Recumbent Exercise Bicycles

Tight Achilles tendons and recumbent exercise bikes? ?

I have a tight Achilles tendon. Will using a recumbent exercise bike help it or make it worse?

Public Comments

1. The machine shouldn't make any difference in the tightness of the tendon. What you need to do is stretch it before exercise. Check the link below. It will be the single largest help. Another thing to work on are possible trigger points, aka knots. You should check from just under the heel of your foot to about mid calf on the backside. If you have these, they will be little rice grain sized spots of pain. Try pressing firmly a messaging them out. That should help too. But by all means use an exercise bike to get your workout. Exercise is one of the most beneficial things you can do.
2. The style of exercise bike (or real bike) doesn't matter. What matters is the extension between the seat and pedals. If you have to point your toes to reach the bottom of the pedal stroke, you will be placing the Achilles tendon under constant tension and will make it more suseptible to injury. Until the tendon is better, it is better to err on the side of having the pedals too close.