Hi everyone, Erienne here with Peak Endurance Performance & Physical Therapy. I want to talk to you guys about activity modification when we are dealing with pain as it relates specifically to a tendon.

So there are lots of things your physical therapist will take into consideration when giving you things to modify throughout your daily lives pertaining to tendon issues. They will consider how irritable you are, your phase of tendon healing and what your specific activities are at home. Whether it’s working out or just as it pertains to your job or your home life.

So those are three specific things that your therapist will help you with to modify your activities. We do want to keep you moving and working out. As a general rule, our tendons like to be loaded. It keeps them healthy, and functioning optimally.

But I want to talk to you guys about a general rule of thumb that you can take into your daily life and activities to help you keep moving while still being respectful of your tendon.

Number one is pain level. If you are doing an activity that causes less than three to four of 10 pain, typically that is okay to continue doing. So that pain level has to be three to four or less out of ten during activity.

And the other thing we want to consider is that if the pain or discomfort increases after the activity, it should resolve 24 hours after that activity. If that pain increase is lingering for more than 24 hours, then we might have loaded that tendon too much. That might actually slow down your healing process.

So again, the two things we look for with activity relating to tendon issues are as follows. One, is having less than three to four out of 10 pain during the activity. And number two, any increase in pain from baseline should reduce within 24 hours after that activity. Hope this helps keep you moving!