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estherator
Jun 11, 2007, 5:10 PM
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Everyone's heard of muscle memory. Mt question is: have any of you experienced rapid regrowth of your tendons to previous strength after an extended break from climbing? After a forced two year "vacation", my muscles have mostly maintained strength, due to mucho boat rowing, but my tendons are feeling real tweaky. Anyone have some positive news, or is it going to take a loonnng time?
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cintune
Jun 11, 2007, 6:18 PM
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Longer, anyway. Whole different kind of tissue. There's less blood flow to tendons than muscle, so they're slower to heal.
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aerili
Jun 12, 2007, 4:58 AM
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"Tendons feeling tweaky" doesn't really quantify any specific quality of sensation to me...I have no idea what exactly you're talking about.
FWIW, tendons are actually the ends of muscles, so any "muscle memory" you experience isn't separate from your tendons. If your tendons weren't involved in your muscular contractions, you wouldn't be moving anything.
Stresses imposed by climbing are quite different from stresses imposed by rowing. I mean, you wouldn't train those two types of athletes the same way, now would you? Rowing (depending on the distance you typically engage in) generally requires something called MUSCULAR ENDURANCE--more so even than climbing long routes (few routes would require the exact same movement be performed over and over without rest for long, aerobic time intervals, in other words). My point is that rowing has helped keep your fitness levels up--which will ALWAYS aid in lessening the pain of training overload with any new physical activity. But it doesn't equal to conditioning for climbing, and if you are overdoing it or climbing too hard too fast, you're going to have to pay the piper...in this case, you may be feeling it first in your muscle attachments. (BTW, a strain is the same thing whether centered in the muscle belly or the tendinous unit of the muscle, it doesn't matter. In fact, many strains are sustained at the muscle-tendon junction.)
(This post was edited by aerili on Jun 13, 2007, 9:11 PM)
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overlord
Jun 13, 2007, 8:49 AM
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well, tendons do gain and loose strength slower than muscles, but i dont believe they have 'memory'. so i guess, itll be the long slow haul for you
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rmsusa
Jun 13, 2007, 8:23 PM
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In reply to: well, tendons do gain and loose strength slower than muscles
Other than breaking strength, what does "tendon strength" mean, anyway. They don't contract. Does the breaking strength actually change?
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aerili
Jun 13, 2007, 9:20 PM
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rmsusa wrote: Other than breaking strength, what does "tendon strength" mean, anyway. They don't contract. Does the breaking strength actually change?
Tendon strength isn't expressed the way we think of muscular strength. It's measured in two ways that I know of. Here is some (kinda layperson-friendly) information that helps explain from sportsinjurybulletin.com. It's long (and possibly too boring for you to really want to read, hehe):
How tendons work
It is helpful to think of the tendon behaving like an elastic band. The more force applied through the length of the tendon, the longer it will be stretched (until maximum strain is reached, when it snaps). When the stretch is released (the ping of the elastic band), most of the mechanical energy is recoiled, with the rest being lost as heat.
There are two key properties of tendons of relevance to the performance of the muscle-tendon complex (MTC): stiffness and hysteresis. Both can be altered with training.
Tendon ‘stiffness’ has nothing to do with our understanding of the word when we talk about flexibility, or range of motion. In this sense ‘stiffness’ is a mechanical property describing the relationship between the force applied to the muscle-tendon complex (MTC) and the change in the length of the unit. The exact equation is:
Stiffness (N/m) = force/change in muscle-tendon complex (MTC) length
(N/m = Newtons per metre)
So if a greater degree of force is needed to produce a given amount of stretch, we can say the muscle-tendon complex (MTC) is stiffer. Correspondingly, the exertion of less force to produce the stretch means the muscle-tendon complex (MTC) is more ‘compliant’.
If we continue with the elastic band analogy, short and thick bands (tendons) require more force to stretch them. While this makes them stiff, it also gives them a more forceful recoil. Long and thin bands (tendons) can be stretched easily and absorb more energy, but can only recoil back smaller forces.
Muscle-tendon complex (MTC) stiffness is not necessarily a bad thing. It depends upon the joints and movements involved as to which kind of tendon property will be optimal(1). MTCs that are involved in large ranges of movement, such as many athletic hip or shoulder movements, will benefit from being compliant (longer and thinner). MTCs involved in short ranges of movement, such as the ankle and knee in running, will benefit from being stiff.
The second key property of the tendon is hysteresis: the amount of energy lost as heat during the recoil from the stretch. By minimising the hysteresis you can increase the efficiency of the movement. This is one of the main goals of a warm- up before exercise, and explains why warm weather or room temperature tend to produce better performance in power events. Tendons have both viscous and elastic properties; a rise in temperature lessens the viscosity, improving the efficiency of the tendon’s response to stretch and recoil.
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