Achilles tendon repair · Recovery plan
Your Achilles recovery plan
Your surgeon has repaired the tendon. What you do over the next twelve months has a big influence on how strong it becomes. This page shows what is happening inside your leg, what to do each week, and how we will use this recovery to strengthen your whole posterior chain, so you come out of it more durable than you went in.
Before your wound check
Questions to ask your surgeon
The answers fill in the yellow gaps on this page. Tick them off as you go; ticks are saved in this browser only.
Understand the injury
What happened, and what happens next
Your Achilles tendon joins your two main calf muscles to your heel bone. Every step, stair and push-off runs through it, and when you run it carries several times your body weight.
What the surgery did
This injury usually happens on a sudden push-off or lunge: the calf fires harder than the tendon can take, and it gives way. Your surgeon has brought the torn ends back together and stitched them at the right length. The stitches hold the ends in place while your body builds new tendon tissue between and around them. That new tissue is what we protect now, and train later.
How a tendon heals
- 1 · First days
Clean-up
Swelling and inflammation clear away damaged tissue. Swelling can come and go for months. That is normal.
- 2 · Weeks 1 to 6
Repair
New collagen is laid down fast, but in a weak, tangled weave.
- 3 · Week 6 to a year and beyond
Remodel
The fibres line up along the direction they are loaded and slowly get strong. The right load at the right time is what makes this happen.
Feeling fine is not the same as healed
Re-ruptures are most likely in the first three to five months, especially in your first weeks out of the boot, and they usually follow a slip, a fall, or skipping the boot rules. For you, that stretch includes Christmas, New Year and icy pavements, 10 to 12 weeks after surgery.
Why the length matters
How high you can rise on the operated leg is one of the best markers we have of how well it has healed, and limiting stretch in the early months is how you protect it. So until you are cleared: no calf stretching, and no pushing the foot up past the limit your surgeon sets.
The opportunity
A stronger posterior chain
Your posterior chain is the line of muscle up the back of your body: calves and Achilles, hamstrings, glutes and the muscles along your spine. It pushes you forward when you walk, lifts you up stairs, launches every jump, and protects your back when you lift the kids or the shopping.
We are going to use this recovery as the reason to train it properly. Some calf weakness often remains for years after this injury, even with good rehab. Steady, deliberate training gives you the best chance of closing that gap. The aim is the strongest possible calf on the operated side, and a stronger, more durable body overall.
- Now to 3 months. Everything except the calf: hips, glutes, core, upper back and the other leg, plus each phase's gentle ankle work.
- From 3 months. Heavy, slow strength work for the calves, hamstrings and glutes, in the gym.
- For life. Two short strength sessions a week. Both legs, whole chain.
Twelve months, five phases
Your timeline
Dates count from your surgery on 12 October 2026 and assume a walking boot from about two weeks. If your surgeon keeps you in a cast for longer, the dates move and we will update this page. Each phase opens once its date has come and you pass its checks.
Rules of engagement
Seven rules that protect the repair
- Your surgeon's instructions come first.If anything on this page differs from what the hospital told you, follow the hospital and let Marcin know.
- Protect the length.No calf stretching, and no pushing the foot up past [the limit your surgeon sets] until you are cleared.
- Splint or boot on for every step.Including the night-time trip to the bathroom. One unprotected step can undo weeks of healing.
- Feeling good is not healed.The tendon lags months behind how it feels. The riskiest weeks are the ones when you feel fine.
- Pain-free first, then the next-morning rule.Until 12 weeks, ankle and calf exercises stay pain-free. From 3 months, discomfort up to [3] out of 10 is fine if it has settled by the next morning. If it has not, drop back a step.
- Keep everything else moving.Upper body, core, hips and the other leg, from day one. It keeps your fitness and your circulation going.
- Progress by tests and time.A phase opens once its date has come and you pass its checks. Feeling ready early is not enough.
Exercise library
Leg, hips and core
Each exercise shows when it opens. The ones that are not open yet are here so you can see what is coming, not to try early. The moving figures show the speed: slow on the way down.
Upper body
Train your upper body from day one
Your arms and shoulders carry you on crutches, and nothing about the repair stops you training them. This is strength you will keep long after the boot is gone.
- Sit or lie for everything while you are in the splint or boot.
- Keep the operated foot supported or raised, and never kneel on it.
- Get down to the floor and back up carefully, or use the bed instead.
- Breathe out on the effort. Stop if the heel throbs.
| Upper body session | Sets × reps |
|---|---|
| Seated shoulder press | 3 × 10 |
| Seated band row | 3 × 12 |
| Floor press | 3 × 10 |
| Band pulldown | 3 × 12 |
| Dead bug, for the core | 3 × 6 each side |
Two or three times a week on non-consecutive days, about 30 minutes. Rest 60 to 90 seconds between sets. When the last set feels easy, go up a weight or a band. Once you can get to a gym safely, swap the bands for the lat pulldown and cable row machines. Push-ups join from 3 months.
Practicalities
Daily life with the boot
Stairs on crutches
Going up, step up with the good leg first, then bring the crutches and the operated leg. Coming down, crutches and the operated leg first, then the good leg. Up with the good, down with the bad. Use the rail, or sit and go one step at a time.
Showering
Keep the splint or dressing dry until your surgeon says otherwise. A waterproof cast cover and a shower stool make it easy. Sit to wash, and never stand on the bare foot.
Sleeping
Boot at night: [as instructed]. A pillow under the calf, not the heel, helps the swelling. Keep a clear path and a night light to the bathroom.
At your desk
Foot up on a box or stool under the desk. Every 30 to 45 minutes, wiggle your toes, shift position or stand up on your crutches. When you go back to the office is your surgeon's call.
Even out your legs
The boot's sole is thicker than your shoe, which tilts your pelvis and loads your hips and back. A shoe raise on the other foot evens it out.
Driving
Your surgeon decides when you can drive. It depends on which leg was operated on and whether the car is manual or automatic. Check with your insurer too.
At home
Clear rugs and cables, wear a grippy shoe on the good foot, and set up a station with water, phone, charger and remote within reach.
Travel
Ask your surgeon before any flight or long car journey in the first three months. Long sitting adds to the clot risk.
Medicines
Tell any doctor who prescribes for you about the repair. Ciprofloxacin-type antibiotics can damage tendons, and steroids add to the risk.
Alcohol
Keep it light. It raises the risk of a fall on crutches.
Healing basics
Feed the repair
Your body is building new tendon from scratch, and that costs energy. This is the time to eat well and regularly, not to diet.
- Eat enoughThree proper meals a day, starting with breakfast.
- ProteinAt every meal: eggs, dairy, meat or fish.
- GelatinBone broth, or a gelatin drink with some fruit or juice before your exercise session. Cheap, safe, and it may support collagen building.
- Fruit and dairyPlenty of fruit, and milk, yoghurt or cheese if they suit you.
- SleepSeven to nine hours. Poor sleep slows healing.
- DaylightEvery day, even 15 minutes outside or by an open window.
- No nicotineIt slows wound and tendon healing.
Keep Marcin posted
Check in with Marcin
Once a week, or whenever something changes, fill this in and send it to Marcin. Nothing is saved or sent from this page: copy the message and paste it into WhatsApp, a text or an email. Red flags never wait for a check-in.
Safety
Red flags
Clots are a real risk with this injury. In a large UK audit, symptomatic clots were about six times more common after an Achilles rupture than after other foot and ankle surgery, and the risk is highest in the first month. Moving everything you can helps.
Call 155 now
- Sudden shortness of breath
- Chest pain, especially when breathing in
- Coughing up blood
- Fainting, or a racing heartbeat
155 is the Czech emergency medical line. Not confident in Czech? Call 112, where operators speak other languages.
Act within hours
- Toes that are cold, pale or blue
- New numbness or tingling in the foot
- Pain that keeps rising despite painkillers
- A splint or cast that feels too tight
Lie down with the leg raised. If it is not clearly better within 1 to 2 hours, go to the emergency department (urgentní příjem) at [hospital] with your discharge report. Do not remove the splint yourself.
After a nerve block, numbness for up to [24] hours is expected, but the toes should stay warm and pink.
Call your surgeon or the hospital the same day
- Calf pain, swelling, warmth or redness in either leg
- Wound redness that spreads, discharge, a bad smell, or the wound opening
- Fever, or feeling generally unwell
- A new pop or snap, or suddenly losing push-off. Boot back on, no weight through the foot, and get seen that day.
Cannot reach them within [2] hours, or it is evening or a weekend? Go to the emergency department at [hospital] with your discharge report.
Tell Marcin
- Anything you are unsure about
- A new pain that has not settled by the next morning
Roots Health Clinic
Your visits at Roots
- First visit[date], after your wound check. We go through this plan, check your walking in the boot and set your home programme.
- Weeks 2 to 12Every [1 to 2] weeks. We progress your exercises, check the ankle and, once the wound has fully healed, work on the scar and the tissue around it.
- Months 3 to 6Strength testing and your gym programme, built around the posterior chain.
- TestsAt [3, 4, 6, 9 and 12] months: heel-rise height and endurance, and hop tests, before jogging and before sport.
What stays with your surgeon and the hospital: the wound, the splint and boot, weight bearing, medication and injections, scans, and when you can drive or go back to work.