Unanswered Calf imbalance - Achilles related

[Methylated]

A few years back I was playing basketball all the time. I had this pair of shoes that would dig into my left Achilles’ tendon after about an hour of pickup games. I ignored it until it came to a point where I could hardly walk after playing. My Achilles’ swelled up and a knot formed.

Fast forward to today. My Achilles’, and my calf by extension, still aren’t right. I’m assuming I dug into the tendon and weakened to a dangerous point. It hasn’t snapped, but is very weak. I can’t flex my calf very hard anymore, and when I’m doing calf work in the weight room, it doesn’t have the same flexion as my right side. It’s like I can’t push much off my big toe to flex the large calf muscle in the back of my leg. My calves are very imbalanced right now and I’m hoping to bring them in line.

Does anyone have any ideas as to how I can regain mobility/strength in my tendon?

I’m attaching a photo of my left calf. It won’t let me attach two photos, so I’ll try to host the right(healthy) calf later.

 

[Methylated]

Right calf.

 

[EMPIREMIND]

I have always trained my calves from the stretch. That coupled with cardio was the most progress I ever made in my calves. Mine are not symetrical to the t, and my right is bigger than the left by a little. I used to try to isolate them and do them separately and hammered my left hard, but this just led to a slight injury. Over time they both grew after me just training them hard, together. For you I would caution you to get it looked at and see if you have a risk of injury. That injury would suck...

 

[Methylated]

Yeah that’s a good point. I should get it checked out to see what I feel like I already know, that there’s at least a partial tear.

I like the cardio idea. That’s the one thing I haven’t really tried for this issue. What do you do for cardio? I was thinking elliptical just because it’s easier on the joints.

 

[EMPIREMIND]

	Yeah that’s a good point. I should get it checked out to see what I feel like I already know, that there’s at least a partial tear. I like the cardio idea. That’s the one thing I haven’t really tried for this issue. What do you do for cardio? I was thinking elliptical just because it’s easier on the joints. I personally like incline treadmill, highest incline, 2-3 mph steady. I use a technique from dc training where I lean over the screen on the machine and walk on my toes, basically like a calf raise for each step, at 3mph. Once I need a break I drop it down to 2mph and just walk without holding onto the machine. Steady and constant, and works great for me. I basically do this in intervals until my calves are cooked then just finish out at 2 with the walking. Elliptical isn’t bad, but I prefer the arc trainer. Once again I do not hold onto anything, and I step back on the platforms so my heels are hanging over. This is once again calf targeting, but you knock out cardio at the same time. I also found doing this instead of the treadmill eliminates stress on the knees. The treadmill is my favorite but I switch it up.

 

[Ptlhains]

Sounds like u have tracking issues with scar tissue. Short of pro scar tissue removal..u need to do it yourself with ie. Lacrosse ball...self grafting etc...along with lots of varied movements.