What are tendons?
Tendons join our muscles onto our bones and are capable of transferring the enormous amount of force that is generated by our muscles. Tendon pain (also called tendinopathy) commonly occurs after increasing the amount of activity that you are doing, without allowing enough rest for your body to recover fully. Pain is often felt close to the joints and it can be sore to touch through the surrounding muscles.
As seen above, the achilles tendon connects the calf muscles to the heel bone and the biceps tendon connects the biceps muscle to the radius bone at the joint of the elbow.
Where does tendon pain occur/how does it feel?
The most common sites that people experience tendon pain are:
- Elbows
- Shoulders
- Hips
- Heels
Tendon pain has three phases as outlined below:
- Reactive Tendinopathy: the response of tendons to an early increase in loading (eg. at the start of pre-season) causing some swelling and disruption to the tendon fibres
- Tendon Disrepair: an increase in disruption to the tendon fibres
- Degenerative Tendinopathy: end stage tendon disruption with vast tendon break down, at this stage the tendon is at a high risk of rupturing
Muscles surrounding the area of pain can get tight, exacerbating the pain that is felt during and after activity. Rest alone is rarely enough to let tendon pain settle and to ensure it doesn't return when you try to begin the activity again.
What can a physio do to help?
Once tendon pain is identified as the cause physiotherapists can guide you back to full health by:
- Discussing how much activity is appropriate at the time
- Use hands on therapy for pain relief
- Most importantly, your physio will prescribe an appropriate exercise program to strengthen your muscles and tendons back to full health
It is important that your exercise program and return to activity is managed by a physio, as it will vary based on the individual.
If you're suffering from pain whilst you exercise, please call us on 03 6237 0045 to book in an asessment. Our physios can help guide you back to full health!
Written by Liam Perryman (MPhysio, BExSci, APAM)