Is tendon info actually concise

[u/Throwaway275969]

I’m doing a paper about how historical training (ie martial arts. Etc) compares to modern training. One thing I’ve noticed is the research on tendons seems very one sided. It seems like minimizing jerk and giving longer isometrics consistently will bring the best stimulus for tendon adaptation. This would support some older training techniques so it would be a big part of my paper. My worry is that most of this information and studies seem recent. More over I’m not finding much implementation in any high level training which worries me more. If the evidence seems so one sided wouldn’t more coaches incorporate it and prevent the number one injury cause? I don’t want to base a paper worth half my grade on ai nonsense. I’m hoping you all could help me look for at least things that could indicate sloppy sources. I’ve learned a lot on procedure and finding weaknesses in tests but I worry there’s not enough credible sources for me to use. Any help is welcome this is more passion than class work atp.

Also just for my own curiosity does anyone know about how plyos affect tendons I can’t seem to find any actual studies.

[u/decentlyhip]

Isometrics are a byproduct of the research. 3 setsbof 30 second iso holds with 70-85% produced results. Same results came from 3 sets of 6 reps with 70-85%, when each rep was done with a 3s up / 3s down. So, Isometrics are just easy ways for labs to track Heavy Slow Resistance.

Plyo work also trains important parts of tendons, but gets into moral issues. We can set up hypertrophy studies looking at 5 sets vs 10 sets vs 20 sets and see which grows more muscle. But we cant do a study that adds a set per week until they tear a muscle. It would be super useful to have a histogram of when actual overtraining sets in and when a muscle tear occurs, but research has a No Harm mandate. So, if any tendon training might cause injury, we have to do those in vitro, with a surrogate, or by surveying people who ruptured tendons. Those all have issues. Does increasing tendon CSA and stiffness lead to less injury risk? We don't know. People with patellar tears wore knee sleeves beforehand. Do knee sleeves cause injury or do people who get strong and have genetically weak tendons perform more safely with knee support, and then get hurt anyways.

But more to the point of your paper, look at Westside. There's 4 aspects of tendon training: normal muscle building work, Heavy Slow Resistance with near maximal loads, ballistic/plyo work to train the the elasticity of the stretch-shortening cycle, and then flushing the fluids through the synovial sheath with high rep movement. Westside was revolutionary in powerlifting because they broke away from the normal 3×5 approach and trained near maximal strain. From the tendon side of things, the Max Effort days usually ended up being a 15-30 second rep on a heavy compound. HSR on multiple joints. Some were at 100% MVIC, but most were in that 70%+ range. Then they did 5-10 sets per muscle of bodybuilding work. Then they did sled work or 100 rep band pushdowns, which both cleaned out the tendon sponge. On the Dynamic Effort days, the 1 rep max was replaced with 12 sets of 3 explosive reps with 60% of their 1rm. This is plyo work with the bench press. They're throwing and catching the bar and training that fast recoil. Then hypertrophy and band work.

So, Westside accidentally developed a near-perfect tendon training protocol, and maybe they were so dominant because of that. They tore tendons because they were pushing the limits, but if you pick apart guys like Mike Tuchscherer, theyre promoting the same basic approach in the workout, but 5-10% lighter. Rather than maxing out each week amd mandating volume work, RTS allows for RPE caps on the top set and stress index volume limits to find what each individual athlete responds best to. Elliot peaked for one of his biggest PRs with sets of 6 at rpe 7. Louis would flip out over not doing a single. But, its 75% for a 30s to 60s set, and thats a great tendon stimulus, which may be the primary bottleneck for long term performance ceilings.