Benjamin Hodgetts • July 2, 2026

Focused vs Radial Shockwave: What's the Difference?

Shockwave therapy has become one of the most effective non-surgical treatments for chronic tendon pain, heel pain, muscle injuries and bone healing. At Functional Foot & Ankle, we are proud to offer both EMS DolorClast® Focused Shockwave and Radial Shockwave Therapy, allowing us to tailor treatment to your specific injury.

Although both technologies use acoustic energy to stimulate the body's natural healing processes, they work in different ways and each has its own advantages.

EMS DolorClast® Focused Shockwave

Focused shockwave is the latest generation of shockwave technology. It concentrates energy at a precise depth beneath the skin, allowing treatment of deep tissues without delivering the highest energy at the skin surface.

This means the treatment can target injured tendons, bone, joints and other deep structures more accurately while often being more comfortable than patients expect.

Focused shockwave is commonly used for:

  • Plantar fasciitis and chronic heel pain
  • Achilles tendinopathy and partial tendon tears
  • Tibialis posterior tendinopathy
  • Peroneal tendinopathy
  • Patellar tendinopathy (jumper's knee)
  • Hamstring tendinopathy
  • Gluteal tendinopathy
  • Chronic ligament injuries
  • Muscle injuries and chronic soft tissue pain
  • Shin splints (MTSS)
  • Delayed union and non-union fractures
  • Chronic wounds and difficult-to-heal wounds
  • Scar tissue and post-surgical tissue healing
  • Osteoarthritis and chronic joint pain

Radial Shockwave

Radial shockwave has been successfully used for many years to treat musculoskeletal pain. Instead of focusing energy at a specific depth, it delivers pressure waves that spread out from the applicator, making it ideal for treating larger, more superficial tissues.

Radial shockwave is particularly effective for:

  • Muscle tightness
  • Trigger points
  • Calf injuries
  • Plantar fasciopathy
  • Early tendon injuries
  • General soft tissue pain

Which One Is Better?

The answer depends on your injury.

If the injured tissue is deeper, long-standing, or involves bone healing, EMS DolorClast® Focused Shockwave often provides greater precision and allows us to deliver therapeutic energy exactly where it is needed.

For more superficial muscles, fascia and tendons, Radial Shockwave Therapy remains an excellent treatment and continues to deliver outstanding clinical results.

In many cases, the two technologies can even be combined to maximise healing—using radial shockwave to prepare surrounding tissues and focused shockwave to treat the deeper source of pain.

Why We Chose EMS DolorClast®

At Functional Foot & Ankle, we've invested in the EMS DolorClast® Focus because it represents one of the world's leading shockwave systems. Its advanced focused technology allows us to treat a broader range of conditions, including difficult chronic tendon injuries, bone healing, and wound management, while providing highly targeted treatment with minimal downtime.

Every patient undergoes a comprehensive assessment before treatment, ensuring we select the most appropriate technology for your injury and combine it with rehabilitation, strength testing, load management and movement analysis to achieve the best possible long-term outcome.

Our goal isn't just to reduce pain — it's to help your body heal, restore function, and get you back to work, exercise and sport as quickly and safely as possible.

Achilles Tendinopathy

By Benjamin Hodgetts • May 13, 2025
Achilles Tendinopathy: What You Need to Know, How to Recover Stronger & Maintain It

One Exercise To Rule Them All

By Functional Foot & Ankle Group • October 15, 2020
Some of you may have done lower limb rehabilitation before by one of our Sports Podiatrists. It’s more than likely you’ve been given calf raises to perform. The humble calf raise is one of the best ways to train your lower limb and leads to incredible performance gains when progressed steadily. According to the Sports Fitness Advisor website, a training program that includes calf raises can help you increase your vertical jump by as much as 12 inches. It uses a vast array of lower limb muscle and is commonly used to strengthen and build up tolerance to the Achilles Tendon and Plantar Fascia. Now there are many variations to these and we perform them barefoot where possible. Now you may have to start with less and build up to this. Beginning on both legs try performing 3 x 10-15 repetitions of double leg calf raises every 2-3 days. Once mastered, progress to performing single leg calf raises and then progress to doing them on a step or holding a weight. Simply put, doing these regularly will see you jump higher, run faster and strengthen your intrinsic and extrinsic foot muscles. Loading these areas will allow you to tolerate greater force and decrease the risk of injury as well. One of our helpful Sports Podiatrists are here to help you get stronger from the ground up.