Why did I get Posterior Tibial Tendonitis in the first place?
Welcome to the recover blog! Today we’ll discuss the cause of this annoying type of ankle pain, and then we’ll show you the best exercises for Posterior Tibial Tendonitis. Like every running injury, “Post Tib pain” (for short) usually occurs because you exceeded your body’s ability to handle the training you were doing. Maybe you upped the mileage a bit too quick. Maybe you were going faster than usual, or maybe you were doing everything normally, but your recovery was a little lacking. No matter! We can fix it!
Tendons can handle a huge amount of load, but when they’re pushed beyond what they’re ready for, they respond by swelling, becoming disordered (on a microscopic level) and sending pain signals to your brain. When this happens, we need to retrain the tendon by loading it the correct amount. Tendons love load, you just gotta give them the right amount at the right time.
What can you do to fix it?
The main point to remember is that pain like this shows up because you exceeded your body’s ability to handle the training you were doing. The best way forward is to increase your body’s ability to handle that training load, and that means RETRAINING the tendon and STRENGTHENING the muscles around it. If you make these tissues stronger than they were before, you’ll be able to run more and run harder in the future without this becoming a problem. Sounds pretty good, right??
Always remember: this setback will make you a better runner. Injuries are opportunities in disguise.
Like I mentioned, along with loading the tendon properly. it’s also a best practice to strengthen the muscles that support the lower leg. This helps redirect force to healthy areas and take some pressure off the posterior tib.
Now:
We’re going to focus on one exercise that loads the posterior tibialis properly and two exercises that strengthen the muscles around the area.
The best exercises for Posterior Tibial Tendonitis
You’re going to want to do these 3 exercises 2 times per week to start. With tendon problems, you may feel instant relief when you first load it (with exercise number 1) so get excited, but getting totally through this will require you to commit to these exercises for several weeks.
And always remember, stop if it starts to hurt worse.
Exercise 1: Ankle Inversions with Resistance Band
Why it works: this exercise puts load directly through the posterior tibialis. That load retrains and remodels it. You should shoot for 3 sets of 10 reps where the 10th rep is HARD to complete. Don’t push yourself to the point of pain, but don’t be afraid of load please! The important part of this exercise is the lowering phase (that’s called “eccentric” when you only do the negative part of the rep), so always help yourself up!
Exercise 2: Forward Step Downs
Why it works: This exercise strengthens the quad and the soleus. When your soleus is strong, you are far less likely to have problems with the posterior tibialis as it will take most of the load in the lower leg. Having strong quads helps put the lower leg in the correct position in every stride.
Exercise 3: Seated Soleus Raise with Weight
Why it works: This is a final challenge to your Soleus. This muscle responds to lots of repetitions, and it’s health will keep your Posterior Tibialis happy!
style=”text-align: center;”>We’ve built this routine, along with a few other key exercises, into the Recover Athletics app. The Recover App helps runners fix aches and pains and prevent injury. A year’s subscription costs less than one trip to physical therapist and your first routine is completely free. Give the app a try today!
To be totally honest with you, we want to start a revolution. A revolution against the old attitude that “injuries are a part of the sport.” Millions of runners have to miss training days due to injury ever year. It simply doesn’t have to be that way, and we’re going to change it.
Want to learn more about healthy running? Check out one of our other articles on beating running related injuries!
– Piriformis Syndrome – Runners’ Knee – Femoroacetabular Impingement