Hi guys, I have had the injury for a time now and it comes and goes. I wonder what do you guys use when playing. I try to play when my pain subsides but I heard people play with all sorts of support. Wonder which is the most effective method: Compression sock - Tried this before and it was effective in eliminating pain but after one session recently where I didn't do much warm up, I developed pain in my tendon. Tape around your ankles - Not tried this ylet. Heel raiser inserts in your shoes - This I tried yesterday in a gaming session and didn't felt more pain after the session.
With any long term injury, See a professional first. Be it a GP, physiotherapist or something else. Now for the chatty part. Where exactly does it hurt? At the back of the heel? Somewhere up the back of your leg leading up to your knee? If it happened to me, I would examine what I was doing leading up to the injury (find the cause) and figure out if I did movements incorrectly (or in a way to cause the injury). It could be something like too much jumping, landing in the wrong order or maybe lunging with poor form "going over your knee". - You've already identified that you didn't do much of a warm up. In future make sure to warm up either before you get to the courts or before you play. A small jog, a jog with "high knees", a jog where you kick your bum is usually enough for junior players to warm up. You could do running, moving around court(s) along the lines with sidesteps / lunging and specifically for Achilles you could stand on a wooden bench and slowly lower your body off of it (toes still on the bench). And make sure you have appropriate footwear. There is a lot of dynamic and fast movement and changing direction in badminton. Protect yourself
Active stretching before you play and static stretching when finished will help. Don’t be lazy if you want to carry on playing and prevent further injury. I’ve seen others that have totally stopped playing due to Achilles pain and they don’t even move half as much as I do on the court . https://www.ouh.nhs.uk/patient-guide/leaflets/files/11924Ptendinopathy.pdf Read the above article and make sure to try out the eccentric exercises. Also, from a Chinese medicine point of view and I believe this has helped me the most, is introducing better blood flow to the area that is causing you pain. Although the Achilles isn’t a muscle, massaging the areas around it will help rehabilitation as the body is very good at repairing itself especially if you can give it a helping hand. I had severe Achilles pain for over a year but it never stopped me playing even if I struggled to walk after playing a 2hr session I did hold back from playing singles whenever the pain got severe but luckily I’ve learnt how to manage my aches and pains. My Achilles doesn’t give me grief anymore but I do a lot of lower leg stretches every night as well as working the calves with a small massage gun.
Definitely recommend seeing a sports physiotherapist. You can also strongly consider a podiatrist as some feet issues might not be recognised by a physiotherapist (judging from personal experience) There can be all sorts of muscles imbalances or poor running/walking technique that can cause these problems. it might be something related to your occupation - for example, a lot of people get problems because they sit at a desk for too long. Try to discover if there are more fundamental problems predisposing you to these pains.
Thanks guys for your comments. My footwear is fine but I think it's my age (55) may be a contributing factor, combined for not warming up properly. I had a Achilles rupture 11 years ago in my right ankle (during a Badminton session) and then the pain had started on my left ankle, though there's no rupture yet but the pain is bothering and stopping me playing. I had seen a physio long time ago and he gave some exercises to do but it never went away. NHS Physios tend to just prescribe exercises and nothing else.
Maybe see a better physio. Good physios will examine the route cause, give you exercises or lifestyle advice, recommend supports or gadgets and keep seeing you until you are healed. If you truthfully do exercises they give you (i'm bad at this!) and at the quantity they recommend and they don't work. Then they should recommend different ones to you. At least, that has been my experience when seeing a great physio for my elbow.
Definitely need to be fastidious with doing stretching and foam rolling the calves before and after exercise. Sent from my SM-S918W using Tapatalk
Hello, Age might be a big limiting factor here as I have been told by a few colleagues of mine. I would suggest a break from badminton and focus on recovery because playing under constant fear of worsening the injury would take away all the fun from games. Easier said than done (I know). Stretches, massages, short wave ultrasound therapy (physiotherapy) etc gives great results for such injuries. Cheers. P.S :- I have seen a few senior players who still play very zealously and then a few who will always play at 70% max & avoid over-exertion with a strict warm-up & cooldown routine.
