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BPC arginate oral vs injectable for a stubborn Achilles, 14 week update

Posted by leah_vo2max in Healing & Recovery - 1 points, 4 comments.

Ok so back with another update since a few people asked. Quick recap, I've been on the oral BPC arginate salt for my right Achilles, the one that's been cranky since like March. I started at 500mcg once a day, bumped to twice a day around week 6 because honestly the first 4 weeks felt like nothing.

I think it's helping? The morning stiffness is way less, I can do a single leg heel raise without that angry sharp catch that used to stop me. Still can't run, but cycling and walking are fine now. To be fair I'm also doing slow eccentrics every other day so I can't really isolate what's doing the work.

Question for anyone who's been down this road, at what week did you decide to add TB-500 or switch to injectable BPC? I'm at 14 weeks and wondering if I've hit the ceiling on what oral can do for tendon specifically. My understanding is oral is more gut/systemic and injectable gets more localized action, but I'd love to hear from people who actually made that switch mid-recovery.

Not trying to rush it, just curious what "stalled" looks like in practice.

Comments

  • cycles_dad: 14 weeks on an Achilles is nothing, tendons are just slow. I had a similar cranky Achilles thing a couple years back and the eccentrics honestly did more than anything I tried, so I wouldn't sleep on that being a huge piece of your progress imo. For your actual question, I didn't switch to TB-500 personally but I've heard from a few lifters that they added it around the 12 to 16 week mark when they felt "good but stuck." The people who went injectable BPC for the same issue usually said they wi
  • leah_vo2max: Yeah the eccentrics are probably doing more than I'm giving them credit for, fair point. I guess I'm just impatient because I want to run again before summer ends. When you say "good but stuck" that's exactly where I'm at, the sharp pain is gone but it still feels like the tendon could go at any minute if I push it. Maybe I'll do one more month oral and reassess, if nothing changes I'll switch to injectable.
  • fasted_scientist: Ngl the eccentrics thing, I reckon you're right. Tendons are annoyingly slow and it's hard to give credit to just one thing when you're stacking modalities. Did you do the standard Alfredson protocol or something else? And yeah the injectable vs oral debate for BPC on tendons specifically, I've seen people claim local is miles better but the evidence for that specifically is pretty thin if I'm honest.
  • leah_vo2max: Yeah honestly probably could have gone heavier on the loading, I was doing the standard Alfredson but not every day, more like 4x a week because my Achilles would get grumpy if I pushed it. To be fair the oral arginate salt thing was kind of a shot in the dark since the regular BPC made my stomach weird. If injectable really is better for local tendon delivery, at what week would you personally jump ship? I'm 14 weeks in and running out of patience with not being able to sprint.

Community discussion - research and educational context only. Not medical advice.