Achilles Tendonitis Symptoms

Achilles Tendonitis Symptoms essentially consist of variations of tightness and pain.

If you have symptoms of Achilles Tendonitis, you already know what they are. They are all variations on "It hurts to sit, stand, walk, or run."

What you -really- want to know is WHAT IS CAUSING those symptoms. It may seem like they show up out of the blue, but I promise you....they don't just show up for no reason.

There are MANY reasons for your Achilles tendon and lower leg pain and problem.

Achilles Tendonitis
Symptoms Explained

Achilles Tendonitis Symptoms can be mild and nagging or entirely debilitating.

Try running a marthon with BAD tendonitis of the Achilles tendon...good luck with that.

Every aspect of any symptom of Achilles Tendonitis happens for a SPECIF REASON, or set of reasons.

-- Watch This Video About AT Symptoms Having Specific Causes, Then Read The Rest Of The Page Below --

The Symptoms of Achilles Tendonitis are:

* Ache and/or pain in the Achilles tendon under the calf muscles, anywhere along the tendon that attaches to the heel bone and to the Gastrocnemius muscles.

That Achilles tendon also attaches to the Soleus muscle, btw

If the tendon itself hurts, it hurts for one or more of the following reasons:

1. Actual wear and tear injury build up. That's 'true' Tendonitis.

See:  What Is Tendonitis?

2. Bigger rip or tear in the tendon technically doesn't qualify as Tendonitis (though every factor of tendonitis is still involved).

See: Achilles Tendon Rupture

3. No injury at all, just irritation. Pull on your finger gently for 6 months. I will absolutely start to hurt, even though there's no actual injury. All the chronic over-tension on the Achilles tendon irritates it.

And we've been conditioned to believe that pain equals injury. It does not.

4. Pain Enhancing Chemical from the Process of Inflammation causes pain regardless of injury being present or not.

* Sharp and/or shooting pain in the same area as above.

Sharp and shooting pain comes primarily from two directions:

1. Muscle spasm. It doesn't feel like a cramp to you, because it's just a few muscle fibers firing in panic. But it essentially is a cramp, a sudden contraction of muscle fibers.  This sends a pain signal.
2. TOO TIGHT connective tissue structures pull on their connections (and surrounding tissue), causing a report of danger to fire off to the brain.  This causes the brain to fire a pain signal to try to keep you from injuring yourself.

* Numbness and/or tingling.

Numbness and/or tingling isn't usually associated with Achilles Tendonitis, but it certainly can be if things get too tight. Numbness comes from tight structures compressing nerve. Like stepping on a hose.

Numbness/tingling can also come from nutritional deficiency.

See:  Inflammation Causes Vitamin B6 Deficiency

* You originally started with some ache or pain, you ignored it, it came and went and got worse and now it won't go away and it's limiting your activity.

That's the Pain Causing Dynamic at work.  Predictably.  Every time.  Understand the pain causing dynamic, and you'll understand why things over time get worse and worse (or at least, never get better).

* Achilles Tendon Thickening and/or Growing Lump of Scar Tissue

If there is too much torque on the tendon, the brain will tell it to get stronger. Thus a tendon will thicken so it can do it's job better (although it doesn't, unfortunately, because of the reason it's getting too much load in the first place).

Thickening could also be from inflammation, as the tendon literally swells. Not ideal.

If there's a growing 'lump' on the tendon, that's probably scar tissue. When you get microscopic rip and tear wear and tear on the tendon, the body orders new scar tissue to lay down to heal it.

Long story short, left to it's own devices it heals back weaker than it was before, so it rips again, and more scar tissue fibers lay down....repeat.

* Redness on the skin and/or swelling from Inflammation.

One of the functions of Inflammation is that it traps fluid in the area. The redness is extra blood on the area, and the swelling is because the lymphatic return system has been turned off or dialed down.

* Stiffness in the effected area when getting out of bed in the morning.

When you wake up/get out of bed in the morning, your body is metabolically at it's coldest and least flexible/malleable/moveable.

Walking around gets blood flow to the area, warming up the tissue, and, kind of like squeezing a hard sponge under water, softening up the tissue.

* Severe Pain when being active (or when at rest).

Severe pain is due to a combination of muscles firing as hard as they can, tension on connective tissue triggering pain signals, Pain Enhancing Chemical setting your nerve-endings on edge, etc.

The worse the pain is, the more those factors are at play, and getting worse.

Achilles Tendonitis symptoms are nothing more than the predictable results of various physical mechanisms in the body working together to create pain.

* Pain Elsewhere In The Body.

Walking/running/jumping/standing all requires use of the Achilles lower leg structures. When they're not working right, there's a functional strength problem.  

When muscles aren't working optimally, they're not absorbing as much force as they should, and that force has to go somewhere.

It can cause knee problems, and SI joint pain, and a whole host of other issues.

The load/force the lower leg doesn't absorb transfers up the let. Thus there's knee tendonitis problems, Meniscus injury, tight hips and hip tendonitis, and low back pain and disc problems (Tendonitis Lower Back)

* Bone Spurs, Heel Spurs, and Haglund's Deformity

Bone Spur formation is a possible symptom of Achilles Tendonitis.

See:  Heel Spur Symptoms

Why do bone spurs form with Achilles Tendonitis?  

In short, constantly tight muscles constantlypull on the tendons which attach to bone. The constant tension on the bone causes the body to grow -more- bone to attempt to create a 'stronger' attachment to withstand that constant pulling.

Achilles Tendonitis Symptoms Happen For Specific Reasons

Once you know the reasons that symptoms of Achilles Tendonitis show up, you can reverse those mechanisms and make it all go away.

Isn't that great!?!

You've been suffering from Achilles Tendonitis Symptoms for HOW LONG?

Hundreds of thousands of people do what their doctor tells them to do for Achilles Tendonitis symptoms;

• rest
• anti-inflammatory drugs like Ibuprofen
• braces and splints (see Wrist Splints)
• etc. 

If those people knew WHY they were having symptoms, they'd know that these methods can't fix Achilles Tendinitis.  And unfortunately, their doctors don't know either.

But you do now!

So get to work!

NEXT PAGE --> Achilles Tendonitis Treatment

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