heavy paritals for tendon strength?

As usual, I was surfing the web hoping to find some secret for tendon strength, and I found a post on a blog that struck an interest in me. http://ditillo2.blogspot.com/2008/07/tendon-ligament-strength-by-brooks.html I was wondering how true this is. If it is true would it be worth it for me to add this to my training? How often should I do this? Should I do this before or after the WOD, or on a rest day? Are we getting this kind of stimulus in the FSP or WOD?

Thanks for any help.

Interesting find.

Slizzardman has been doing this type of work of late, you could search some of his posts on the subject, and perhaps he will post here as well.

I personally believe that the static holds we do will have a similar effect, but i also have been finding that using some external weight has numerous benefits as well.

I have a hard time believing the tendons just don't want to respond unless they get their heavy duty load. The body is a system, every link in the chain should be adapting to the stress in a dose response manner. As a matter of fact, some strength and conditioning experts seem to feel that "bodybuilding" ranges will help reduce injury potential. I thought that was the old issue. Not enough muscle to support the super adapted nervous system from all the neurological work. Like a big rig pulling a heavy trailer with a weak chain.

I think if you add this to your training you will probably see some strength improvements, because you will simply be doing more work than before. If you weren't on the edge of overreaching day in and day out, it will probably help. If you are undertraining to a degree, or have stagnated, I wouldn't be surprised to see some kind of small improvement.

A little off topic, but you're from Louisiana? What part? Lake Charles here.

JL said:

I have a hard time believing the tendons just don't want to respond unless they get their heavy duty load. The body is a system, every link in the chain should be adapting to the stress in a dose response manner. As a matter of fact, some strength and conditioning experts seem to feel that "bodybuilding" ranges will help reduce injury potential. I thought that was the old issue. Not enough muscle to support the super adapted nervous system from all the neurological work. Like a big rig pulling a heavy trailer with a weak chain.

I think if you add this to your training you will probably see some strength improvements, because you will simply be doing more work than before. If you weren't on the edge of overreaching day in and day out, it will probably help. If you are undertraining to a degree, or have stagnated, I wouldn't be surprised to see some kind of small improvement.

It's not just about more work, you could do that by adding reps. High lactate-producing workouts seem to help connective tissue healing because of the local growth hormone release they elicit. Tendons require high forces to elicit change. They are different from muscles, which can adapt in several ways due to the number of energy systems they can use to produce force and the consequences of using them. Tendons are not contractile, and they do not use energy on their own beyond basic self-sustenance and repair. They are passive transmitters, and are subject to somewhat different rules. Tendons have to be exposed to high forces that do not deform the tendon. That generally means very fast movement with a very short time under tension, and the total time under tension has to become lower the closer to the tendon's safe working load the applied force is.

This kind of training is largely misunderstood. More than anything else, this type of training has an enormous effect on the nervous system. You develop synchronization with heavy loads far in excess of what you can handle full range, and that effect does trickle down to the rest of the ROM. The second thing that should be considered is that, depending on which muscles we are talking about, you are only challenging your connective tissue during the most disadvantageous part of the ROM. Each muscle will reach this point at a different place in the ROM, but generally speaking the strong range, which is what Brooks Kubic is quoting Jowett on, is where you can move the most weight. If you use a challenging load in THIS range for an entire workout you will be putting much, much more consistently high levels of stress on the tendons and attachments to both muscle and bone. These DO adapt and grow stronger, but it takes time.

To get an idea, people only spend a very small moment of time near the bottom of a bench press, which is where the muscles are at their lowest mechanical advantage. The rest of the time, the angles are such that the force production is simply not required to be AS high, which means that the forces acting on the tendons and attachment sites are simply not as high either. After all, the muscles are what generate the forces that are acting on the tendons. There are two approaches to training this weak spot: One, do lots of specific weak range work. Two, do lots of specific strong range work.

There are different advantages to each, but one has many more advantages.

Weak range advantage: You are specifically working on the weak area. This will lead to CNS adaptation that directly affects this range. Leverage is low, which means it takes less weight to push to the limit in this range.

Weak range disadvantages: You are specifically working on a low leverage position. This is, typically, a structurally less stable position as well, partly because of the low leverage and partly because of the lines of force acting on the joints involved. Low leverage means that every extra lb of external weight is multiplied much more than in a high leverage position. In other words, low leverage makes you generate much more force to move a given external load.

Example: The Weaver stick. This is simply a 48 inch stick with weight attached to the end. The exercise: Basically lift the bar while staying horizontal. The world record: A little over 10 lbs. That's right. 10 frikin lbs. The forces produced are enormous, and each ounce is multiplied so much that microloading requires highly specialized equipment (lead shot or drops of water) in order to increase the forces acting on the wrist and elbow by no more than 2-5%, which is considered the safe limit in general during weight lifting.

Going back to the barbell bench press, gyms do not have this kind of microloading available. The shoulder is also in a very vulnerable position, so not only are you dealing with an inherently dangerous position but also with the inability to safely control the forces acting on the muscles and the joints. It is generally not safely possible to adjust the load, and there is no way to make sure that the shoulder is protected from injury as the lines of force at the bottom of the full ROM of the bench press are actually pushing the head of the humerus forward out of the socket and the fact that you are on a bench tends to shut down the back musculature that holds everything in position.

Now, the strong range:

Strong range advantages: You are in a high leverage position. The shoulder is also in an extremely structurally sound position. Each lb of added load requires much less muscular force to be lifted, enabling the lifting of much heavier weights. This allows a lifter to challenge the connective tissue in a position where the load is easily controlled and the shoulder is in a position of relative safety from injury. The high mechanical advantage also allows you to expose the muscles to their true maximal contraction capability, which the low leverage position by nature does not (simply too hard to control the actual applied force, and the vulnerable position causes the body to inhibit force production to some degree as well) which in turn trains the nervous system to become more synchronized.

Strong range disadvantages: many gyms do not have enough weight readily available to properly conduct this type of training, nor do they tend to have quality power racks which are required for safety in this type of training. It is also possible, because of the relatively rapid gains in the bar weight that can be moved, to work with more load than the body is currently capable of handling. It is very important to go by the 2% rule. If you're doing 30 strong range reps with 315, the maximum increase on your next workout would be to 322 or so. You would easily be able to handle 335, most likely, but that is outpacing the ability of the body to strengthen the connective tissues.

Limitation of direct connective tissue development, regardless of which method of external loading you use: You should never do this more than once a week. Not only does it take time for the CNS to adapt and recover from this training but it also takes the connective tissue a LOOOONG time to heal compared to muscle. One training every 7-10 days is where most beginners will see their best gains, and as you get super strong you will find that a few extra days between this type of training will result in better progress.

slizzardman said:

High lactate-producing workouts seem to help connective tissue healing because of the local growth hormone release they elicit.

Before taking up a tendon straining exercise routine, I assume it would be good idea to have a base of high lactate-producing workouts. Arm circles forward and backward should work right?

slizzardman said:

Limitation of direct connective tissue development, regardless of which method of external loading you use: You should never do this more than once a week. Not only does it take time for the CNS to adapt and recover from this training but it also takes the connective tissue a LOOOONG time to heal compared to muscle. One training every 7-10 days is where most beginners will see their best gains, and as you get super strong you will find that a few extra days between this type of training will result in better progress.

I am definitely not super strong and baseball season is approaching.(I wish our school had wrestling :cry: ) Because of this, do you think it would be a good idea to wait until the offseason for this type of training? Throwing will already have an affect on my throwing side, correct?

slizzardman said:

Weak range advantage: You are specifically working on the weak area. This will lead to CNS adaptation that directly affects this range. Leverage is low, which means it takes less weight to push to the limit in this range.

I plan on using bodyweight for this type of training, because I don't have access to weights and never learned proper form. I am also scared of dropping weights on myself. Would one-arm chin partials from dead hang be and HSPU partials from the bottom ROM be ideal for the weak range?

slizzardman said:

Strong range advantages: You are in a high leverage position. The shoulder is also in an extremely structurally sound position. Each lb of added load requires much less muscular force to be lifted, enabling the lifting of much heavier weights. This allows a lifter to challenge the connective tissue in a position where the load is easily controlled and the shoulder is in a position of relative safety from injury. The high mechanical advantage also allows you to expose the muscles to their true maximal contraction capability, which the low leverage position by nature does not (simply too hard to control the actual applied force, and the vulnerable position causes the body to inhibit force production to some degree as well) which in turn trains the nervous system to become more synchronized.

For this would weigted partial PPP pushups and weighted partial FL rows work?

Thanks for your help, Slizzardman.

ajruff said:

A little off topic, but you're from Louisiana? What part? Lake Charles here.

I am in the Opelousas area. It's nice to know their are other enthusiasts in Louisiana.

kyle said:

Before taking up a tendon straining exercise routine, I assume it would be good idea to have a base of high lactate-producing workouts. Arm circles forward and backward should work right?

Though I am worried about how to safeguard shoulder health while doing them at high speeds especially the rotor cuff and how to evaluate what RoM should be aimed for to avoid impingement.

That won't produce enough to help with healing. Honestly, you can't successfully do heavy partials more than once a week without drugs for a variety of reasons, so if you're doing some supplementary partial work and then performing the WODs as your training base you should not run into any problems unless you are just dong too much heavy partial work.

I found from physio of tendons that they are trained in the same way your muscles are, they just take a lot longer to catch up strength wise. Slow tempo, 3-5*5, rinse and repeat for a full SSC. Although recently for me I've found 5*5 to be better than 3*5 due to the intensity of movement having to be slightly lower but that may be a very subjective thing.

The big 'problem' with tendons is that since they are not meant to STAY stretched that true maximal loads can deform them unless the stimulus is very brief. They are designed to stretch during the stretch reflex to an extent, but it is easy to sustain tendon damage that leads directly to tendonosis if your heavy partials are done too slowly. Controlled bounces are going to be the only safe way to really do higher intensity work on the tendons. Other than that, slow progression with a weight that does not produce tendon pain is the only other option. Tendons are much more like high tensile springs or dynamic rope than static ropes. They are not designed to stay stretched. That's why relieving hypertonicity is often enough to make tendonitis symptoms go away.

For people who don't have a clear concept of what they are doing, I would only suggest that they do what you are saying. Even with the bounces, you have to SSC unless you want to flirt with disaster!

Sliz, if this is true why do we do planche leans for 60 secs if that TUT leads to tendon stretching

TryMore said:

Sliz, if this is true why do we do planche leans for 60 secs if that TUT leads to tendon stretching

TUT does not mean tendon stretching. Only supramaximal loads.

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I personally do not see the point of doing supramaximal loads w/ partial ROM or any high intensity work for the tendons.

While high intensity work does product the fastest adaptations (both in muscles, tendons, etc.) it is also common to overuse them into oblivion hence the recommendation of only doing them once every 1-1.5 weeks.

You'll get enough load adaptation by going metabolic every few cycles anyways if you're starting to get overuse in tendon structures and that's when the high repetition stuff is more useful anyway.

TryMore said:

Sliz, if this is true why do we do planche leans for 60 secs if that TUT leads to tendon stretching

If you can hold for 60s you are not putting anywhere near enough stress on the tendons to damage them. That's why you should never be trying any FSP progression that you can not hold for a good 15-20s at a minimum, and that is also part of why you are supposed to do 50% of your max time instead of max holds every day.

If you were trying to hold your maximum lean every day you would wreck yourself in short order. If you are using a position that is only moderately challenging at best and practicing fairly frequently you are not going to hurt yourself. It is up to each person to figure out where that point is.

That's an impressive post Slizz!...You explained the Strength-strain curve really well.

The only thing i would disagree with is that tendons stretch...!?! I attend regular dissections and i don't know about you and your medical studies (hope they're going well by the way!) but if you've ever seen the Achilles tendon or even biceps tendon...Those babies don't move for no one or nothing! ;P next xmas dinner, get a turkey leg and strip the meat off...you'll be left with a load of hard cartilidge strips which even with a pair a plyers you can't stretch!
 

Tendons definitely stretch though their spring constant is much higher than that of muscle. This property is actually quite useful in gymnastics where kinetic im energy is stored in the connective tissue busting explosive movements and suddenly released.

In adults tendon elasticity is significantly reduced in kids however tendons tend to be much more elastic and is one reason they respond much better to static stretching at a young age when you can actually lengthen the connective tissue

We put an achilles tendon in a torque machine.....it snapped before it stretched! it was pure, solid collagen. I would agree with you about children but even then the tendons don't really stretch that much. When the human is young, the GTO's are more sensitive to the stretch reflex because the nervous system is aware of the growth factor (meaning the body is constantly growing and bones and muscles are constantly lengthening) so it's easy to manipulate that process. Please bare in mind, i'm not saying they're britle cos otherwise i would imagine it would rip off the bone!?!  Mechanically it doesn't make sense for a tendon to stretch...it's job is to anchor the muscle to the bone. Who would want a stretchy anchor? I don't about you about but i've never seen a study analyzing how much a tendon can stretch?!?!? If you read Thomas Kurz' book he explains it much better than i do in there.

 

if you know of any papers that test the elastic properties of tendons i would be thankful!

cheers

Even steel cables stretch. The amount of stretch is dependent on the spring constant of the material. The lengthening of the tendon is very short even under high loads but it does happen and does cause an alteration to the tissue if done chronically.

Hi Daniel, thank you for the journal....much appreciated!...I understand what your saying about the 'spring constant' now. I misinterpreted what you meant by 'stretch' when it comes to tendons and how they respond to loading. When you mentioned steel cables...the light bulb went on.

cheers