What NOT to do if you are experiencing lower limb tendon pain!
Tendon injuries are common place at the Ferry Rd Physio Clinic, and we treat each presentation differently according to the injury, time-frames, and goals of the individual. It can be a frustrating time for those clients with tendon pain, and we understand this and work with you to meet your goals and expected outcomes!
The general guidelines below come from a very respected source, Professor Jill Cook, a physiotherapist with leading research and clinical application for tendon injury.
Of course, these are general guidelines, and may not be entirely correct for the discomfort or symptoms that you may have. As always, it is important to see a qualified health professional with experience in this area to diagnose the injury and develop a suitable rehabilitation program for you.
What NOT to do:
- Complete Rest. It is known that tendons require a certain load or stimulus to rehabilitate, and rest does not offer this. Pain also needs to be respected, and an optimal load needs to be found and applied.
- Passive Treatments (eg, ice, TENS etc). These Treatments may provide some short term relief, but long term relief requires load to be gradually introduced to the tendon.
- Injection Therapies. These are yet to be shown effective in quality studies. It is suggested that this option only be considered after an active exercise based program has been applied and results have been insignificant.
- Ignoring Pain. Pain is the body’s way of letting you know that the load is too high and at a level it is not handling.
- Stretching the Tendon. Aggressive stretching can actually compressive the tendon, something that we know is detrimental to the health of the tendon.
- Massage the Tendon. If a tendon is painful this will only add to the discomfort. However, massage of the attached muscle can be helpful.
- Focus on the Images of Your Tendon . The images of your tendon with ultrasound and MRI for example don’t always correlate to the pain or function of the tendon, or its ability to rehabilitate.
- Be Worried About Rupture. Pain is protective of your tendon, it makes you unload it. In fact most people who rupture a tendon have never had pain before!
- Cut Corners with Rehabilitation. This does not work. We know that tendons can take some time to re-build strength and ability to withstand high loads. This can be frustrating when rehabilitation can take months, but the long term outcomes are good if you do the correct rehabilitation. Short cuts only lead to a vicious cycle of recurring, worsening injury to the tendon.
- Not Knowing Which Loads are High for Your Tendon. The highest load on your tendon is when you use it explosively, like a spring, such as jumping, changing direction and sprinting.
Key points to take away for tendon pain management:
Exercise-based rehabilitation is the best treatment for tendon pain, specifically, a progressive program that progresses loads appropriately. As mentioned at the beginning, make sure you see a qualified health professional with expertise in this area to guide your rehabilitation.
Looking for an appropriate training program to continue training whilst your tendon is rehabilitating? Check out our exercise physiologist and sports scientist Paulo Barroso, who can help manage your return back to full function!
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