Well there has been a lot of research over the years regarding problems with this tendon. Probably there has been a lot of interest and investment into the causes prevention and treatment as it can cause  Professional Sports people to have to take valuable  time out from competing. So loss of earnings, takings and  sponsorship for the individual  or club can be very relevant.  Seth O’Neill  PhD BSc MCSP has done some excellent research into this problem and I shall be discussing some aspects in my Blog over the next few days.

The length of symptoms and treatment can vary as can the trigger, the most common appeared to be increases in training load with 64% people reporting this  with 31 % reported having been training at a steady level  at the point of onset and the rest not sure.

Calf muscle weakness is a known risk factor but if  you maintain your normal running volume ,your body can cope as it is in homeostasis and so  you are unlikely to develop Achilles Tendinopathy, the main cause of calf pain. But when  you try and increase the distance, intensity or frequency too much, too soon  and without rest days  the problem develops .

So training load is probably the most important factor BUT  why is lock down a  problem?

It  is people  because people have more time and are tempted to increase their running intensity and go out every day to fulfill their allowed time outside. Further discussion to follow.