What is tendonitis?

A tendon is tissue that attaches muscle to the bone.

A tendon is stronger than a muscle as more collagen fibres are found in a tendon compared with muscle, however tendons aren’t as pliable as muscles, making them less adaptive to change in load/training.  

Tendons work with muscles to transfer load and force through the body. Occasionally tendons become overloaded due to training/posture/repetition.

When a tendon can’t tolerate the load it’s being put under it will become irritable and inflamed - this is what we know as tendinitis.

There are different forms of tendinitis depending on which part of the tendon/tendon sheath is inflamed.

If over time the tendon continues to be overloaded the tendon will inflame and start to degenerate which can cause long standing pain and issues.

Common forms of tendinitis are achilles tendinitis and patellar tendinitis.