Tendonitis is an overuse injury. This condition arises when the volume of the workouts exceed your body’s ability to recover. Since our muscles have better blood supplies than our connective tissue (tendons, ligaments, cartilage) and bones, they often are able to adapt to the stressors of exercise placed on them faster. This leaves our connective tissues and bones vulnerable to overuse since they cannot heal as fast. If excessive stress is placed on them, they start to break down and subsequently become inflamed and painful. Tendonitis can also stem from trauma. Trauma induced tendonitis often are associated with a auto accident, or other trauma to the body.

Tendonitis starts out as an inflammation injury (-itis is the suffix for any inflammation). If a person continues to work through the injury and pain, it will lead to chronic degeneration. Thus, tendonitis may lead to tendonosis which is characterized by (1) a lack of inflammation, (2) continued degeneration of the tendon, and (3) pain that usually worsens and intensifies.

Once an overuse injury starts to develop, if rest and ice is prescribed right away the body will heal itself because the natural inflammatory processes that arise promote healing. However, if this process is aggravated into a chronic state over weeks and months, then the inflammatory process goes away leading to the chronic degeneration. In these cases, rest and ice may not promote full healing of the injured body part because of the lack of inflammatory healing processes.

There is more details about tendinosis’ etiology and physiology located here.

Common places where tendonitis is easily developed are located at:

Medial epicondylitis (inner elbow – Golfer’s elbow) which arisea from excessive pulling exercises. Lateral epicondylitis (outer elbow – Tennis elbow) which arise excessive hyperextension of the wrist. Triceps tendonitis (elbow) which arise from excessive pushing exercises. Biceps tendonitis (elbow) which arise from excessive pulling exercises. Wrist tendonitis (wrist) which arise from overuse at the computer or in excess flexion/extension of the wrist. Patellar tendontis (patella/knee) which arise from overuse in running, plyometrics, or weightlifting. Hamstring tendonitis (knee) from overuse in running, plyometrics, or weightlifting. Achilles tendonitis (ankle) which arise from overuse in running, plyometrics, or weightlifting. If you have sore joints or tendons that are starting to become sore, this is your body letting you know that you should back off from exercise. This indicates that those body parts are under excessive volume or repetitive strain that you cannot recover from. Continuing to train through this will lead to chronic overuse which is very difficult to correctly rehabilitate and may be only fixed through surgery. This will also hinder your training significantly, so it is not advisable ever to push through any type of pain.

Treatment of Tendonitis

The goal of this section is to provide you the correct rehabilitative protocol to promote healing for the conditions of mild tendonitis to chronic tendonitis. It is my hope that this protocol can help you, and that you have not aggravated your condition to the point that it requires surgery.

Here at Gainan Chiropractic in Boardman, Dr. Gainan is certified in the use of Graston Technique. This method is described as instrument assisted soft tissue manipulation. The graston technique very effectively breaks up the scar tissue, adhesions in the tendon joint. Dr. Gainan also uses the low level laser light to help with healing, and to decrease the pain. Often times kinesio tape is applied stratiegially to the joint inquestion.

Graston technique and the laser light are very effective in clearing “up the cause of the pain” in muscle tendon.