The multifactorial origin of the tendon pathology caused by situations such as the positions held during work time, repetitive gestures or overexertion in athletes, intake of a suitable diet or not, own trauma that can originate during daily life, genetic factors or hereditary or simply its normal degenerative process over time and age, it is not strange to find a high incidence of this type of pathology in rehabilitation centers nowadays.
Before continuing to develop the topic, I think it is essential to understand two basic factors:
- What is the tendon? We understand as tendon the specialized tissue, and with its own characteristics, in charge of performing the anchoring of the muscle with the bone. Apart from this purpose of anchoring, the tendon will be responsible for transmitting the force capable of making the muscle to the joint to generate movement.
- What is a muscular eccentric regimen? We understand as a muscular eccentric regime the situation in which the muscle is in a state of maximum contraction but is not able to overcome an external resistance.
In order to make this fact more understandable, let’s imagine a situation in which we are trying to hold a weight with the arm raised (the muscle is in a situation of maximum contraction) but we are not able and as much as we try this weight defeats us.
Once these two terms are clarified, I hope it is easier to imagine a wide range of exercises used in the field of rehabilitation in which the common feature will be an external resistance (elastic bands, free weights, our own weight, etc.) and our Skeletal muscle system will not be able to beat.
In this situation there is a maximum incidence in the tendinous structure that concerns us in this writing (remember that the muscle is in a situation of maximum contraction and the tendon is responsible for transmitting the forces to the joint).
WE CAN ENSURE THAT EVERY DAY IS MORE ACCEPTABLE THE INDICATION OF THESE TYPES OF EXERCISES IN THE FIELD OF REHABILITATION FOR TENDON PATHOLOGIES.
Next, I would like to introduce other aspects that may be beneficial for the patient and for the therapist himself while performing these types of exercises, such as a greater demand of the neuromuscular system when performing them (thus giving greater interaction with our central nervous system responsible for coordinating our movements), a greater recruitment of muscle fibers achieving a higher muscle strength gain than with other types of exercises, a state of high concentration by the patient at the time of performing them.
These are exercises of higher intensities than the rest and muscle fatigue will appear faster (remember once again that these are exercises in which the muscle is in a state of maximum contraction), and above all these types of exercises are those which will have a higher incidence in the fundamental substance of the tendon or in other words, from the tendon itself.
Finally I would like to remind you that every rehabilitation process must be controlled and supervised by the corresponding professional at all times, because in rehabilitation centers we find a wide range of people of different ages, physical form, personal motivations and above all a wide diversity of tendon pathologies. .
Once again and being aware of the increasingly widespread acceptance of this type of work, the Policlinica Comarcal del Vendrell has bet and invested in the acquisition of machinery such as the Versa Pulley Conical Pulley or YOYO System. Both are machines based on isoinertial work or what is the same, eccentric work, to provide a better and updated rehabilitation service to their clients
Sergi Jiménez Villar
Physiotherapist Reg: Nº 6423
