What causes tendon pain?
Tendon pain is generally caused by direct impact or repetitive motion. Your tendons are designed to withstand high loads, when the load becomes too much your tendons will hurt.
A high load can happen in two ways:
- High force in a short amount of time (Usually when landing or falling awkwardly)
- Small to medium force for a longer amount of time (Usually when running or swimming)
What are tendons?
Tendons are strong fibres that connect your muscle to your bone. Injury to the tendon can be anywhere between the muscle & bone, including:
- nearest to the muscle
- mid-tendon
- nearest to the bone
Tendons transmit the forces from muscle to bone and create the elastic-like movements as we hop, skip and run.
- Here is a great example of the spring like ability of tendons – Insta-tendons
Tendon pain symptoms
- Pain or stiffness in the area
- Occasional loss of strength and movement
- Pain worsening when using the muscle group attached to the tendon
- Pain worsening at night and first thing in the morning
How can a physio help with tendon pain?
Physiotherapy can help identify whether you need to rest (de-load) or strengthen (load) your injury. Physiotherapists can identify how strong your tendon will need to be for returning to activities such as running and swimming. Tendon physiotherapy is not a quick fix and can take 12-24 weeks of strengthening for symptoms to begin to resolve.
Types of tendon pain
- Heel pain, Plantar-fasciitis, Plantar-fasciopathy
- Achilles pain, Achilles Tendinopathy
- Patella Tendinopathy
- Hamstring Tendinopathy
- Gluteal Tendinopathy
- Supraspinatus Tendinopathy
- Biceps Tendinopathy
- Tennis Elbow
- Golfers Elbow
- De Quarvain’s
If you are suffering from a niggly tendon please get in touch! Contact us
