When you throw or run, your muscles don't work alone. Your muscles are attached to tendons, which have a role in generating the force you exert when you move. In essence, your muscles and tendons work as a unit when you run, throw a ball or wield a tennis racket. Strengthening your tendons is important for improving sports performance because stronger tendons store more elastic energy, which increases your overall power. It's also important when it comes to reducing your risk for injury. You can use many techniques to strengthen your tendons. Always consult a doctor before you begin.
Weight Training
Weight training strengthens your tendons, muscles and bones and increases the stiffness in your muscle-tendon units. Stiffness does not mean a reduced range of motion. Instead it refers to the tendon's ability to create force rapidly. When the range of motion required for a movement is small, then you want a stiffer tendon. Your knee and Achilles tendons are examples of this. When you run, for example, you want an improved "spring-back" from these areas to help drive you with more force. Weight training also is sometimes referred to as isotonic training.
Plyometrics
Plyometric exercises reduce hysteresis in your muscle-tendon unit. This is the amount of energy that's lost between a stretch and recoil. This factor is separate from tendon stiffness. Any exercise that utilizes an active shift from absorbing force to expressing force is considered a plyometric exercise, such as hopping or bounding. Other examples include double-footed jumps up steps, jumping from a box or bench and immediately rebounding and squat jumps. Your muscle-tendon unit will exert more force when it performs plyometrically.
Dynamic Flexibility
Dynamic stretching is another technique that reduces hysteresis in your muscle-tendon unit. Dynamic stretching is sometimes also called active stretching. It involves controlled movements that increase in range and speed, and is a good process to use as a warm-up. Slow and controlled kicks, leg swings and arm swings are good examples of dynamic stretches. A back bend is another. The best dynamic stretching moves for you to use will mimic the activity you plan to perform, notes Patricia A. Deuster, lead author for "U.S. Navy Seal Guide to Fitness and Nutrition." Save static stretching, in which you hold a position, for after your workout.
Stretching
Flexibility exercises like stretching improve compliance in your tendons. This is desirable when the range of motion the muscle-tendon unit performs is large and the load it carries is light. In this circumstance, a compliant tendon will recoil more efficiently. Hip flexion during a run is a good example of this. In your upper body, good examples are the way your shoulder moves during a tennis serve or during cricket bowling. Thus, if you are developing an overall tendon strengthening program as a runner, you will want to do heavy weight training to promote stiffness in the knee or Achilles areas, combined with flexibility exercises for your hip flexors. It's best to perform static stretching after your workout instead of before it. A stretch duration of one minute is optimal.
Considerations
Your muscle strength gains always outpace your tendons' ability to withstand increasing tension, so you need to set a gradual pace when you work to strengthen them, according to "Total Training for Young Champions" by Tudor O. Bompa. This is especially important when it comes to plyometric exercises and heavy weight training. Thus in your weight training progress, you don't want to increase the number of repetitions or amount of weight at an extremely rapid pace. With plyometric training, progress from light to heavy training slowly. Performing 50 to 80 contacts or upper body throws would be a light session, 100 throws or contacts would be considered moderate and 140 or more is heavy. Always warm up before you do plyometrics and avoid performing static stretches prior to reduce your likelihood of injury.
References
- Peak Performance: Strength Training for Tendons
- Peak Performance: Plyometric Training
- "Physical Therapies in Sport and Exercise"; Gregory S. Kolt and Lynn Snyder-Mackler; 2007
- "Total Training for Young Champions"; Tudor O. Bompa; 2000
- "U.S. Navy Seal Guide to Fitness and Nutrition"; Patricia A. Deuster, et al.; 2007
- "Periodization Training for Sports"; Tudor O. Bompa and Michael Carrera; 2005
