The Achilles Effect

I had a conversation recently with someone who I hadn't seen for quite a while. He mentioned he had been off for some months as he had broken his Achilles Tendon - Ouch!

He had of course been going through the usual physio process which is great.

However I then asked him how his breathing had been, and of course he looked at me aghast and asked how I knew, as it has been troubling him for a while, and doctors have come up with nothing, he was starting to think it was something more serious.

The reason I asked the question of course was that the Achilles is not just a thing on it's own, it is part of a continuity of fascia and muscles known as the superficial back line. This in essence runs from the big toe all the way up to the back of our head. As an analogy imagine a giant elastic band stretched from your foot to the top of your neck. Now imagine what would happen if you cut that elastic band at the foot - thwack!

In real terms, your body is not built quite like that, but the effect of an Achilles breaking is not far off. The shock wave created will run right up the body, and in my experience the most common problem following such an injury is the patients breathing, quite literally the shock wave has taken their breath away.

If you apply this way of thinking with any Sports type injury, you may find a series of other little (or maybe not so little) problems, aches and pains you have been experiencing since the injury, you may find they are all connected.

TTFN