Fling it!
Why does tendon hurt? Good question. The reasons are not completely understood, yet. Some of what we do know about tendonopathy:
- If you are active then we know that there is a failed response to recover. This is important for repetitive loading: too much action and not enough down time to recuperate can be part of the cause.
- Awkward moving patterns cause shearing, squishing or friction within the tendon and irritate it.
- If you are inactive then your cell metabolism (aka chemistry) may be involved. People who suffer diabetes or weight gain show disturbed tendon metabolism.
- We achieve a “different kind of youth” as we accumulate the years, our tendons do change their makeup. But that is OK, because we “recycled teenagers” still have normal tendon tissue somewhere to work with.
- The appearance of a tendon on a scan does not predict how much pain a person is in form the tendon. Fear, fatigueable muscles and poor coordination may have a bigger role than any scan.
Brain versus Braun
1) Strength 2) Load 3) Kinetic activity (how the whole limb moves) and 4) The Brain. And research shows that Brain is as big a factor as Braun, sorry Arnie!
Rehabilitate, Recover, Play
- Progressive loading.
- Movement retraining.
- Neuroplastic training (the brain part)
- Work towards strong, springy actions with stamina.
It takes time and patience, we teach you to physio yourself and you will get there.
See you on the track, or court! Have an active weekend!