Too much tendon stress results in tears and overuse conditions such as tendinitis. These injuries often occur as a result of exercise. Injuries sustained in the pursuit of fitness can come back to haunt you. They present themselves as nagging aches and pains that compromise your fitness as you get older.
One of the objectives of exercise is to prevent injuries, not cause them. Proper strength training, by increasing bone density and muscle strength, gives one an added measure of protection from injuries. The same applies to tendons and other connective tissue - “Research indicates that resistance training promotes growth and/or increases in the strength of ligaments, tendons, tendon to bone and ligament to bone junction strength, joint cartilage and the connective tissue sheaths within muscle”.1
To minimize risk of injury, the goal is to exercise enough to produce positive change in your your muscles, joints, and connective tissue, not to see how much stress they can withstand . At our Austin Strength Training facility, we have years of experience determining the minimum effective dose of exercise (the amount that safely produces ongoing optimal improvement). Anything beyond that will at best result in a diminishing marginal return and at worst result in injury.
If you do nothing your muscles, bones, and connective tissue will become weaker and make an injury more likely. Is it worth a half hour of strength training each week to help avoid injuries and to live an active life? We think it is.
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