Why Your Tendons Never Heal (And How To Fix Them)
In a Nutshell
Tendons heal slowly and need specific loading, not rest or standard muscle training; sudden load spikes or momentum during lifts create a strength gap that leads to pain and injury. Isometric holds targeting the painful movement, done for three 30-second sets twice daily, redistribute tendon load and trigger collagen repair, often relieving pain in 1–2 weeks. Continue the protocol 3–4× per week for 4–8 weeks, then maintain weekly to prevent recurrence and keep tendons as strong as the muscles they serve.
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Squeaky-creaky joints are not just a normal part of training. If pain keeps returning, the issue is with the tendons rather than muscles or bones. Tendons are the number one thing that causes people pain.
Tendons function as cables that enable body movement, such as lifting the forearm during a curl, pulling the arm across the body during a bench press, or swinging the elbow when hitting a tennis ball.
When landing from a jump, tendons protect muscles by stretching out quickly in a short period of time. This prevents muscles from having to extend as rapidly. Tendons must be extremely strong to handle these loads.
Lifting weights builds muscles effectively, but tendons require a different type of training. Tendons do not respond to the same stimuli that strengthen muscles.
"The biggest thing that we're discovering now and is that tendons don't like what muscle likes to get stronger."
"There's a big difference in the types of loads that we do to optimize tendon versus when we're trying to target our exercise for muscles or our heart."
When training builds muscles faster than tendons, a strength gap forms. This explains why tendons are the number one cause of pain. Seventy percent of injuries in professional sports teams are related to tendons or the associated muscle not being properly aligned.
Steroid users are more likely to experience tendon injuries because their muscles outgrow tendon strength. In 1990s baseball, players using anabolic steroids developed large muscles followed by tendon tears. Performance increased then suddenly declined. Statisticians could identify steroid users based on performance patterns.
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