One of the most common pains active people experience is tendon pain. What’s important to know is that not all tendon injuries are the same BUT they often get inaccurately lumped under the same umbrella label “tendinitis”.
If you think you have tendonitis here are a few things to consider:
If it is tendonitis, rest will make it feel better
If it’s NOT tendonitis, rest will make it feel worse (does it get better as you get warmed up? Then rest isn’t helping)
Tendons generally take longer to heal than muscles
Without a progressive return to sport/activity plan in place, you’re likely to be reinjured. That’s why these “nagging tendon issues” always seem to stick around
If you have tendonitis (acute tendinopathy) you’re dealing with inflammation and you need to rest it.
If you have tendinosis (degenerative tendinopathy) you’re dealing with the long-term breakdown of the tissue and you need to load it. BUT that loading needs to be slow and controlled. You need a plan for how to do it properly.
Loading the tendon is necessary because it has poor blood flow and loading it assists in the repair of the tendon.
Either way, you need a plan for your rest, recovery, and return to full activity because unfortunately there’s an EXTREMELY HIGH likelihood of reinjury if you just wait until it “feels pretty good” and jump back in.
If you have tendon pain and you want help getting out of it and back to your active lifestyle, shoot us a reply, we’re ready to help.