Hand And Arm Exercises Will Help To Prevent A Recurrence Of Tendonitis

If you strengthen your muscles, your tendons won’t have to do as much work, and this is useful in preventing a recurrence of tendonitis.

Yoga, because it involves stretching, and helps with stress, is also very useful in managing tendonitis. People with chronic hand and arm tendonitis find that stress is a factor in tendonitis recurrence, so relaxation exercises, and yoga, can be of immense benefit for tendonitis sufferers. Unfortunately, there’s no cure for tendonitis as such.

However, you can learn to manage tendonitis, especially if you do daily exercises. Exercising and stress management can keep your tendonitis at bay for years.

How is tendonitis diagnosed?

June 7th, 2007    Subscribe To Our Feed

Tendonitis is the inflammation of a tendon; tendons join muscles to the bone, so tendonitis can occur anywhere in your body - wherever there’s muscle. So tendonitis is referred to by the body part involved: hand tendonitis, Achilles tendonitis or patellar tendonitis (jumper’s knee.)

You can suspect that you have tendonitis when there’s swelling in the area involved, along with pain. The area may be red, as well as swollen, and hot to the touch - the heat is from inflammation.

The swelling suggests that there’s micro damage or a partial tear in the tendon, along with fluid. The pain of tendonitis can be a simple ache or stiffness, or more sever pain with a burning sensation, and it’s worse during activity, or after it.

Tendonitis is also associated with rheumatoid arthritis.

If your doctor is uncertain about whether you have tendonitis, he’ll send you for a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan to confirm the diagnosis.

What causes tendonitis?

Commonly tendonitis is caused by overuse. It can start when you begin to exercise or increase the level of your exercises, and it will then result in symptoms of tendonitis. It can also be caused by advancing age. As you get older, the tendons tend to lose their elasticity as well as ability to glide as smoothly as they are accustomed to doing. Older people will thus be more at risk of developing tendonitis, and the cause of such a condition does require more study and research in order to completely understand the true causes.

So if you’ve just boosted your exercise program, and there’s swelling and pain in an area of your body, that’s a hint that you’re over-doing it, and you need to cut back on the amount of exercise. Always increase your exercise slowly.

Tendonitis Exercise - recovering from tendonitis

May 23rd, 2007    Subscribe To Our Feed

After the pain and inflammation of an attack of tendonitis, your first aim will be to make sure that tendonitis doesn’t recur - you do with this with tendonitis exercise. Your doctor or physiotherapist can give you a routine to follow which only takes a few minutes a day. Yoga stretches are also great to ensure that tendonitis doesn’t recur.

Why tendonitis exercise is important

People who have this condition need to carefully work out an exercise program which will help to maintain tendon flexibility. Failure to adhere to the proper program can result in increased tendon damage and increased pain.

Tendonitis exercise can be very useful to those who want to gradually build tendon and muscle strength. It is usually best to consult a doctor or physical therapist that is trained in proper technique. It may be recommended that you give the tendon a resting period of up to two weeks before beginning any type of exercise.

This will allow the tendon time to “cool down” before starting reuse. Tendonitis exercise will consist of stretching and strengthening over a period of them, usually at a much slower rate than regular exercise. You can take two to three minutes out of each hour to stretch tight muscles. This allows the muscle time to cool down before the next session. It also increases flexibility and gently reduces muscle tension. Continued repetition of proper stretching techniques can lead to faster tendon recovery and get you back up and going quicker.

Tendonitis Exercise – What Not to Do

Proper tendonitis exercise technique is extremely important in maintaining good muscle and tendon flexibility. You must be careful with repetitive action. Repetitive action on a daily basis could very well make your condition worse instead of better. Taking at least one day in between serious work-out sessions will give the muscles and tendons time to relax. If part of your work-out involves lifting weights, make sure the weight only provides a minimal resistance. Constant use of heavy weight lifting can be damaging. Try not to work out in a cold climate. Cold muscles and tendons tend to be stiff and trying to force them into working could cause extreme pain. If it is possible, limit your work-out to the gym or indoors when the weather is cold.

The Road to Recovery

Tendonitis can often be a painful condition that will take time to heal. It is important that you not try to rush since this can cause additional pain or damage. Taking the time to properly do the stretching before any exercise will help loosen the tendons and muscles; thus reducing the chances of further damage. Consult a qualified therapist and ask them to help you set up a tendonitis exercise program using the proper technique. Continued use of a qualified program can provide you with tendons and muscles that are healthy and will reduce your chances of damage and pain.

Most people who have recurring tendonitis keep the injury away by focusing on a few daily exercises, and you can too.

Wrist Tendonitis: Coping With The Injury And Preventing A Recurrence

May 20th, 2007    Subscribe To Our Feed

A few years ago, when I was attending a marketing class, I had to stop writing, because my arm hurt too much - it felt just like a throbbing toothache. By the next day, my entire forearm was red and swollen. I went to a doctor, then a physiotherapist, and learned I had wrist tendonitis, which is also known as tenosynovitis.

Wrist tendonitis is a common form of RSI (repetitive strain injury), and it’s very prevalent and painful among people who use computers, as well as athletes, and anyone who performs the same tasks every day. Tendons join your muscles to your bones, and there are many tendons in your wrists.

Tendonitis occurs when the tendons become inflamed, and with wrist tendonitis usually only one tendon is inflamed, however two or more may be involved.

What To Do If You Have Wrist Tendonitis

As a first step, go and see your doctor for a definite diagnosis. Your doctor may send you for physiotherapy, or he may give you some exercises to do. He will recommend that you rest your injury, and this is vital.

However, it’s impossible to rest your wrists completely. You need your hands and arms for everything you do. So if the pain’s very bad, use a wrist splint for a few days, until the inflammation subsides. Wrist splints are widely available. The splint supports your wrist while the tendon recovers.

I’ve found that icing is very effective. Whenever I get a recurrence, I ice my wrist by wrapping an ice bag around my wrist and forearm for a few minutes every hour or so. This definitely helps, and the swelling goes down sooner than it does without treatment.

Once the swelling and pain are gone - this usually takes a few days - start exercising your shoulders, arms and wrists.

Wrist Exercises - Try Hand Weights And Yoga

You should use the exercises your therapist has given you, because everyone’s different. However, I’ve found that weight lifting with small hand weights works for me. I use the hand weights every day. I also do some yoga stretches every day. I’m convinced that this combination keeps my tendonitis at bay.

Staying Pain Free With Wrist Tendonitis

Most wrist tendonitis injuries are completely treatable with rest and exercise. I know that as long as I remember to do my stretching and weight lifting exercises, wrist tendonitis stays away. If I’m foolish enough to forget to do my exercises, it returns.

So if you’re currently suffering wrist tendonitis, try the RICE treatment (rest, ice, compression, elevation), then be sure to do your exercises every day, and you never need to have a recurrence.

Patellar Tendonitis: “Jumpers Knee”

May 16th, 2007    Subscribe To Our Feed

Sore knees? You may be suffering from patellar tendonitis. When a person overuses the knee it can result in patellar tendonitis or “jumper’s knee”.

The patellar tendon is a structure attaching the quadriceps group of muscles to the tibia or shin bone and is also referred to as patellar ligament, and some anatomists believe it should be referred to as a ligament, which is what connects bone to bone as opposed to tendons that connect muscles to bone. Patellar tendonitis can be a result of a rapid increase in the frequency of training, suddenly increasing training intensity, transitioning from one training method to another, repeatedly training on a rigid surface, mechanics during training were improper, knee joint abnormalities or even a poor base strength of the quadriceps muscles.

Patellar tendonitis is most often observed in basketball players. In addition, during school years, many kids make a transition from football to basketball and the two disciplines places completely different stresses on the knee joints, which can cause the onset of patellar tendonitis. There are other contributing factors as well, such as changes in training surfaces, increasing the amount of running or jumping or both as well as the pounding that is normally associated with football.

When athletes suffer from patellar tendonitis the signs as well as symptoms are easy to detect and include pain in the tendon area, knee feeling “tight”, pain being felt early in a workout as well as on completion of the workout, subtle swelling of the tendon as well as a certain “squeaking” of the tendon felt by athletes. One may treat this condition with a general fitness as well as flexibility program, though prevention is certainly better than cure.

Multi-sport athletes that make the transition from one sport to another should take care to utilize proper conditioning techniques so that the transition is trouble free and it may call for their performing aerobic fitness training, lower body strength training as well as training for lower body flexibility. Patients of patellar tendonitis are strongly encouraged to keep them active while practicing as well as when undergoing rehabilitation in order to prevent them from detraining, failing to keep up on defensive as well as offensive aspects of the game and most important of all, to keep the mental drive strong.

When patellar tendonitis occurs, it becomes necessary to first recognize the predisposing factors, because in case the condition goes unchecked, the tendon may form scar tissue that may result in the athlete spending the rest of his or her career in fighting off the condition, especially when he or she increases the volume or intensity of his or her training sessions.

Achilles Tendonitis: Coping With It And Finding Relief

May 11th, 2007    Subscribe To Our Feed

Achilles tendonitis can happen to anyone, young or old. If you’ve been hobbling around in extreme pain and your doctor tells you that you have this injury, you’re wondering just what this means. Will you be incapacitated for weeks or months? How do you prevent this injury from recurring?

Achilles Tendonitis - What It Is

The Achilles tendon is largest tendon in your body: it joins your calf muscles to the bone. It needs to be large, because when you’re walking and running, it needs to be able to take the weight of your entire body.

Achilles tendonitis is damage to your Achilles tendon, causing irritation and inflammation to the tendon. The damage which causes Achilles tendonitis may occur from overuse in sports activities or training, and it may also be caused by arthritis, when arthritic spurs form where the tendon attaches to the heel bone.

Rest Is The Best Cure - Recovery Can Take A Couple Of Weeks

Achilles tendonitis causes pain when you’re walking, especially in the heel. Your heel and calf may be red and swollen. The initial treatment is simply rest, with pain medication like aspirin, because if you continue with the activities which caused the tendonitis, you may rupture the tendon. If the inflammation is very severe, you may need a cast to immobilize your heel until the inflammation subsides.

Once the inflammation is gone, you can begin physical therapy, which includes stretching exercises, as well as exercises to build up your calf muscles so that less pressure is placed on the tendon. Gentle yoga exercises are excellent both to stretch the tendon, and to build up muscle.

It’s vital that you start physical therapy, because once you’ve had Achilles tendonitis, the injury is likely to recur, in an even worse form, like a tear in the tendon. Your therapist will give you some exercises to do at home - they don’t take much time, just a few minutes a day.

Although Achilles tendonitis is disabling, it’s not a major injury, as long as you take the injury as a warning, and start therapy to strengthen the tendon so that the injury doesn’t recur.

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