At In-Balance, we see a wide range of injuries that can affect your body and we get how frustrating it can be when an injury slows you down or stops you getting out there and doing what you enjoy.
Sometimes these injuries or pain that you may have in your achilles, knee, hip, elbow, shoulder and wrists, can be put down to what is known clinically as a tendinopathy.
Tendinopathy is a condition that can affect a range of muscular tendons in the body and can produce a significant amount of pain and limit your level of activity. Common conditions you might have heard of that are actually a tendinopathy are tennis or golfers elbow, jumper’s knee, or can be associated with issues affecting the rotator cuff in your shoulder.
Here are 4 key facts about tendinopathy
1. The main risk factor for developing a tendinopathy is overuse or doing too much of any one thing. Some of these activities might include running or jumping for the legs, throwing, swimming or any other repetitive motion for the arm. Sometimes you can be more likely to develop a tendinopathy due to other aspects of your health and wellbeing such as your age, gender, muscle strength or even having high cholesterol.
2. Treatment definitely needs to be addressed individually and needs to take into account your pain, activity background, individual biomechanics and any other risk factors that might have predisposed you to this condition.
3. One thing we know for sure is that absolute rest does not help. Sometimes it can make a difference in the short term but once you go back to work, playing sport, gardening or whatever led to it getting sore in the first place, often the pain returns.
4. Exercise is often used as a front line treatment to reduce pain. For a lot of people pain and function won’t return to their pre-injury levels without this key stimulus.
If you think you might be suffering from a tendinopathy and need individual expert advice that you wont get from the internet, we are always here and happy to help.