 |
| Loading R patella tendon and L Achilles |
We have known about this in our clinics since March this year. Having tried it myself plus teaching our patients with good results, the time is right for me to share this information.
If you have tennis or golfer's elbow pain, jumper's knee or pain in your Achilles tendon, this post will definitely interest you. Before you read further, you need to know that almost all common advise regarding tendons that we knew previously are now mostly inaccurate.
Remember Professor Keith Barr? I wrote about his gelatin collagen research back in 2019. His latest research shows us it's time to ditch outdated treatment and start using a research backed approach to healing tendons. He shared his research in an interview with Tim Ferris. You can also listen to the podcast.
Keith Barr shared that the key to tendon repair is not rest or doing eccentric exercises like we have been taught for the past 20 years. It is targeted low load isometric training.
What tendons need is mechanical load and not rest from injury. Not extreme weight to load it but gentle controlled tension to stimulate and rebuild and realign the collagen fibers correctly. Tendons do not respond well to high reps or dynamic loading especially after injury.
With chronic injuries, tendons develop strong areas to shield (or protect) the damaged areas, so longer isometric holds will make the stronger parts fatigue, redistributing load to the weaker, injured parts to be loaded and get stronger.
With isometric contractions, you are simply holding a contraction without movement, for example like a wall sit to train the quadriceps tendon. This gives the tendon just enough stimulus without wearing it out.
The effective dose to load your tendon is 10 minutes of your time, according to Dr Barr's research. You just need to feel tension through the tendon, not necessary to be very heavy.
Remember it's a contraction of the tendon and not a stretch. Done too long, the tendon fatigues and it's not helpful anymore. Here are the specifics. Hold the contraction for 30 seconds. Rest 2 minutes and repeat 4 times. Total of 10 minutes. You can repeat this again 6-8 hours later to make it twice a day.
The isometric holds provide the stimulus and you can help by taking collagen to help rebuild tendon tissue. Barr's recommendations to double collagen synthesis are 15 grams of hydrolyzed collagen taken with 200-250 mg of vitamin C, 30-60 mins before your isometric holds. Choose collagen from skin sources (bovine hide of fish skin) as bone can contain heavy metals.
If you're injured or have just had surgery, you can start loading immediately after injury or surgery. Dr Barr explained how patients that had correct loading 2 days after injury recovered 25 percent faster compared to those who started at 9 days after injury (Bayer et al, 2018).
Please watch the almost 2 hour video here if you want to find out more. It's really interesting. Or you can listen to the podcast on the Tim Ferris show. I listened to the whole podcast first before watching it.
Reference
Bayer M, Hoegberget-Kalisz M, Jensen M et al (2018). Role Of Tissue Perfusion, Muscle Strength Recovery And Pain In Rehabilitation After Acute Muscle Strain Injury: A Randomized Controlled Trial Comparing Early And Delayed Rehabilitation. Scand J Med Sci Sports. 28. DOI: 10.1111/sms.13269
No comments:
Post a Comment