What is Tendinitis?
Tendinitis is inflammation of a tendon. Tendons are the tissues that connect your muscles to your bones. Tendinitis causes pain near the affected joint. Ankle tendinitis is when this occurs in one of the tendons around your ankle.
What Causes Ankle Tendinitis?
Tendon inflammation (tendinitis) can occur due to overuse, repetitious activity, trauma, bio-mechanical asymmetries, strength deficits/imbalances, or flexibility deficits/imbalances.
Tendinitis is common in several parts of the ankle: the achilles (calf), anterior tibialis (front of shin), posterior tibialis (inside and back of shin), and peroneals (outside of lower leg). All of these areas can develop tendinitis.
“Shin splints” are a common occurrence with athletes and often involve tendinitis in the muscles of the lower leg.
How Can Tendinitis be Treated?
Tendinitis can be treated in several ways. Physical therapy, modification of exercise, and taking away the stressors that create the pain are the keys to resolving any tendinitis.
However, if your tendinitis is more advanced you may need a more aggressive approach. For instance, bracing, medications, and/or injections can all be utilized to reduce the inflammation.
Physical Therapy for Ankle Tendinitis
Physical therapy for ankle tendinitis can be extremely helpful as well as non-invasive. Our physical therapists will do a bio-mechanical assessment to find the true cause of the inflammation. Afterwards, they’ll do a thorough analysis of your activity level and training routines. Finally, our physical therapists will begin inflammation reducing treatments. This may include exercises, stretches, and hands-on treatment. Furthermore, any stretching and strengthening issues that are found to be part of the problem will be worked on as well.
Additional treatment such as IASTM or Functional Dry Needling may be needed to address underlying muscle tightness and soft tissue restrictions. Either of these issues could be related to or contributing to the tendinitis.
Training to return to specific life tasks or sports can be initiated by our physical therapists. After your initial physical therapy evaluation, your physical therapist will help determine if their services may be helpful.