⭑ Clicking tendons? ✔ Why, what it means and what to do about it.
⭑ Walking doesn't improve tendon health - do this instead ✔ Exercise review
⭑ Our joints have brains - they need constant stimulation ✔ Here's why
⭑ Four fabulous tendon-strengthening exercises ✔ At home or gym

All strength to Ukraine 🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦

Hello,

I trust you are well and active.

Strong tendons matter!

In a blog post from 2020 I wrote "Keep Your Tendons Healthy And Your Balance Will Look After Itself", which I'll explain in item #3 below.

In fact, maintaining your tendon health has much more significant ramifications. Keeping them healthy will keep you enjoying life for longer better, by improving your healthspan - see item #1 where I explain how.

Why to review your exercise schedule to include tendon strengthening, and which to choose - see item #2.

Our joints have brains! Indeed they do and they communicate with our cerebral brain to coordinate our every step. But the joints need exercise to keep their nerve receptors fully functioning - see item #3.

Then, in item #4, four fantastic exercises which you can do at home which will substantially improve your tendon health - and your overall strength and health.
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01 Why Our Tendons Click And What It's Telling You

Tendons join muscles to our bones - to lever our joints. They can stretch and rebound to their original shape when healthy.

As we age, both a lack of exercise and age-related inflammation (and loss of water content and collagen) cause tendons to stiffen. This stiffness manifests itself as "stiff joints". Stiffness is also the cause of clicks and snaps as the tendon drags across joint capsules instead of flowing across flexibility.

⇒ Exercise slows the stiffening of tendons as we age. Clicks tell you to start exercising them.

What this means for you: Here’s why keeping your tendons healthy improves much more than your tendons: the exercises you must do to keep your tendons healthy will improve your overall strength, flexibility, reduce joint soreness, and make you feel younger.

⇒ In particular strength exercises are key, because the tendons must be stretched and then released as, amazingly, this "pumps" blood and, importantly, synovial fluid, into the tendon and the tendon sheath.

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02 Review Your Exercise Program for Tendon Gains

We all tend to think of exercise as chasing cardio or muscle gains, and unfortunately it is easy to overlook specific workouts for our tendon health.

Multiple studies emphasise that low-impact activities like walking do little for tendon adaptation. Some even found that a walking program didn't improve tendon properties in older adults, suggesting that the stimulus was below the threshold required for adaptation.

Instead, eccentric loading (where muscles lengthen under tension) is key to preventing stiffness and supporting overall vitality.

In the context of healthspan, this is vital – neglected tendons can drag down fitness, nutrition absorption (via reduced activity), and balance, increasing fall risks that affect cerebral health.

What this means for you.. review your exercise routine!

Don't stop walking! Continue to enjoy your fav exercises, but if you want to bulletproof your tendons and support your body's overall vitality, it's time to add some specific, targeted work to your routine.

• Start with "Heavy Negatives": Incorporate eccentric-focused exercises. Try a set of eccentric heel drops: stand with your heels off a step, slowly slowly lower them below the step's edge, and then use both feet to return to the start.
• Embrace Heavy, Slow Resistance: Don't be afraid to lift a little heavier. Slow, controlled movements with a focus on the lengthening phase of exercises like squats, lunges, and calf raises can make a huge difference.

⇒ Just like any fitness goal, you won't see results overnight. Aim to add these exercises to your routine 2-3 times per week to give your tendons the consistent stimulus they need to adapt and grow stronger.​​​​

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03 Exercising The Brains of Our Joints Matters

Our body has receptors throughout our musculoskeletal system where the movement and position of our joints trigger various stimuli. These receptors are called proprioceptors. Proprioception is the perception of position and motion of joints and body in space. (First defined by neuropsychologist Charles Sherrington at the beginning of the 20th century).
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Unfortunately, the sensitivity of our proprioception deteriorates as we age, typically in joint position sensing and small movement detection. Think of your neck, shoulders, elbows, hips, knees and ankles. Your brain finds it harder to know what position they are in, and when they move.
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Researchers found that people over 57 had to displace their joints 50% more before they detected movement, as compared to younger people under 35. One the other hand, active older people were significantly more sensitive than those inactive.
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The good news is that proprioception can be "trained". For example, older Tai Chi practitioners were found to have better joint sensitivity better balance than their less active peers. (Because Tai Chi puts a great emphasis on the exact joint position and direction.)

⇒ Tendon exercises improve your joint flexibility which in turn improves your brain's sensing of your joint movement - reducing the likelihood of falls (and stiffness).

What this means for you: Regular, consistent exercises which stretch and release our tendons will reinvigorate your proprioceptors - little by little by little.

To give you a practical example of how loss of the proprioceptor nerves can adversely affect your life, think of when you first badly rolled an ankle.

You will have found that this same ankle continues to be the one which has a tendency to roll and sustain injury. That's because the first major roll significantly damaged the proprioceptor nerves and the brain no longer knows precisely the position of this ankle when it places it forward.

⇒ Proprioception can be improved, but only by mindful specific movement, and for example, not just by walking.​​​​​​​​​​​​

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04 Four Tendon-Strengthening At-Home Exercises

This week's exercise is... eccentric exercises for tendon health.

Eccentric exercises are the gold standard for treating chronic tendon injuries, like Achilles or patellar tendinopathy. The Alfredson protocol (see Item #2), which uses slow, heavy eccentric heel drops, has been remarkably successful in helping people get back to an active, pain-free life.

What this means for you: Try one or more of these, you can do at home or at the gym, the secret is to start small and build them into your weekly schedule:

Eccentric Goblet Squats (for Knee and Achilles Tendons)
​Hold a dumbbell at chest level (goblet style). Stand feet shoulder-width, lower slowly into a squat over 4-5 seconds, knees tracking over toes, then drive up explosively.

Eccentric Romanian Deadlifts (for Hamstring Tendons)
​Grip a barbell (or dumbbells) with palms down, hinge at hips to lower the bar slowly over 4 seconds (keep back flat, knees soft), feeling the stretch in hamstrings, then stand up normally.

Eccentric Bicep Curls (for Elbow Tendons)
​Curl dumbbells up quickly to shoulders, then lower one arm at a time over 5 seconds, palm facing in. Alternate arms.

Eccentric Calf Raises (for Achilles Tendons)​
Hold dumbbells at sides, rise onto toes with both feet, then shift to one foot and lower slowly over 5 seconds (heel below step if on an edge).

⇒ Search Youtube for the specific technique.​​​​​​​​​​​​

Thanks for reading!

>> My Latest Blog Post: Energise Your Golden Years: Boosting Your Desire to Exercise with Gut-Healthy Foods​

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