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Treatment for Tendonitis

by | Nov 1, 2014 | The Rubin Chiropractic Health Center Blog

The massage therapists at the Rubin Health Center in St Petersburg are called on to help with many types of pain and discomfort. One of the most common is caused by tendonitis which is an inflammation or irritation of your tendons.

Tendons are your thick fibrous cords which are responsible for attaching your muscles to your bones, most commonly around your shoulders, elbows, wrists and heels. Some of the common names for tendonitis are jumper’s knee, tennis elbow, golfers elbow and swimmer’s shoulder.

Treatment for TendonitisWhen your tendons are repeatedly overused, you can get very small microscopic tears in the collagen matrix which causes weakening of the tissues and if not properly treated, tendonitis can often persist indefinitely.

The longer tendonitis lasts, the more scar tissue your body develops fighting the injury and you can suffer a lifetime of reoccurring pain and a gradual loss of performance and mobility in the tendons in the affected area.

Tendons are slow to heal because they receive very little low blood flow
One of the main problems with treating the tendons; is they receive very little low blood flow and healing times can be very lengthy. Many times it’s necessary to stop using the affected tendon and rest the area completely.

Re-injury of the affected tendon must be avoided, because every time you re-injure the tendon it increases the scar tissue around the tendon and more range of motion is lost for the affected limb. With scar tissue your tendon won’t perform as well and you’ll be even more prone to injury.

Range of Motion Exercises for Tendonitis

The Rubin Health Centers Licensed massage therapist; will show you some range of motion exercises you can do at home, to gently start moving your joints through their full range of motion. Range of motion exercises will prevent stiffness in your joints and as you achieve more range of motion, you can slowly add other exercises to strengthen the muscles in the affected area.

Pain Killers are not the answer for treating tendons
Pain killers will only mask the problem and when they become ineffective and they will as time goes by, you’ll have damaged the tendon and joint so badly there may not be any way to help you.

Whenever your body is injured, blood flow is required to promote the healing process and you can’t work the affected tendon area aggressively without danger of further injury, so you need to stimulate the blood flow in another way.

Massage Therapy for Tendons
After heavy periods of activity, you’ll need to alternate with heat and ice to the affected tendons alternating each for 10 to 15 minutes approximately an hour. This will help cause the muscles to continue pumping blood.

Applying heat pulls blood into the tendons and muscle in the affected area and ice will contract the muscle and force blood out. This will prevent blood and lactic acid from pooling in the damaged tissue and help to relieve pain.

Massage therapy is one of the best holistic ways to treat tendonitis. A slow, healing, neuromuscular massage release technique gives compression, along with trigger point therapy, to stimulate circulation in the injured area to break down scar tissue and assist in repairing the tendonitis.

Neuromuscular therapy and myofascial release are very specific techniques for trigger points and spasms in areas that have become frozen due to injury, such as tendonitis. The pain patterns are broken and muscles are released with regular treatments.

Regular massage therapy is a must if you want to heal tendonitis completely. Neuromuscular therapy will provide more benefits with every session and the period of pain relief will increase between sessions after a series of treatments in most cases.

The Rubin Health Center massage therapists in St Petersburg, Fl are extensively trained in neuromuscular and myofascial release massage.

Call the Rubin Health Center in St. Petersburg at (727) 822-1555 to schedule a free exam for you tendonitis.