Achilles Rehab For Dummies
In one moment, Aaron Rodgers went from a healthy, experienced quarterback to fighting for his career one physical therapy visit at a time. A torn achilles can be a devastating injury. Even with all of the support systems that are available to an NFL quarterback, a successful return is not guaranteed.
So what are the steps for his recovery? How can he get back to his old self?
We have a few folks at Soma VT who have dealt with a torn achilles rehabilitation. While they aren’t playing in the Super Bowl this year, their daily lives have improved by improving the function of both their injured ankle and body as a whole.
What have their processes looked like following their discharge from physical therapy?
Can The Ankle Flex, Extend, Rotate etc.?
Step one is restoring basic function to the ankle. Asking the questions, can the ankle flex and extend? Can it rotate? Can it invert and evert? If not, working to restore these patterns through soft tissue massage and specific strengthening and stretching exercises can be step one.
Can The Ankle React To Its Environment? Can It Talk With The Rest of The Body?
Once the ankle can move in all planes, the next step is to reintegrate the ankle with the rest of the body. Our feet are the only parts of our body touching the ground as we walk (hopefully). Due to this, the input that they sense plays a huge role in how we move. One challenge after a surgery is restoring awareness of an injured area.
This can be done by getting input to the foot and challenging it to respond. At Soma, we use vibration tools, barefoot balance and gait exercises, the Toe Pro and more to challenge the foot to react to its environment again and begin communicating with the rest of the body (bear with me, this is a gross oversimplification, my blog editor told me to keep this brief).
Can The Ankle Handle Force? Is It Strong?
After awareness is achieved, we can begin integrating more global strengthening exercises. These are the sexy Instagram exercises you may see, including squats and lunges and RDL’s, among others. With achilles-injury peoples, we’ll do most of our exercises barefoot to allow for as much input to the foot and ankle as possible. This means barefoot squat progressions, barefoot single leg RDL’s, barefoot lunging and more.
Can The Ankle Handle Power? Is It Fast?
When strengthening has reached a satisfactory level in a global movement sense, as in the person can squat, lunge or hinge without too much issue and with a fair amount of resistance, (sorry for yet another oversimplification!) then we move on to plyometric exercises. This is where we can be creative in creating a stimulating environment to allow for maximal input.
Plyometrics could be basic exercises like ladder drills or more complicated sensory environments like using Blaze Pods to challenge the injured achilles to react, plant, rotate and more. Volume is very important here as is intensity. Using fundamental plyometric progressions like low hops before higher hops can allow for people to do a little more volume without creating undue reinjury risk.
Can The Ankle Be A Normal Ankle?
After plyometrics have been accomplished, it’s time to challenge the person to react to their environment. This is the cliche “stepping off a curb” test. Can the person react to unexpected challenges and move freely without compensation or excessive reinjury risk? We use exercises that look a lot like recess in this stage like playing catch with a football or kicking around a soccer ball. This challenges the injured foot to act like a normal foot, reacting to its environment, talking with the rest of the body and functioning as normally as possible.
When all this is accomplished, then one can restart training for their next Super Bowl victory.
Nothing about this process is easy, nor linear. Aaron Rodgers has a long road ahead of him that will no doubt include extraneous variables like injections, additional surgeries or more. Wishing him the best of luck!
If you have an injury that you want to return to full function, finding a knowledgeable personal trainer to work with your physical therapist could be a good option. Please reach out! We’d love to help.