5 Ways to Stop Tendon Pain Fast (hint, rest isn’t one of them)
Dr. Pablo Estrada is a sports medicine family practitioner in El Paso, TX. As a sports medicine family practitioner, Dr. Estrada is trained to assess, diagnose, prevent, and treat sports injuries in patients of all ages, and refer those patients to further services if needed. Sports medicine family practitioners must complete... more
1) Hurt = Harm
Did you experience some major accident or fall? If you push on the painful spot, does it cause excruciating pain, enough to make you yell out loud or wince sharply? Can you walk 4 steps? Can you place all your weight onto the injured area (like standing on one leg, or doing a push-up)? If your answers are “yes, yes, no, no,” then you need to contact me. But if your answers are “no, no, yes, yes.” Then you more than likely did not injure yourself. Even if you are still unsure, feel free to contact me for a free, no-obligation consultation. That does not mean you should ignore what your body is telling you. You are doing something or moving in a way that is causing irritation and your body is trying to communicate that to you with pain.
2) Complete Rest is Bad
The old, and I stress “OLD,” saying or acronym of R.I.C.E. (rest, ice, compression, elevation) doesn’t work and is counter-intuitive. If someone tells you to rest and ice your pain, they do not know why you have pain and want you out of their hair. You need to keep moving and exercising but do so in a way that will not irritate your body.
3) Some Pain is Okay
Pain is your friend, and you should not expect to be completely pain-free in your life. Pain is your body’s way of sending you a warning signal. You are moving in a way that is causing irritation, the irritation is resulting in pain, that pain, if ignored, will eventually lead to changes in your body or worse, permanent damages.
4) Tendons Have Specific Needs to Recover
You may need to back down your current activity or training level to a very basic level, or you may just need to discontinue the high-level activity and go back to the pre-season type activity. It will depend on how long you have tried to ignore the pain. The more you have the pain, the farther back to basics you will need to go. See my other blog for exercises to help.
5) Healing Takes Time
Tendons have a poor blood supply, meaning the healing time is longer than you may think. I get people feeling better and out of pain in 1 week. Then it is a long road to get the performance back into the area. Meaning you will be able to do what you need to without any discomfort or pain in 1 week. But if you are wanting to take your activity to a higher level, we could be looking at 4-6 weeks before you are back to competing. Shoot me an email to see how I can help you stop the pain in 1 week.
