So I finally made it to a seminar that I'd been trying to get to for a number of years. An hour into it I'm having a great time, doing some shinai work, when some joker whacks me in the back of my ankle with a shinai, hard.

I turn around with a witty retort in mind, and notice that:

a) Nobody's near me
and
b) My ankle doesn't feel right

It turns out that my Achilles tendon snapped. Two days later I had it surgically reattached, I was in a boot for two and a half months, and have only just started walking without aid (with a pronounced limp). They say it will be a couple of months before it is reasonably functional, which is still well ahead of the average recovery time.

Trust me, you don't want this to happen to you. I did it lunging forward to strike in shomen with the shinai, so it was purely the force of my calf muscle that snapped it.

So the reason that I'm posting this, other than looking for group sympathy, is to pass on some painfully acquired wisdom on stretching and strenthening this tendon, and hopefully keep this from happening to you.

They say that two main causes of achilles ruptures are weak calf muscles and poor calf flexibility. This clearly wasn't the case for me (I ride about 3-5000 km a year, and stretch my calves regularly), but they are good places to start. I didn't know that stretching your Achilles with the knee bent and the knee straight stretches totally different muscles.

Raising up on your toes and slowly lowering down is supposed to help increase the shock absorbance of the calf muscles. Doing the same on stairs after the former exercise gets easy, letting the heel go lower than parallel, is a good second step. Alternating fast ups with fast downs also strengthens the tendon (again, after the latter exercise becomes easy).

Of course, being fully warmed up before shock loading anything matters a whole lot too.

A couple of links that I found useful:

http://www.achillestendon.com/
http://www.thestretchinghandbook.com...onitis-pt1.php
http://edition.cnn.com/HEALTH/library/DS/00160.html

I also have access to a lot of the primary literature (working at a university has its benefits), but most of the information I found there was on post-surgical treatment, which I sincerely hope none of you have to go through. The pictures of the surgery were cool though!

I know that a number of you have actual medical knowledge, and anything you can chip in would be greatly appreciated. I'm deeply interested in anything that keeps this from ever happening again...

I hope this is helpful,

Paul