Injuries - Plyometric training help

Chadwick891
Chadwick891 Posts: 72 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hey there!!

Now it's no secret, for anyone, who has seen my profile, that I love sports. Particularly rugby and martial arts, however, I find that I get injured quite easily on my Achilles tendons.

I was training last night at the gym, just on the boxing bag, doing a Krav Maga routine and doing skipping drills in between to be more agile, however, during the skipping phase, I felt quite a lot of pressure on my Achilles tendons.

I find that when I do plyometrics training, I suffer similar, or worse symptoms, to the point where I am unable to walk properly for a week or two and my tendons feel really stressed.

I was wondering if anyone had any tips to exercise, or release the stress off my Achilles tendon without the aid of drugs (Anti-inflammatory). I exercise my calve muscles weekly, too and this doesn't seem to improve the durability of my Achilles.

It just sucks, since I enjoy martial arts so much, I can't focus on improving drastically with special training exercises, 'cus of a silly injury.

Thanks guys!

Replies

  • HelloDan
    HelloDan Posts: 712 Member
    Two things spring to mind:

    Firstly how much plyometric work do you do?
    Plyometrics should be about quality not quantity. If you're just starting out, I would do no more than 40-50 reps in total. That's for all exercises, so you could do 2 sets of 5 for 5 different exercises, or less different exercises and more reps or sets for each. You can gradually work this number up to about 150, but that would be an advanced level.

    How strong are you?
    Normally plyometrics are done after building a base of strength. For things like depth jumps, the general thinking is to be able to squat 2x your bodyweight (with good form - goes without saying normally, but wanted to emphasise, as some people would force it, just to justify plyometrics) before doing them. Less stressful plyometric exercises can be done sooner, but you still want a good base of strength.

    Hope this helps a little.
  • Chadwick891
    Chadwick891 Posts: 72 Member
    Strength wise, I can do over twice my weight for squats and I haven't done plyometric work for about 4 months, since I injured myself last time.

    I always focus on quality of workouts instead of quantity, well, at least I like to think I do. I never in the gym for more than 40-50 minutes of working sets (minus warm ups) and have quite strong legs in the quads, hamstrings, calves and glutes, but, I seem to be very fragile in my feet.

    It may have been the plyometric program I was using at the time that caused unnecessary stress to the Achilles. I'm really trying to focus on power and speed in my legs for Muay Thai as my upper body is quite a lot more durable when it comes to training.
  • lyfurlong
    lyfurlong Posts: 31 Member
    I have had some injuries related to running which affect my knees but is related to my IT band I think. I have found a foam roller for working out all the kinks and tightness really useful. I use it everyday and there are lots of excellent resources on line with a variety of exercises.

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