How to Recover from a Tendinopathy

Tendinopathy is a common condition that can cause discomfort, pain, and frustration, whether you’re an athlete or simply someone dealing with repetitive movements in everyday life. At Melbourne Massage and Treatment, Fitzroy North, Giovanni specialises in helping individuals navigate the recovery process and get back to their normal activities pain-free. If you’re wondering how to recover from a tendinopathy, here is a blog with advice and tips on healing effectively and efficiently.

What is Tendinopathy?

Tendinopathy refers to the degeneration or injury of a tendon—the connective tissue that links muscles to bones. It’s typically the result of overuse or repetitive stress, often seen in areas like the Achilles tendon, rotator cuff, elbow (e.g., tennis elbow), or patellar tendon (knee).

What can lead to or aggravate a tendinopathy are repetitive motions or repetitive stretching, which, specifically, is something the tendon does not like and is not designed for.

The tendinopathy’s symptoms.

Tendinopathy symptoms can vary based on the gravity of the presentation and on the location of the tendinopathy. That said, the most common symptoms are:

Pain or Tenderness

• The pain of a tendinopathy present is really local, and it can be pin-pointed with a finger. The pain may be dull or aching and is usually felt when the tendon is moved, touched, or especially stretched.

Swelling

• Swelling may occur around the affected tendon. This swelling can be mild to moderate and can cause the area to feel warm to the touch.
• The swelling is often due to irritation or inflammation of the tendon, although tendinopathy primarily involves tendon degeneration rather than inflammation.

Stiffness

• The affected joint may feel stiff, especially after periods of rest or inactivity.
• You might have difficulty moving the joint freely or performing certain movements due to tendon tightness.

Decreased Range of Motion

• As tendinopathy progresses, the range of motion in the affected joint can decrease. This can make it harder to perform certain actions like lifting, walking, or reaching overhead, depending on where the tendinopathy is located.

Pain During or After Activity

• Tendinopathy pain often worsens during or after physical activity that stresses the affected tendon. This is particularly common with repetitive movements or overuse.
• You may feel pain when engaging in activities like running, lifting, or repetitive motions such as typing or throwing.

Pain That Improves with Rest but Returns with Activity

• Resting the tendon often reduces pain temporarily. However, once you resume activity, the pain may return. This is especially true if you don’t allow enough recovery time or return to activities too quickly.

Weakness

• A weakened tendon can result in reduced strength in the affected muscle. You might notice that the affected area becomes weaker, making it difficult to perform everyday tasks that require strength or stability.

Crepitus (Popping or Cracking Sensation)

• Some people with tendinopathy experience a sensation of grating, popping, or cracking when moving the affected joint. This may be caused by the friction of the tendon moving over other tissues or joints.

How to Recover from a Tendinopathy: A Comprehensive Guide

Recovering from tendinopathy involves a multifaceted approach to healing. Giovanni, at Melbourne Massage and Treatment, Fitzroy North, uses a variety of myotherapy techniques and recovery strategies to help you heal effectively. Here’s a step-by-step breakdown of how to recover from a tendinopathy:

Rest and Reduce Strain on the Affected Tendon

The first step in recovery is giving the affected tendon time to rest and recover. It’s essential to avoid activities or movements that exacerbate the pain. While complete rest may not be necessary, reducing the intensity and frequency of movements that stress the tendon will help prevent further damage. Based on the length of time that you have been experiencing the tendinopathy, anti-inflammatory can be helpful in reducing symptoms. But for that, you want to consult wither your GP or a pharmacist.

Massage Therapy, Dry Needling and Joint Mobilizations

Once an assessment has been done, and we have a better understanding of why you end up having a tendinopathy, we can work on the surrounding area with techniques like Deep tissue Massage, Dry Needling, and Joint Mobilisation.

Each technique comes with its own benefit, and each technique can be used based on your needs and choice. What all of those technique has in common is that they can help increase blood flow to the area of tendon irritation and help the body recover.

In specific then, Joint Mobilisation can help in improving the overall mobility of the joint itself, and help then in delivering more efficient exercises and drill that would be an essential part of your recovery from a tendinophathy.

Isometric and Strengthening Exercises

Implementing a structured rehabilitation program is a key component of recovering from tendinopathy. To help the acute pain to subside, it’s important to gradually introduce longer sessions of isometric exercises. Those exercises are the base of any recovery and are ideal for tendinopathy as they put the tendon tissue in a condition of resistance, that is what exactly tendon love and are thought for.

Strengthening exercises are designed to improve muscle strength and endurance, which leads to the prevention of further injuries.

Apply Heat Therapy

Heat pack is a simple but effective ways to manage pain and inflammation in the affected tendon. Indeed, as the tendon is a tissue that has low blood supply, applying heat to it, for a max of 10 to 15 mins, 2 to 3 times a day, would help to drive more blood to the area. Why 10 to 15 minutes, is because we don’t want to bring exceed amount of blood to the area, or it would get hyper-inflamed.

Gradual Return to Activity

One of the most important steps in how to recover from a tendinopathy is knowing when and how to safely return to regular activities. It’s vital to avoid rushing back into full activity, as this can lead to re-injury. Gradually reintroduce movements or sports, but only when you feel comfortable and without pain. Giovanni will guide you through this process, ensuring your recovery is sustainable. Generally speaking, a time frame of return to sports activity post tendinopathy is about 12 to 24 weeks.

Prevent Future Injuries with Proper Technique

Prevention is just as important as recovery. Along the recovery process, as we see what exercises and manual therapy work best for you, we will look into whether there is any adjustment that needs to be made to the way you do your sports activities, like with the body biomechanics, or if there is any adjustment that is needed to your work set-up.

FAQs: How to Recover from a Tendinopathy