Tendons

[twtd]

I've recently started lifting with a couple of friends, and while I'm really enjoying it and my muscles aren't too terribly sore now that they've gotten used to doing things again, my tendons are not as happy. I've had problems with tendonitis and tendonosis in the past, and I'm wondering if there are any good exercises to increase tendon strength/resiliency, mainly in my knees and elbows. I've found some achilles tendon exercises but that's probably the one tendon I know how to train/stretch/strengthen. I'm at a loss for the others. I know that my tendons are going to give out long before my muscles do and I'd like to prevent that from happening. I'd love any suggestions.

Comments

[yeloson]

One of the teachers at my school also trains circus folks, so tendon issues are a big deal with some of the activities folks get into there.

His recommendation for tendon strength is LOTS of low weight reps, like 60-100 with the expectation that you're looking at 6 months time for actual tendon strengthening. (These are done at the END of your workout, as they'll completely tire out the muscles).

This has mostly to do with the fact that while muscle lays down new tissue pretty easily, tendon is basically relying upon the body's general repair mechanisms to strengthen itself which means a longer time to build up.

Obviously, with that many reps, you'll also need to be careful of not flaring up your tendonitis through over use and irritation.

For the knees, I'd suggest looking into tai chi, chi gong or other slow moving things that involve lots of lowered stance work. The low stances are designed to put your body in positions that your own bodyweight works as a better weight, and the slow movements give a similar effect to the multiple reps, just without the wear on the cartilage.

[twtd]

That is a ton of reps. Any idea what sort of exercises? Just a whole bunch of low weight reps of what I'm already doing or something more specific?

[yeloson]

For the arms, I'm guessing every sort of curl from would probably help. At low weights, it might even be just a full water bottle or a bean bag to do that.

The nice thing is once you have some tai chi/chi gong low stances you can do that WHILE doing the arm stuff.

The other thing for knees is skipping rope or some kind of jumping can increase the tendon strength. (He trains people on trampoline, who end up able to take massive impacts after having their tendons adapt to constant impact absorbtion over time...)

[coffeetime]

Wait, he has people skipping rope on a trampoline? Their balance is that good? Or he just has them jumping on it?

[yeloson]

I'm sorry, I wasn't clear.

Jumping rope and trampoline have a similar bouncing/impact effect. Jumping rope is a lower grade way to help strengthen tendons, trampoline is the extreme version of that.

If you have bad stability to your knees, start with the low stance stuff first and build up the stabilizers. If that's ok and the concern is tendons weakening, then do rope (preferably on a non-hard surface to start). If that's all good, move up to light trampoline, obviously, with supervision/advice by any PT working with you.

[yeloson]

OTOH, he has had friends who do stuff like juggle live blades and were attempting to juggle live chainsaws, but wasn't able to find a model that had the right center of gravity...

[rydra_wong]

YMMV, but in my experience, the "eccentric loading" protocols for tendonosis work like magic -- I do a lot of climbing, and found this invaluable for clearing up elbow tendonosis.

This is a guide to using it to treat elbow tendonitis/osis -- oriented towards climbers, but it should be possible to adapt it to meet your needs:

http://www.athlon.com.au/articles/r&i_dodgyelbow.pdf

This is a good blod post from Dave MacLeod (a climber and climbing coach who has a master's degree in sports science) explaining the research basis:

http://www.onlineclimbingcoach.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/golferstennis-elbow-etc-what-eccentrics.html

This is an article on the research basis for using eccentric exercise for patellar tendonopathy, with a case study:

http://ptjournal.apta.org/content/86/3/450.full

Unfortunately it doesn't detail the exercises used, but only refers to "exercises that stressed the knee extensor mechanism in an eccentric mode only" -- should be fairly easy to work out, though.

[twtd]

Oh, those links were super helpful.

[resolute]

Oh, yes. I spent eighteen months lifting heavy weights and now I have tendonitis in both arms. Nrrg. Am taking a break from the heavy weights, doing lots of the stretches rydra_wong links to, above. Letting the tendons heal.