Strengthening tendons and muscles in our workouts is a must.
Like it or not, as we age many of us find ourselves dealling with more tendon issues.  Tennis Elbow, runner’s knee, Achille strain, Patellar Femoral Tendonosis, etc… 
What’s going on here? 
As we age our tendons are not trained like our muscles.  We don’t hang from trees or run sprints like we used to. 
But, we may still find ourselves going to the gym in performing traditional muscle strengthening exercises.
This is not all bad, but as we see the muscles getting stronger we may have not taken the time to allow the tendons to strengthen with the muscles. 
Before you know it you have a muscle that is stronger than the tendon can handle.  This could be due to strength or over use. 
We have come to find out that completely laying off and stopping all exercises is actually not the way to properly heal and get stronger. 
We want to continue to workout, but change our focus on what we are working out.
Let’s start to train the tendon before we get any stronger in the muscles.
Advice -
Eccentric vs Concentric motions
Concentric is what most of us think about when we are building muscles.  We “contract” the muscle to shorten it and flex the joint.  The muscle bulges and gets shorter and fatter.
Eccentric is the lengthening part of the motion.  The extension of the elbow in the curl.  This means the muscle is lengthening.
Here’s the key, if we are getting tendon issues we are likely working the concentric phase too hard and the muscles are contracting with great tension on the tendon.  The muscle is able to handle it, but the tendon begins to break down or even tear. 
So, let’s move into placing a sufficient, but not too heavy of a load on the tendon and allow the tendon to be stressed in order to be stimulated for growth, but not so stressed that it tears. 
The muscle will likely not work as hard but we are working the tendon at a load that it can handle.
Ben Patrick, Knees over Toes Guy,  was one of the guys that I began to follow closely because he has really stressed the importance of strengthening the knees in order for the muscle to be most effective in jumping and running.
Sore knees are oftentimes caused by irritated and weak tendons, typically the patellofemoral tendon or the hamstring tendons. 

A key point also is to not be afraid to train the joints through their fullest range of motion. 
For years coaches told their athletes to not squat with their knees going out past their foot.  Between this and sitting in chairs with our legs bent only at 90º our PFT lost its range of motion and became weak when placed in a movement beyond its trained motion. 
For me, this meant sore knees all the time.  Two knee replacements later.

The second part of the video is demonstrating with the Kettle Bar varieties of movements that make the body work through multiple planes.  This is key to stressing and training more muscles that tend to get left out of traditional workouts which results in a weaker and less durable body.

https://kettlebarfitness.com
www.youtube.com/ @TheKneesovertoesguy  

Support the show

#Rocksolidfamilies,#familytherapy,#marriagecounseling,#parenting,#faithbasedcounseling,#counseling,#Strongdads,#coaching,#lifecoach,#lifecoaching,#marriagecoaching,#marriageandfamily,#control,#security,#respect,#affection,#love,#purpose,#faith,#mastersofdisaster,#storms,#disasterrelief,#tornados,#hurricanes,#floods