KNEES, ELBOWS, AND SHOULDERS

[therock]

I have tried everything to strengthen the actual tendons and ligaments and whatever else there is inside your knees, shoulders, and elbows. I was wondering if anyone had any workouts or advice on what exercises are meant or work to strengthen these parts. I have tremendous pain in these areas and would like to build the insides, not the muscle surounding them. Any help would be appreciated. Just to let yall know, I just started taking glucosimine chondrotine, and when I have too much pain I take celebrex aswell. Other then the exercises I am asking for if there is any other supplement I can take or anything to help please let me know. Thanks.

[Arralou]

MSM helped my shoulders alot. :)

[Shibby]

Where did you get the idea that you can strenthen it? Tendons, ligaments, cartlidge, are what they are. It's not like muscle tissue that you can tear down and it will repair bigger and stronger. They are a certain size and strength to fit with your body type that is in your genes. Just like you can't make the space in your joints larger for this stuff to grow. You can take stuff to help with faster repair if they are injured but that is it.

[therock]

Then why when I had surgery on my wrist and one of my knees I had to do Physical therapy to rebuild them? If that is the case then what is physical therapy for? I know they dont tear and such but I was always under the impression that they can be strengthen by exercise and physical therapy.
Also what dosage of MSM should I take? I have never taken MSM before and I know people like us need more then the reccomended dosage.

[Shibby]

After surgery, scar tissue develops on everything. Therapy is to rebuild muscle strength and keep ROM. Muscles around an area of surgery basically lay dead and need to learn how to be restimulated again. Just a natural reaction. Our bodies are designed to manage injury according to the cave man times. Back to the scar tissue. If you develop scar tissue in certain areas it can act like a stoping point as if you put a block behind a tire.

[shortz]

^^^Right. Surgery causes trauma to muscle. Rehab is simply strengthening and building those muscles back up and prevent the area to become stiff.

You have to understand the difference when you are talking about these things. Connective tissue is the tissue that surrounds the joints of bones. Tendons are the part of the muscle that are attached to the bone so that you can move that bone. Cartilage is like what is in your nose. It is almost like thin bone, elastic, but can still break.

When it comes to rehabbing joints, certain movments can benefit more than others to give back the functional strength of the muscles in the joints. For instance, external rotations for shoulder injuries. You're still not building the tendons or connective tissue though, you are simply building the muscle back in order to support the injury.

[therock]

So is there any type of movements I can do to strengthen the surrounding muscles of the injuries?

[shortz]

Whenever rehabbing a joint, the best is very light weight and high reps. Use too much weight and you risk further injury and also, you will start getting too many other muscles involved in the movement to assist. Fir example, when doing laterals, when you get to really heavy weights, your traps start playing more of a role in the movement. You prevent this by using light weights.

When I do my laterals for my shoulder rehab work, I use about 10-15lbs and do about 20 reps for 3 sets. External rotations are about the same.

For your knee, doing a light weight standing or laying leg curl can help. The best for knee rehab is a a stationary bike though.

For elbow, well, maybe Shibby knows one for this. I do know that a hand cycle can be used for extreme cases.

[Shibby]

You simply just want to do light weights on the muscles above and below the joint, slowly strengthening them up. After about 3 months of doing that (you may already be to this point) add in any movements you may put that joint through that you don't already do daily. Use light wieght if applicable and continue to slowly work up. Post surgery rehab of joints can take up to a year in some cases to really be at a level pre-injury.

[therock]

Thanks bros I will try this out and see what happens.