Anyone who thinks massage is a relaxing experience clearly hasn’t had a sports massage. You end up trying not to scream into the mat as someone digs their elbows into your tight areas and then have to somehow limp away at the end of the hour.

In a desperate attempt to calm the pain, I booked a sports session with a therapist from Urban Massage. She rubbed, mobilised, stretched and lengthened just about every part of me, before asking if I had any calf or tendon issues (I hadn’t told her before). Immediately, she said she’d noticed how much tighter my right leg was and how although I had very muscular glutes, hamstrings and quads, my calves were relatively weak. “You’re like a triangle,” she said as she left, leaving me with yet more incentive to work on my calf strength.

This time, however, I didn’t limp away at the end. I positively floated around the house. The full effects only lasted a few days but it was enough to convince me that I needed to loosen off tight muscles more regularly with massage and that strength training had to happen.

5 tried and tested tendinopathy treatments that work