Part 2: How to strengthen & lengthen your tendons.
The tendons will only get as strong as needed by the muscles. i.e. the tendon’s standard of total force of the muscle’s total output. With regular workouts the tendons will only work as hard as the force put out by the muscles. Hence tendons will not maximize the tendon’s total potential strength.
Typical squats, curls and pushups never really go into deep range of the motion. For example, in a squat the person might stop parallel to the ground or just below but usually not all the way to the ground. Repeated mid-range squats will shorten the tendons in the knees, hip and ankle joints. Strengthening them in those positions but not strengthening them in the end-range positions, full flexion and even full extension.
My current tendon strengthening program for legs, hip, knee, ankle and feet. I do the following sections in sequential days.
Relaxed Deep End Range Positions
Maximum and increasing end range positions in a squatted position. No concentric work yet. Just sitting in a full squatted position to the ground and being able to fully bend the hips, knees and ankles. Remember no concentric work, no reps yet. Just sit in this position for at least a minute.
- The progression is going from body weight where your tendons might tighten up in the deep flex trying to protect itself because the tendons are so short.
- To being able to sit in that position with your knees, hips and ankles able to release and go deeper into that position, the tendons are lengthening.
- Now start adding weights to hold in that position, remember still not doing any concentric work it’s letting the weight push you down deeper into those end range positions. This is lengthening your tendons even more, time under tension, weights while your tendons are lengthening, which equals strengthening.
As an experiment try this in a push-up position. Relax into a deep push-up position, getting a nice lengthening in the deep shoulder tendons. After about 45 seconds to a minute hold, ease out of this position, don’t push-up, just relax out of it. Now do some regular pushups, the pushups will feel very easy, the shoulders will not tire first as they usually do in a pushup.
Bodyweight Pumps
Using the squat as an example. First, explaining the “pump”. Short range motion of about 15-25 degrees, rhythmic up and down (concentric/eccentric) action of the joint position. i.e. short range up and down motion in a mid-range squat position. So not going all the way down or all the way up.
Doing about 15-20 of these, not past discomfort. The short range pump helps focus the action to come from the tendons and not the main muscles, quads etc. The tendons in the knees should start to feel hot.
Now do this pump in the three positions of the squat position. i.e. mid-range, top-range, bottom-range. So that you are pumping the full range of the squat in all the different positions but separately.
Resistance Bands
For the third day of training I use resistance bands to start introducing some more resistance into the movement. Continuing on using the squat as the example, I’ll use a resistance band in the full squat exercise. It is important to keep getting into the full end range motion. Not quite the level proper eccentric training but focusing on slow eccentric movements would be good here.
Free Weights
The next day, I’ll use free weights in the exercise. Enough weight, where it starts to get challenging at 80% of max repetitions. I don’t go to full max reps or failure. I’m leaving enough in the tank to recover for the next day to repeat the cycle over again. Again it’s important to do the full end range motion.
I repeat these four sequences on a daily basis
- Day 1 – Deep end range – isometrics
- Day 2 – Bodyweight pumps
- Day 3 – Resistance bands – eccentrics
- Day 4- Free weights – concentrics
Plyometrics
I do a light, medium or intense plyometrics everyday. Ultimately my goal is to be able to move freely and uninhibited like a child’s joint and limber movements. And also get my tendons and joint healthy and strong to be able to perform powerful, explosive athletic actions. With pliability and rigidity – pliable to move the joint in its full range with the tensile strength to absorb and recoil the force created in the body into the ground, locking the rigidity in the joints. For example, the ankle joint must remain rigid at the point of contact in the ground when running so that there is no energy leakage in ground force production, and the energy can be sent into the ground and returned back into the body to propel it forward.
On a side note, I would like to introduce or figure out a way to do an eccentric overload program. Hopefully that will be in a later post if I figure it out.