Advance Physiotherapy utilises the world’s best tendon recovery programs through cutting edge treatment techniques & elite sports strength exercise programs
Each tendon injury requires a specifically different recovery program. It is critical you undergo the correct tendon rehabilitation program
Your tendon injury requires an Accurate diagnosis and a specific Accelerated rehabilitation program targeted individually to your goals, enabling you to achieve optimum performance quickly
Advance Physiotherapy have specialty recovery programs for your tendon injury;
How will Physiotherapy assist your tendon recovery?
Advance Physiotherapy utilises the world’s best tendon recovery programs through cutting edge treatment techniques & elite sports strength programs
Specific Exercise Therapy
Through range of motion strength training (isotonic strength training), which includes both concentric and eccentric components, is a more appropriate way to manage tendon injuries (other than the patella tendon O’Neill et 2018). This type of strength training needs to be heavy at around 70-80% of x8 repetitions maximum and must be appropriate to the stage of tendon injury recovery.
In Achilles Tendinopathies the most appropriate exercises are loaded calf raise in seated and standing positions. These should be progressed to single leg variations with load and weight as your symptoms and strength allows. Both of these exercises target the major calf muscles of the gastrocnemius and soleus in differing amounts. When appropriate in your Accelerated Rehabilitation program, your Physiotherapist will instruct you in specific eccentric* loaded exercises.
*NOTE: These aren’t intended to be pain relieving and need to be prescribed by your Physiotherapist around the athletes training appropriately.
Recent evidence proposes that isometrics may not be applicable to all tendons throughout the body, especially the Achilles tendon, tennis elbow tendon lateral epicondylalgia) or hamstring tendons (Coombes et al 2016). Thus it is vital
Patella Tendon recovery
Current research (Rio et al 2017) for patella tendons has shown isometric exercise can assist with pain reduction as it has an analgesic effect. The pain relief is achieved through reducing muscle inhibition which allows an increase in muscle strength training and there are also changes to the central nervous system (your brain) which reduces pain. (Rio et al 2015)
Our Physiotherapists will instruct you in the correct isometric exercises for your patella tendon and progressing through the return to sport program as your tendon assessment indicates your readiness and improvement.
Achilles Tendon recovery
Muscles That Attach to the Achilles tendon – Gastrocnemius & Soleus muscles
The soleus and the gastrocnemius muscles are the two largest of the calf and have the most significant power for athletes who run, jump and change direction. The gastrocnemius muscle crosses the knee and is more active in ankle movements when the knee is straight, and the soleus is more active when the knee is bent.
Both muscles are quite different in their function for push off and landing from a jump, but they both need to be very strong and work together to support the Achilles Tendon during life and especially for sport.
People with Achilles tendon injuries have been found to have weaker calf strength as well as all other limb muscles in the affected leg compared to other people without tendon pain (O’Neill 2018). Essentially if an athlete does not have the adequate strength in their calf muscles, their Achilles tendon will be required to take on more load. STRENGTH is the key!
Elbow tendon – ‘Tennis Elbow’ & ‘Golfers Elbow’
‘Tennis elbow’ is caused by small tears in the muscles and combined tendon of the forearm due to overuse of the muscles or minor injury. It can also occur as the result of a single, forceful injury.
Excessive and repeated use of the muscles that straighten your wrist and fingers can injure the tendons in your elbow and lead to tiny tears, near the bony lump on the outside of your elbow.
Tennis elbow often occurs after you perform an activity that uses your forearm muscles for extended periods of time or when you have not used them much in the past and suddenly perform too many movements and require writs strength.
Symptoms
The main symptoms of tennis elbow are:
- pain and tenderness on the outside of your elbow, often when gripping objects
- pain travelling down your forearm toward your wrist
The pain is often worse when you use your arm and elbow for twisting movements, wrist movements and repeated gripping.
Interesting facts associated issues with Tennis elbow
Neck joint tightness and Nerve pain into the elbow are frequently misdiagnosed.
Sometimes, the general “wear and tear” that occurs in the joints and bones of the spine can cause the nerves in the spinal cord to become tensioned and trapped. It can cause pain that radiates from the neck to the arms, and sometimes also giving ‘pins and needles’, often over the outside area of the elbow and then into the second and third fingers. This nerve pain is frequently misdiagnosed as Elbow tendon pain or “tennis elbow’
It is essential to undergo an Accurate assessment of your neck to exactly determine which joints in your neck and too tight and to determine if the nerve of your neck is a possible source of your elbow pain.
Why do tendon injuries occur?
Tendon injuries and tendon pain are very common amongst all people, of all ages, not just athletes. Tendons attach muscle to bones, and when your muscle contracts to transmit force and power across our joints, your bones move, which makes you walk, run, and jump.
Tendons most commonly become injured when there is a period of extra loading (forces and power) above and beyond what the tendon is used to. These injuries are called Tendinopathies (pathology of the tendon) and they have been shown to have a continued cycle of reactive growth and degenerative changes (acute or chronic length of recovery; Cook and Purdam 2008).
Common Tendon Pain Symptoms
- Pain or stiffness in the area over the tendon
- Occasional loss of strength and movement in your joint
- Pain worsening when using the muscle group attached to the tendon
- Pain worsening at night and first thing in the morning