1. Your Body's Connectors
Tendons are fibrous tissue bands that connect your muscles to your bones. These specialized structures control how your body moves, including lifting, walking, jumping and all other types of movement, by helping a muscle to contract and pull on a bone creating movement.
2. To Exercise or Not to Exercise
Even though tendons are very flexible and strong tissues, damage can occur when doing things, such as exercises, that require a repetition of movements or activities. Small tears can cause tendonitis, a condition caused by overuse and repetition of a motion. When using a muscle over and over again, it becomes inflamed and painful and may progress to tendonitis.
3. Tendonitis--Where Does It Occur?
Tendonitis can happen in any area of your body where tendons connect muscles to bones. This can occur at your thumb base, hip, shoulder, knee and Achilles tendon. Pain in the tendon area occurs and can range from a gradual build up to suddenly severe if deposits of calcium are present, and it may progress to loss of motion. Athletes are at the greatest risk to develop tendonitis since they do the same activity over and over, such as pitching.
4. Give Your Tendons a Vacation
If you develop tendonitis, proper care helps pain to ease within three weeks, but the tendon still needs another two to three weeks to form scar tissue used to repair the area. While the tendon recovers, apply a brace to the area if you can. This protects the area from further strain and inflammation. Use an anti-inflammatory medicine, such as aspirin, to help the blood vessels dilate and relieve pain. When you begin activity, make sure that you warm up properly by stretching and limbering up before you exercise. This will help your tendons stretch in preparation and give you greater range of motion.
5. Keeping Your Tendons Healthy
To keep your tendons working and injury free when beginning a new exercise program, start slowly and increase your exercise program to avoid injury. Reducing the frequency, intensity and duration of the program may help you to avoid injuring your tendons. If the problem does not resolve in 8 to 12 weeks, see your doctor. You should also avoid doing anything that has a repetitive action so that you do not overuse any particular muscle group and develop tendonitis. Doing activities that are fun, at a pace which is relaxed, is the key to maintaining overall good tendon health.
