Achilles Tendon pain

[Hofhunter]

Anyone experience Achilles tendon pain while hunting with your boots? See if anyone out there has any helpful tips or how they dealt with the issue. It feels fine with normal day walking/working. But once I put my hunting boots on and start walking it starts to hurt.

Thanks for any tips/help.

 

[colby12]

How different are your boots from normal shoes that don’t cause pain? If they are different enough to cause you to have a different gait and put more strain on your calves it could cause pain. If you must use those boots spend a fair amount of time stretching your calves and midsole in the morning and then throughout the day. Trying a different lacing pattern could help as well.

 

[Marbles]

If the boot heel cup presses on the tendon, that can cause damage to the tendon. If there is pressure, trash the boots.

Think about what you do different in the boots, perhaps it is the activity and not the footwear.

Where does it hurt on the tendon? Pain down close to the ankle or up higher?

Stretching, despite what we have all been told for years, doesn't help tendons. Tendons like slow, heavy loading. For the Achilles heavy calf raises are the fix with a slow lowering phase.

If the pain is high in the tendon, then full range of motion, dropping the heel below the level of the toes. Such as standard on the edge of a step

If the pain is near the ankle bone, dropping the heel below the toes compresses the injured area and is bad. So calf raises on a flat surface.

I worked through some left distal Achilles tendinitis this year. Still doing heavy calf raises to keep it away, and avoid resting the back of my heals on hard surfaces.

 

[flyfisher117]

I am still working through it, 2 years later and not sure it’s getting better.
My boots don’t bother it but I have found some shoes absolutely do bother it. If they do I get rid of them.

Lots of stretches before during and after hikes. Stretches every morning and evening. Specific days in the gym just working on stretching and strengthening some of those smaller leg muscles.

 

[100percent]

Wearing ankle socks or no shows any time creates a problem for me sometimes!

 

[Whaledriver]

Most likely stiffer boots put more stress on the Achilles with foot postion, most likely climbing. I wore my Lowa Tibets one season and my Achilles looked like I had a golf ball in it. A year later I ruptured it (playing basketball) not hunting.

Bottom line is Achilles issues are almost always a weak calf muscle. The calf muscle is the only shock absorber. High arches can be an issue too, so make sure you are using good inserts. Last but not least could be rubbing over the Achilles by foot position in the boot.

Good luck!

 

[Skerhunter]

I have fought this battle a few times now, not fun! It could simply be those boots and how you are using them or an actual injury (probably both).

I have found a few things that irritate mine - old age, lots of walking on “flat land” with stiff boots and running too frequently.

This is the first year I have been pain free! What has helped me the most is dialing back activities that make it tight and more frequent heavy calf raises. I don’t wear stiff boots for hunting around the house anymore, just when I will be in steep terrain. For work outs this year I did longer 4+ mile runs a few times per week vs shorter daily runs. I don’t do long rucks anymore, just a couple miles a few times per week before my trips. The second I feel it get tight I do heavy calf raises!