The Ultimate Guide to Tendon Training (With KneesOverToesGuy!)
When properly developed, a tendon has good elasticity and is strong and capable of great power. Tendons essentially cause the bone to move as they transmit tensile load produced by the muscles. A tendon will strengthen concurrently with the muscle usually but if great increases in weight are desired they need to be targeted separately. Tendon injuries are relatively common in those who use anabolic steroids and increase muscle, but not tendon, strength at a phenomenal rate.To develop great power, and consequently muscle size, it is important to specialize with exercises that stress the major muscle groups such as the thighs, chest, back and shoulders. Squats, bench press, dead-lifts, bent rowing and barbell shoulder presses are obvious examples of compound exercise that stress these muscle groups.
However, to develop strength in the tendons and ligaments, which will lead to increased strength in subsequent work-outs and ultimately greater muscle gains, the idea is to execute these movements over a shorter range of motion.
The short range movements will allow more weight to be lifted and a greater emphasis will be placed on tendons and ligaments rather than the muscle bellies.
The idea with short range movements is to progressively increase the distance the weight has to travel over time.