Did you just go on a run and now have lingering pain on the inside of your ankle? The pain might go away after a day or two, but as soon as you start running or doing some activity, it seems to make it worst. You’re pretty sure you didn’t roll your ankle during the run, but that ankle just seems to flare up with some activity. Sound familiar? If you’re so sure you haven’t rolled your ankle, there’s a good chance that your “tibialis posterior” muscle has been affected.
Some basic anatomy, this muscle begins from the inside of your lower leg down and its tendon runs behind the ankle to attach to the bottom of your foot. This muscle pulls the ankle inwards, helps point your toes and helps support the arch of your foot. Activities that have running and jumping places a lot of stress onto this tendon. If you recently increased your training or started a new training that requires running or jumping, there is an increase risk of sustaining injury to this tendon.
It’s a relatively long tendon, thus you can get pain anywhere along the line of this tendon. When the tendon first gets injured, there could be an inflammatory response which makes it difficult to even put weight onto that ankle. In these cases, your really need to resolve the inflammation first before placing more stress the tendon.
If the pain is lingering and not getting back to what it should be doing, you will likely need a progressive loading program before returning to your favorite activity. For this, it’s probably a good idea to see a physiotherapist to get into a individualized targeted program. At capital physiotherapy, we see many running related pain. Tibialis posterior injury is only one of many conditions which can cause pain in the ankle.
If you’re worried about what you’ve done to your ankle, give us a call at 0401 865 333, shoot us an email at info@capitalphysiotherapy.com.au or book in an appointment online and one of our friendly physiotherapist will take a good look at the ankle. We will set you up with a holistic, individualized program to get you back to doing what you love the most.