High rep band work is amazing for tendon strength. Overall the topic of connective tissue resilience is under-discussed in the lifting community, this video is going to serve as a great resource
@@johnswaim3919 Your parents must've been very creative people naming you John, "oh lets name our son the most generic cookie cutter thing on the planet", your second name is probably Bob.
The Golgi tendon organ, the load sensor, yes. I recall learning about that in the 1970’s era Iron Man magazine. Interesting to hear about this science again. Thanks!
Great tendon builder is load the bar heavy and hold at the bottom for as long as you can and as soon as you start moving the bar you have someone help you rack it cause you won't have enough power but your tendon will get used to holding that weight and you can go higher than you would cause your spotter(s) will assist you. So now when you want 500 at that meet or whatever the goal is, you'll be used to holding 550 or 10% more and it will greatly improve your tendons, central nervous system and mindset.
All great, but I'd also had heavy eccentrics and active release tension therapy to the list. They were invaluable in helping my elbows recover from tendonosis and anthrosis after abusing the hell out of them. Those two have been the tools that got my elbows back to 80% of prior functioning so far
Started armwrestling seriously a few years back. Terrible for tendons. I’d always warm up with 225 on bench. Build to 285 for some reps. I could rep 225 at the time for maybe 18 reps without a spotter.. Anyway, 1st set ...rep 3 of 225 my arms absolutely just cut off. I was full of pre work out and ready for a big night in the gym, it made no sense to me. Was a crazy experience and made me forever second guess my ‘I don’t need no spotter attitude’. Didn’t bench again for a few weeks, and with armwrestling being a focus I haven’t ever gotten back to benching on the regular again. I knew it was something beyond muscle strength, I’m thinking it was definitely damaged tendons from armwrestling now.
weighted stretching with high loads and impulse to the tendon which creates extremely high tension for a short period of time. And then high reps for blood flow to recover them.
I had 275 drop on me out of no where when i was 16 like JM was saying it totally🤯 after i threw the weight off i was just sitting for like 20 minutes wondering WTF happened lol so thank you for answering a 14 year old question of mine lol
As someone with enthesitis, this is an interesting talk. Although, since mine is from inflammatory arthritis, I can't do ultra high reps because being in that constant tension makes the body unnecessarily inflame the tendons. Same for isometrics. What works a lot for me doing eccentrics at medium loads. I'm a special case though, so overall, still really appreciate you talking about this as it's something not many focus upon.
I’ve read that during the stretch reflex the golgi tendon shuts down the ‘Antagonist’ muscles. Perhaps explains the tension loss when bouncing the bar as opposed to pausing? Or something like that..informative stuff!
There is so little information out there on tendons and yet the difference in strength between apes and humans comes from their tendons and conective tissues. They are the limiting factor in strength most times
My elbows were hurting after my competitive bench, I decided to do several sets of 20 on the rope push downs, super light. As the sets progressed my pain lessened and felt my elbows swell with good heat. After several bench sessions, it went away and I use it when I need to.
Philip Meisterl I tend to do too much heavy triceps work and just get lots of inflammation. I may only need to do the volumes, 3-4 times during a 16week cycle
@@SOC-ir6im fuck bro I've had biceps pain since like 2006. Tried every mobility gimmick bullshit you can imagine. Tried every grip on every pulling exercise you can imagine. I kind of just deal with it now, but those little feeder workouts done sometimes 3-4x/week are the only thing that's made a difference.
dave is right with that example to show people that special tendon jm was talking.......nothing will fail all of a sudden like a close grip bench press....u think ur doing well and with no fatigue, burn, sorenes its weird how just a close grip will just fail...a bit dangerous to do it alone to failure...but great content...just two warriors talking warrios stuff
Everytime i start to get tendonitis somewhere i always to do the same thing. Weighted stretching and high rep work preferably with bands. If the pain is minimal i can do this before my workout and then fully work the muscle because my tendons are extremely warm. After a few days or a couple weeks if its a bit worse my pain completely goes away and i can go back to training 100% again. I always listen to my body and make sure to care of any aches or pains because i want to avoid any serious injuries to do best of my ability.
Last studies show that the type of contraction to heal or to srengthen the tendon does not matter (isometric or eccentric or concentric/eccentric). But you should avoid high speed repetitions, typical bodybuilding speed of reps like 1sec down 1sec up is too fast, cuz your tendons act like a spring (think of kangaroo jumping and you will get what I mean). To reduce the spring effect from tendos your reps must be slow, 3s down 3s up (6s per rep). And load must be heavy so you can only do 5-6 reps of those slow reps. Tendon pain might go up next morning after training session but it should be settled down within 24hours, otherwise you should reduce weight or number of sets. Isometrics with near 90-95% of your maximum effort for 6-10seconds is also good for tendons.
Another thing if you have weight hanging on your joint and you completely relaxed the muscle, it is not tendon you are acting on but the ligament. Since ligaments have poor supply of blood and stretching them is not a good idea since they can be stretched. Once stretched they may not return to original length in a very long time.
its not like one random day, heavy load stretch. Anything need building up, so definitely not with PR weights, but medium to light weights should be good
Consistent short range partials built my tendons better than anything. I would have quit training a looong time ago if it wasn't for partials and lockout holds.
was surprised they weren't mentioned. a wresting coach had us doing high/low rep, light/heavy partials every lifting session. the isometric jm talks about at 11:15 we were doing on rolled up wresting mats (instead of swiss balls). this was nearly 30 years ago.
If you have adequate time to recover after the repair stronger but problem is they take a long time to recover which is why people recommend regular deloads
I've been trying to research..you've mentioned heavy static holds for tendon stength..do you think calistenics the static aspect of it is the best for tendon strength? When doing calistenic holds your always pushing your limits to achieve a harder pose and its static holds with unique angles and strain you put on the tendons and muscles. Personally I think calistenic holds are the best for tendon strength. Your thoughts?
Hard ass work, coming from good stock, good food, consistently, and no shit, PEDs. Either way you slice it up they just don't make em like these guys anymore.
Not sure how you tube videos do this with timing in my life-but the thing JM is talking about happened to me two days ago with flat dumbbell press. Weight was going up- and then started going right back down.
ISO-Extremes and Plyometrics (catching falling weights/objects, or catching your body weight with your arms and legs) are some of the best ways to increase tendon strength.
@@Lon3wolf7 Basically can be done on most any exercise. You get to the most extreme angle of the movement as possible, like getting as low in a push-up as you can between two benches. When at the bottom of the exercise you would attempt to pull/push/move down further, utilizing your back and biceps (on the push-up), with maximal effort. You attempt to do these in perfect position with no compensation, and give maximal effort for as long as you can (up to 5 continuous minutes).
Has anyone ever used Prolotherapy along with the techniques discussed here? I'm dealing with torn tendon in my neck, which aches and burns for almost a year now.
it helps cuz the blood keeps pumping in the tendons, and it rehabs them AND cuz all of the high reps (a lot of blood) it kinda makes them fuller, like a sponge, they absorb the nutrients
Dude I had that happed to me doing incline bench press I wasn’t tired at all and I was working with like 70% my 1RM and the bar just slipped out of nowhere on my way up scared tf out of me. My strength coach looked at me confused af and I couldn’t explain to him what happened I just thought it slipped.
I was lifting last night over head dumbbell presses and just droped the weight my shoulder just quit and i was like what the fuck just got done warming up decided that was my bodys sign to take a brake and quit lifting today have a a knot in my shoulder rite above my shoulder blade with random charly horses think i should let it heal a few days
How tf do you target the tendon without the muscle… is it just like visualizing the tendon with your mind? This makes no sense to me. If you could do this, people could still train light reps when they have muscle tears because they’re only training the tendon.
The swiss ball exercise JM Blakely is talking about makes sence so does isometric. The swiss ball hold. Is like when you arm wresled a guy. After a while theres nothing there the muscles shut down and your just holding. Interesting stuff. How do you get around the muscle to the tendon.
Question for Dave and JM if they see this. My Right tricep will quit on me before my left arm would. And it’s a huge difference and a big difference in strength too. Even when I’m doing nothing and taken time off still feels weak. Also sometimes when I flex it my tricep pops. Not the elbow but the lower part of the muscle. Feels like I get weaker each time it happens. Any advice?
For all of Dave’s practical experience, his explanations of the physiology are incorrect. I don’t think he really understands what’s occurring. I think JM has a slightly better understanding. High-rep work and isometrics are both effective for tendon health because of stress relaxation within the tendon fibers. Density of time under tension => relaxation of the tightest fibers => collagen growth in weaker fibers. Also, any comments on “getting load to tendons without contracting muscle” don’t really make any sense, either. The only way you can load tendons without contracting muscle fibers is through static stretching, which isn’t really relevant to what these guys are talking about. For isometrics, contraction durations of at least 30 seconds are recommended. Load should be moderately heavy. If the load is too light, you won’t get good relaxation of the strongest tendon fibrils. If the load is too heavy, you won’t be able to hold it for the required duration.
Why aren’t amounts of steroids theses men have taken to be able to lift what they lifted mentioned??? I hear theses guys talk about everything except the drugs a pro powerlifter has to use in order to be at the top. That being said, I don’t believe drugs alone can produce world level bench pressers. It’s obvious theses guys had amazing genetics to begin with and everything else just propelled them to another level.
It kinda is but really there's not much better than this atm. There's almost no information regarding tendon injuries and the like except for the typical "do high volume bloodflow work and your tendonitis MAY go away at some point"
@@dragos8839 There is some new research coming out about tendinopathy. The general consensus of recent studies is that you have to load the tendon enough that the pain levels (on a movement you can illicit symptoms with, an example for the patellar tendon being a single leg decline squat) you have stay consistent (keep it under a 4/10 pain level) or get better 24 hours after your workout. If the pain gets slightly worse, maintain the load. If the pain is noticeably worse by more than a point on a 1-10 scale then you need to scale back. If it's better or the same you can up the load a little bit. Repeat until healed. I've done this to heal knee tendinitis I've had for 2 years and after 5-6 months of doing this I'm back to doing heavy triples to near failure with minimal knee pain. There is an Australian scientist lady that specializes in this and she is a great source, I forget her name right now (I remember it being a bit of an odd name) but you can probably find it with some Google searching.
