak and you are not driving that last piece of the movement the test may not show you the whole picture you are thinking it is. Clue, if you cannot feel the lateral compartment contract to finalize that medial foot weight bearing load shift, you may be weak there. You better assess then.

Can you do 20 reps at 80% of the full plantarflexion ROM or can you do 20 reps at 100% full plantarflexion ROM ? There is a performance difference, and to the client unobserved, the 80% on one side may feel and perform like the 100% on the other side. But make no mistake, there is a world of difference.  Someone has to  watch that you are comparing apple to apples, and not apples to figs, oranges, turnips or squash.
-Dr.Shawn Allen, the gait guys

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=55&v=QdWiXHsI8Q8

Journal of Foot and Ankle Research | Full text | Insertional Achilles tendinopathy is associated with arthritic changes of the posterior calcaneal cartilage: a retrospective study→

Chronic achilles-problem clients, slow or non-responders ?
This study suggested that , “Degenerative arthritic changes of the posterior calcaneal wall cartilage characterize patients with IAT (insertional achilles tendonotpathy) and the severity of such changes is directly correlated to the degree of functional impairment.”
Read up… . .

Achilles Tendonitis

The motion needs to occur somewhere…Make sure you look at the whole picture

Since the knee was bent, perhaps we should be looking at the soleus? And the talo crural articulation?

“A more limited ankle Dorsi Flexion Range Of Motion as measured in Non Weight Bearing with the knee bent increases the risk of developing Achilles Tendonitis among military recruits taking part in intensive physical training.”

J Foot Ankle Res. 2014 Nov 18;7(1):48. doi: 10.1186/s13047-014-0048-3. eCollection 2014.
Limited ankle dorsiflexion increases the risk for mid-portion Achilles tendinopathy in infantry recruits: a prospective cohort study.
Rabin A1, Kozol Z1, Finestone AS2.

The mighty Gluteus Medius, in all its glory!

Perhaps the delayed action of the gluteus medius allows an adductory moment of the pelvis, moving the center of gravity medially. This could conceivably place additional stress on the achilles tendon  (via the lateral gastroc) to create more eversion of the foot from midstance on

“The results of the study demonstrate altered neuromuscular control of the GMED and GMED in runners with Achilles Tendonitis. During running, GMED typically activates before heel strike so as to stabilize the hip and the pelvis. In runners with Achilles Tendonitis, GMED is activated with a delay, which consequently might affect the kinematics of knee and ankle resulting in rear foot inversion. Similarly, GMAX is activated with a delay and for a shorter duration in runners with Achilles Tendonitis. GMAX is the primary hip extensor and via a kinetic chain, a decreased hip extension moment might be compensated by an increased ankle plantarflexion moment which could potentially increase the load on the Achilles tendon.”

Franettovich Smith MM1, Honeywill C, Wyndow N, Crossley KM, Creaby MW. : Neuromotor control of gluteal muscles in runners with achilles tendinopathy.
Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2014 Mar;46(3):594-9.

Medial or lateral ankle swelling. Not a unicorn, but perhaps close. 

Photo: note the enlargement of the soft tissue in the left medial achilles area.

Many times over the last 5 years we have written about the concept that you have to know something exists to even make it a clinical consideration when trying to troubleshoot a clients pain or problem. Without knowing something even exists, you will move onto another diagnostic assumption and perhaps be treating the wrong problem.  This is a big problem in medicine because there is no way any of us knows everything. But this is why we all read, we study, we ask questions and we learn from our mistakes and depend on lateral and higher pay-grade referrals.  

Look at the photos above. Do you or your client have a posterior mass or swelling along side the achilles, medially or laterally ? Are you a rare bipedal mammal or do you have a lipoma, hemagioma or even sarcoma ?  Perhaps it is a swollen achilles ? Are there nodular densities in the achilles tendon proper that might suggest micro tears ? Are the regional busae swollen ? Those are all logical first steps, but maybe it is just a rarity, a more common unicorn of lower limb anomalies (10% incidence), the “accessory soleus”.

When an accessory soleus muscle is present a soft-tissue mass appears bulging medially between the distal part of the tibia and the Achilles tendon. This apparent “swelling”, may be entirely symptom free because it is merely an anatomic variant.  However, variants can become a problem when they impair stability or mobility or when they become irritated because of the same issues elsewhere.  This muscle has its own individual tendon slip onto the calcaneus anteromedial to the Achilles insertion.  This entity is not always painful or symptomatic but it can be expressive during exercise in some clients.  When they present clinically symptomatic one must rule out pathomechanics of the foot, ankle or lower kinetic chain.  The appearance of the assessory soleus is easily diagnostic on CT and MRI imaging. Some sources recommend fasciotomy or excision of the accessory muscle, clearly radical initial measures, but most of the time they can be quieted by resolving the pathomechanics that have allowed this previously quite clinical entity to become symptomatic. If the problem is just recently symptomatic, it is likely not the problem, rather the environment (workout changes, shoe changes, tissue length-tension relationship changes, mobility or stability changes etc) has changed and put a demand on the area and created once quiet tissues to complain.

First one must rule out the nasties, as we eluded to earlier (lipoma, hemagioma, synovial sarcoma etc) and then rule out the complainers (busae, tendonopathies etc) and then look at mobility and stability deficits/challenges. Once all of the more likely suspects have been ruled out, it is time for considering unicorns.

Here are some thoughts. On heel rise does the soft tissue mass become firm as in a muscular contraction would become firm ? After all, it is a soleus component and can act as an ankle plantarflexor of the ankle. Or it is merely firm on forced dorsiflexion because the achilles is drawn firm and tight against the posterior tibia thus medially displacing the soft tissue into a smaller more compacted area? Is the area painful on running ? Jumping? Starts and stops ? Only painful during rest, going up stairs, down stairs, only biking, swimming ? One can see that an understanding the mechanics of an area and how to challenge that area to your diagnostic advantage can help you tease out many of the considerations above.  In this day and age, we always have imaging to fall back on, but remember, imaging is a static picture in a moment of time in an unloaded unfunctional posturing. You will treat your client and their problem, not the imaging. If they in fact do turn out to have an accessory soleus that is inflamed on imaging, you still have to figure out why it has suddenly become cranky and painful. The bottom line is that many people with a painful accessory soleus are coming to you because something they have done, or are doing, or are  compensating around is causing a change in mechanics that is bothering the tissue.  This is where your knowledge of the kinetic chain and foot types, shoe types (see our National Shoe Fit program review here) and gait biomechanics can be invaluable.  Figuring out these issues should be your first line of intervention, and then confirmation on imaging can truly be valuable. 

The accessory soleus, is a more common entity in primates. Is this further proof we used to have tails and swing from trees ? Maybe not, but it is still fun to think about though. 

Shawn and Ivo, the gait guys

The Bouncy Gait: Premature heel rise gait. Taking another look.

This is a great video example of a premature heel rise during gait. You should be able to clearly see it on the left foot (and this was toned down after we brought it to his awareness!).  The heel rise occurs early in the stance phase of gait, instead of the late stance phase.

We have talked about this bouncy type vertically oriented gait many times in blog posts and in our podcasts.  This is a pretty prevalent problem in the world, mostly because so many people have impaired ankle rocker/dorsiflexion from weak anterior compartments and short/tight posterior compartments.  None the less, for the majority, this is a pathologic gait pattern and it will impart undue stress into the posterior mechanism (calf-achilles complex). Just think about it, this person is going vertical at or prior to the tibia achieving 90degrees (perpendicular to the ground) instead of continuing to progress the tibia to 110+ degrees to enable normal timely pronation and foot biomechanical events.  This is not a normal gait. Period. This will change the function of the entire posterior chain upward. 

If you want to see another great example  from the frontal plane, check out this cute video representation of a vertial/premature heel rise bouncy gait. 

This gait style is caused by a premature heel rise from joint range limitation and/or from premature engagement of the gastrosoleus (and sometimes even the long toe flexors, you will see them hammering and curled in many folks). It can be a learned habitual pattern and nothing more, we have even seen it even in child-parental gait modeling in our offices. These people will never get to NORMAL full late-midstance of gait (without biomechanical compromise) and thus never achieve full hip extension nor adequate ankle dorsiflexion / ankle rocker. The gait cycle is an orchestrated symphony of timely events and when one or several timely events are omitted or impaired the mechanics are passed into other areas for compensation. This vertical gait style is very inefficient in that the gluteals cannot adequately power into hip extension into a forward progression drive, because the calf is prematurely generating vertical movement through ankle plantarflexion.  This strategy is sometimes deployed because the person actually is significantly ankle dorsiflexion (ankle rocker) deficient.  Meaning, they hit the limitations of dorisflexion and in order to progress forward they first have to go vertical.  This vertical motion, because they are moving into ankle plantarflexion, re-buys more ankle dorsiflexion range which then can be used if they so choose. Obviously, the remedy is to find the functional deficit, remove it and retrain the pattern.  There are a whole host of other problems that go with this compensation pattern but we wanted our mission to stay focused today.  Remember, this is usually a subconscious motor pattern compensation. Is it like the toe walking issue we talked about last week (post link here) ? It is similar in some ways and can have primitive and postural motor pattern implications. We will follow up the “Idiopathy Toe Walking Gait: Part 2” shortly but we wanted to strategically put this blog post ahead of it, because there are similar characteristics and implications. Trust us, there is a method to our madness :)

Shawn and Ivo

The Gait Guys

The Abductor Heel Twist: Look carefully, it is here in this video.

This should be a simple “piece it together” video case study for you all by this point. This young lad came into our office with left insertional achilles pain of two weeks duration after starting some middle distance running.

What do you see here ? It is evident on both the right and the left, but it is a little more obvious on the left and can be seen on the left when he is walking back toward the camera as well.  You should see rearfoot eversion, it is excessive, and a small rearfoot adductor twist. Meaning, the heel pivots medially towards the midline of his body.  Some sources (Michaud) call this an Abductory Twist, but the reference there is typically the forefoot.  Regardless, to help our patients, we sometimes refer to this is “cigarette butt” foot. It is like stepping on a lit cigarette to put it out via twisting/grinding it into the ground. 

So, now that you can see this, what causes it? 

The answer is broad but in this case he had a loss of ankle dorsiflexion range.  The ankle mortise clearly did not have enough of ankle rocker range during midstance so as that limitation was met, the heel raised up prematurely during the moments when the opposite leg is in full swing imparting an external rotation on the stance limb (hence the external foot spin (adducting heel/abducting foot……depending on your visual reference)). There is a bit more to it than that, but that will suffice for now because it is not the central focus of our lesson today.

What can cause this ? As we said, a broad range of things:

• hallux limitus
• flexion contracture of the knee (swelling, pain, joint replacement etc)
• short calf-achilles complex
• weak tib anterior and extensor toe muscles
• Foot Baller’s ankle
• limited/impaired hip extension
• weak glute (minimizing hip extension range)
• sway back (lower crossed syndrome-type biomechanics)
• short quadriceps (similarly impairing hip extension)
• flip flop excessive use (or any other motor strategy that imparts more flexor compartment dominance (read: calf-achilles, FDL)
• excessive pronation
• impaired foot tripod mechanics
• etc

The point is that anything impairing TIMELY (the key word is timely) forward sagittal gait mechanics can, and very likely will, impair ankle rocker.  Even the wrong shoe choice can do this (ie. someone who suddenly drops from a 12 mm heel ramped shoe into a 0-4mm ramped heel shoe and who thus may not have earned the length of the calf-achilles complex as of yet).

The abductor-adductor twist phenomenon is not a normal visual gait observation. It is a softly seen, but screaming loud, pathologic gait motor pattern that must be recognized.  But, more importantly, the source of the problem must be found, confirmed and resolved.  In this fella’s case, he has some weakness of the tib anterior and extensor toe muscles that has lead to compensatory tightness of the calf complex. There was no impairment of the glutes or hip extension, as this was just 2 weeks old or so, but if left unaddressed much longer the CNS would have likely begun to dump out of hip extension and gluteal function to protect……another compensation pattern. Remember, ankle rocker and hip extension have a close eye on each other during gait.

Clinical pearl for the true gait geeks…… if you see someone with a vertically bouncy forefoot-type gait (you know, those people that bounce up and down the hallway at work or school) you can usually suspect impaired ankle rocker and if you look closely, you will usually see a quick abductor-adductor twist.

Shawn and Ivo

the gait guys

Podcast #24: Chronic achilles issues, beer recovery drink and case studies.

podcast link: http://thegaitguys.libsyn.com/pod-24-the-chronic-achilles-beer-cases

iTunes link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-gait-guys-podcast/id559864138

Show notes:

Gait Guys online store:

http://store.payloadz.com/results/results.aspx?m=80204

Today’s show notes:

1. J Trauma Acute Care Surg. 2013 Mar;74(3):946-7. doi: 10.1097/TA.0b013e31828272ad.
Achilles’ death: Anatomical considerations regarding the most famous trauma of the Trojan War.
2. J Foot Ankle Surg. 2001 May-Jun;40(3):132-6.Saxena A, Bareither D.

Magnetic resonance and cadaveric findings of the “watershed band” of the achilles tendon.
3. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/02/130212112019.htm


Fallout from Nuclear Testing Shows That the Achilles Tendon Can’t Heal Itself
4. K. M. Heinemeier, P. Schjerling, J. Heinemeier, S. P. Magnusson, M. Kjaer. Lack of tissue renewal in human adult Achilles tendon is revealed by nuclear bomb 14C. The FASEB Journal, 2013; DOI: 10.1096/fj.12-225599

5.  http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/feb/10/scientists-suggest-beer-after-workout/#.USRSIq-QMnw.facebook

Scientists suggest beer after a workout
6. Sports Biomech. 2012 Nov;11(4):464-72.

Step width alters iliotibial band strain during running.
7. _http://skorarunning.com/confessions-of-an-overpronator

Over-Pronation

8. http://www.championseverywhere.com/why-gait-analysis-doesnt-work-future-of-the-shoe-industry

Why gait analysis doesn’t work (future of the shoe industry