Achillies Heel and Opinions

A few weeks ago I mentioned "He who should not be named" in a newsletter (read it here if you missed it: https://www.davehedges.net/post/flip-flopping-movement-and-he-who-should-not-be-named )

And in the aftermath of NBA professional basketball player Tyrese Haliburton rupturing his Achillies during a recent game, the internet has been awash with opinions.

So lets talk Achillies, opinions and toxic internet personalities....

"He who should not be named" is the guy behind Functional Patterns, a fitness brand that has some following.

However, this following has largely taken on the toxic persona of it's founder, one Mr Naudi Aguillar

Naudi rose to fame by calling out anyone who disagreed with him very loudly calling them "BETA MALES" yes, he was Andrew Tateing before Andrew Tate!

The thing is, Naudi has some skin in the game and some good info.

It's a real shame he went down the path he did. He genuinley has some great info, and a lot of questionable info.

The main point though is that the Functional Patterns brand, and a few others to be fair, are out in force showing Haliburtons injury and some clips of him training and saying the training is why he got hurt.

And that is bollocks.

(I was going to also include Seedman in this, but he's just put out am apology post, so I guess he had enough blowback)

Haliburton trains under a guy called Ben Bruno, and Ben, unlike Naudi and his sycophants, never has a bad word to say about anyone as well being a damn fine coach. I've followed bens work for years, he's the real deal.

Ben Bruno. Owner of the coolest barbell plates ever!

Achillies strains, tears and ruptures are a very real problem.

I have a client on the books at the moment coming back from a rupture and have helped others in the past.

We see them in arenas where there is a rapid lenghtening under load of back of the ankle, geek term: Dorsiflexion

Several years ago, it would be baskeball players, sprinters and maybe the odd rugby player. Then repetitive box jumps were brought to us by Crossfit and there was an explosion of Achillies explosions!

My theory, and it is just that, a theory, is that we can lower the risk of achillies injuries, but as with all injuries, we can never remove it.

Unlike the Functional Patterns crowd, I don't believe the drills Bruno was doing with Haliburton are to blame, Deadlifts and Floating Heel Split Aquats are exercises I would also use.

Potentially, the elephant in the room is foot mechanics.

This is the arena of Anatomy in Motion, the brain child of my teacher, Gary Ward.

Foot mechanics are still largely misunderstood. And chatting to a fella a while ago who has a Masters in Physiotherapy, he agrees that it's misunderstood and really not talked about.

And when the bones & joints in the foot aren't moving as they ought to, the tissues around them are potentially under more strain than any amount of strength work can prepare them for.

Especially if you're a 17 foot tall pro basketball player coming down from jumping 32 feet into the air!!!

I'm only slightly exaggerating.....

The actions in the foot are Pronation and Supination. Pronation is where the foot flattens, Supination where it arches.

Pronation is the foot going "Pancake"

Supination is "Banana"

And in my experience, and many other professionals I know, their experience too, most of the world tends towards Pancakes and don't banana very well.

And as the Achillies Tendon attaches to the heel bone (Calcaneus), which runs into the plantar fascia along the bottom ofthe foot, we can see how that may be problematic.

A big part of Achillies rehab is getting the Calcaneus back dancing.

For Plantar Fasciitis it's about achieving a better Pancake and teaching the PF to spring back towars the Banana.

Long story short, Banana Pancakes are essentail!

Yum!

So, If I have ever had you do exercises where I'm insisting on you finding and utilising the foot tripod, we're probably trying to train your foot to pronate (pancake), which lenghtens all themuscles that briong us back to supination (banana)

All those lateral type lunges where we'rekeeping the straight leg straight and that foot flat, well that's encouraging a banana shape.

Look at the ever popular Dragon to Lateral Lunge that is many of the warm ups I give out and you'll see the non stepping leg is being encourged to "Banana Pancake"

But even all this will only go so far towards helping the body tolerate forces.

We still need the Plyometrics, the Floating Heel exercises (Hindu Squats, Split Squats, Toe Walking etc), we still need Cleans and Deadlifts

No one person has all the answers, not me, not Naudi and his sycophants, not Ben Bruno

But we are doing our best with the tools and the knowledge we have.

Remember that before calling people out as "Beta" of saying that your methods are better than everyone elses!

Regards

Dave Hedges

www.davehedges.net