Tendons are often the most overlooked aspect of anyone’s physical health. Within today’s society, most people view muscles as the true indicator of both health and athletic ability, but this couldn’t be more false. Muscles are important but, it’s your tendons that truly make everything function. Tendons are made of strong fibrous collogen tissue, and they connect your muscles to your bones. This means that anytime you use a muscle you are also using a tendon. They also act as shock absorbers and, are integral to explosive movement. Making them very important to any athlete looking to increase jump height, speed, agility, and strength.
Many people suffer from both overuse and underuse of tendons.
Bodybuilders often struggle with tendonitis, a condition caused by the overuse of tendons. Does this mean that we should avoid weightlifting to reduce the risk to our tendons? The answer is NO. Often times the reason for overuse injuries is due to how our muscles and tendons do not grow at the same rate. This means that while your muscles are growing and, getting more used to lifting heavier weights, the tendons might not be ready get.
On the other hand, we have people who under use their muscles. Which in our modern society, is most people. Due to our generally sedentary lifestyles most people have weak muscles and tendons. This leads to the epidemic of back, shoulder, neck, knee, and hip pain found commonly nowadays.
So how do we train our tendons? Well just like your muscles the answer is exercise, but instead of going close to failure with heavy weights, we’ll be attempting to simply supply our tendons with the most possible blood flow. This blood flow is key to strengthening tendons. As without it they often do not receive enough blood to promote healing and strengthening. We also should try to avoid any pain above a 3 on a scale of 1-10. If you feel any pain above that immediately stop the exercise, this pain means that you’ve made a small amount of damage to the tissue that you must now recover from so, we want to avoid pain as much as possible to prevent set backs.
Now that we understand the importance of tendons, let’s look at some amazing tendon focused exercises you can try at home or at the gym, to start improving your health today!
{Knees and Ankles}
-The Shrimp Squat-
This exercise is one of my absolute favorites. I personally do twenty of them every morning to promote blood flow to my knees as soon as I wake up. Training our knees in a “Shortened” position, you’ll hinge at your hips as to feel a stretch in your glutes and hamstrings. Then simply perform a single legged squat, getting as deep as you comfortably can. They can be performed standing without assistance, or they can be performed leaning against a wall to reduce the difficulty. They can also be scaled up easily by standing on a heighted surface such as a set of stairs allowing for greater range of motion.
I recommend doing 2 sets of 15-20 reps every day.
-Knee Circles-
Another favorite of mine and a staple in my knee routine. Knee circles are fantastic at strengthening our knees in one of their most compromised positions. Making it much more difficult for them to get injured in this plane of motion. Begin by placing your hands on or above your knees and then simply doing a circle motion, allowing for your ankles and hips to move accordingly.
I recommend 1-2 sets of 15-20 circles, every day.
-The ATG Split Squat-
Popularized by the amazing Ben Patrick, the ATG split squat is one of the greatest exercises you can do period. Along with the unmatched knee strengthening, you’re also increasing ankle flexibility, and lengthening as well as strengthening your hip flexors, which often are a cause of tight hips which lead to hip and back pain. These can also be regressed to almost any level. Simply using a staircase or any raised surface to elevate your front foot will make this exercise much easier. Also putting a wedge under the front foot, to elevate the heel makes it so you require less ankle flexibility if that is something you struggle with.
Depending on your goals the rep ranges can be modified for this exercise as well. If you are more interested in rehabbing/prehabbing I’d recommend doing 2-3 sets or 15-20 reps with a light to moderate amount of weight such as 10-20lbs. Whereas if you’re more interested in strength, you could use 3-4 sets of 6-8 reps with moderate to heavy weight such as 30+lbs.
-Backward Sled Pull-
Another fantastic exercise for strengthening our knees in the shortened position, the backward sled pull is one of the easiest ways to get tons of blood flow to the back of our knees a spot not often targeted. We are almost constantly walking forward but never backwards. Meaning that the muscles behind our knees are seldom used and often very weak. Looking to strengthen the knee or any body part in every plane especially our least used ones is integral to tendon, ligament, and joint health. These can also be regressed to simply just walking backwards.
This exercise should be performed for long periods of time to maximize the blood flow. Going quickly backwards while making sure to get you knee over your toe with every step. Then you can explode the sled back, or simply turn it around.
{Shoulders}
-Lying Swimmers-
Nothing burns exactly like these, amazing for the shoulders and the back these are next level for fixing posture and strengthening our shoulders in a position not often used. Lying on your stomach, just reach your arms over head keeping your palms facing the floor and touch your hands together at the top. Then you can, almost like a jumping jack, swing your arms towards your low back and, touch your hands together once again, flipping the palms to face the ceiling, this is one repetition. These can also be regressed to simply a static hold at the top position.
I recommend either holding the static position for 2-3 sets of 45 sec – 1 min, or 2-3 sets of 20-25 reps.
-Face Pulls-
Face pulls are the best in terms of building the entire top of your back and, fixing posture. Performed holding either a rope attachment on a cable machine, a resistance band, or rings. Just pull the weight towards your nose, ending with your arms at a 90° angle and, attempting to get your hands behind your shoulders at the top of the movement is also key to strengthening those tendons and achieving great mobility and posture.
In terms of reps once again we can use different ranges for different results. 2-4 sets of 15-20 reps would be best for mobility. Whereas 2-3 sets of 6-10 reps would be best for strength or hypertrophy.
-Reverse Plank-
The reverse plank is not only a fantastic shoulder exercise, but it’s also amazing for the lower back, as well as the wrist and elbows. Teaching your low back to stabilize, and strengthening your shoulders, wrists and, elbows in a straightened position, this exercise is a major bang for your buck. To perform, sit on the ground and place your hands on the floor behind your back. Then simply kick your feet out so that only your hands and heels are touching the floor. This position should be held statically to failure for max results.
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