What is tendonitis?

Tendonitis is a common yet persistent condition that can make even simple, everyday movements feel painful and restricted. Whether you’re an athlete pushing your physical limits or someone performing repetitive tasks at work, tendonitis can severely impact your quality of life. This fact sheet is designed to provide you with a comprehensive overview of tendonitis, its causes, common locations, and how tailored chiropractic care can support your recovery.

In this article, Dr. Simon Nash (Chiropractor) discusses the underlying mechanisms of tendonitis and the multi-modal strategies used to manage pain and restore functional movement.

Please note: The information provided in this article is for general knowledge and informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. It is essential to consult with a qualified healthcare professional for an accurate diagnosis and personalised treatment plan.

Table of Contents

1. Understanding Tendonitis
2. Common Causes and Risk Factors
3. Frequently Affected Areas
4. How Chiropractic Care Can Help
5. Evidence-Based Interventions
6. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
7. Book a Consult with Our Chiro Brisbane
8. References
9. Video Transcript

Understanding Tendonitis

Tendons are tough, flexible bands of fibrous connective tissue that attach muscles to bones, allowing joints to move smoothly when muscles contract. Tendonitis occurs when a tendon becomes inflamed, irritated, or subject to localised microtrauma.

“Tendonitis is where you have irritation or microtrauma to the tendon,” explains Dr. Nash. “And there’s obviously a lot of inflammation around there. The body can’t keep up with repair, and you end up with quite a lot of pain and swelling around that area.”

When microtrauma builds up faster than the body can self-repair, inflammation sets in. Patients typically experience localised tenderness, pain during movement, stiffness, and occasional mild swelling around the affected joint.

Overloading the tissue without adequate recovery disrupts the body’s natural repair cycle.

“The body can’t keep up with repair,” notes Dr. Nash. “And you end up with quite a lot of pain and swelling around that area.”

This mismatch between structural stress and cellular recovery is the primary driver of persistent tendon pain.

Common Causes and Risk Factors

Tendonitis can affect individuals across all age groups and walks of life. Dr. Nash points out that the primary underlying mechanism behind tendonitis is often “overuse or repetitive strain.”

Key causes include:

1. Repetitive Occupational Strain: Professions that require constant, repetitive motions put sustained stress on specific tendon groups.

“Certain professions such as a chef chopping all the time, builders using hammers, tennis players… you can even have acute injuries such as falls, accidents that can create tendonitis,” Dr. Nash shares.

2. Exercise and Athletic Overload: Incorrect lifting techniques, sudden increases in training volume, or inadequate rest in gym environments frequently contribute to tendon irritation.

3. Acute Musculoskeletal Trauma: While overuse is the most frequent culprit, sudden impacts, falls, or sudden heavy forces can also trigger acute tendonitis.

Frequently Affected Areas

While tendonitis can develop near any joint where a tendon attaches to a bone, certain areas are far more susceptible due to their mobility and load-bearing roles.

Shoulder (Rotator Cuff and Biceps Tendons)

Shoulder tendonitis frequently affects the rotator cuff tendons or the long head of the biceps tendon, resulting in pain during overhead movements or severe stiffness.

“Rotator cuff injuries or frozen shoulder… sometimes you would have tendonitis or tendonopathies that are created there, and then you would have a reduction in the movement of the shoulder,” explains Dr. Nash.

Elbow (Tennis Elbow and Golfer’s Elbow)

Lateral epicondylitis (tennis elbow) and medial epicondylitis (golfer’s elbow) involve inflammation of the tendons attaching to the outer or inner side of the elbow joint.

“Tennis elbow… you would end up with pain on the outside of your elbow. And to grasp things, like grasp strength is reduced, and lifting things is painful,” says Dr. Nash.

How Chiropractic Care Can Help

Managing tendonitis effectively requires addressing both local tissue inflammation and the functional imbalances that caused the overload in the first place. Chiropractic care at Our Chiro Brisbane focuses on reducing pain, removing tissue restrictions, and promoting cellular repair.

Treating tendonitis effectively relies on targeted structural restoration rather than short-term symptomatic relief.

“We would look at doing things where we’re reducing and facilitating the repair of the tendons and the microtrauma around that,” says Dr. Simon Nash (Chiropractor).

“So it’s something that’s treated quite effectively as well.”

By restoring biomechanical alignment and reducing tension, the affected tissue is given an optimal environment to heal.

Evidence-Based Interventions

A modern chiropractic management strategy utilises a combination of modalities tailored to the individual’s condition:

1. Cold Laser Therapy (Low-Level Laser Therapy): Non-invasive light therapy stimulates cellular repair, enhances blood flow, and reduces localised inflammation without heat or pain. Research shows LLLT can significantly lower pain intensity in acute and chronic tendinopathies.

“Some of those techniques would be cold laser, which is painless and really effective at actually improving blood flow and cellular repair,” notes Dr. Nash.

2. Shockwave Therapy: Extracorporeal shockwave therapy delivers acoustic waves to break down painful adhesions and calcifications, facilitating long-term tendon remodelling.

3. Dry Needling and Active Soft Tissue Release: Targeted muscle release and dry needling reduce hypertonicity in surrounding muscle bellies, alleviating continuous traction forces on the inflamed tendon.

4. Mobilisation and Adjustments: Joint mobilisations restore proper biomechanics, taking excess stress off compensating soft tissues.

5. Prescribed Home Stretches and Rehabilitation: Progressive loading exercises strengthen the tendon safely to prevent future re-injury.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q1: What is the main difference between tendonitis and tendinopathy? A: Tendonitis specifically refers to an acute inflammatory condition caused by microtrauma, whereas tendinopathy (or tendinosis) involves long-term tissue degeneration without active acute inflammation.

Q2: How long does tendonitis take to heal? A: Recovery timelines vary depending on severity, location, and compliance with care. Mild cases can improve within 2 to 4 weeks, whereas chronic tendon issues may require 6 to 12 weeks of structured rehabilitation.

Q3: Should I apply heat or ice to an inflamed tendon? A: Ice is generally recommended during the acute phase (first 48 to 72 hours) to decrease swelling and numb sharp pain. Heat can be beneficial later on to relax surrounding tight muscles and encourage blood flow.

Q4: Can I continue working out or playing sports with tendonitis? A: High-impact or aggravating repetitive activities should be modified or paused to prevent further structural damage. Low-impact movements and targeted rehab exercises under professional supervision are encouraged.

Q5: Is cold laser therapy safe and painful? A: Yes, cold laser therapy is completely safe, non-invasive, and painless. It stimulates natural tissue healing at a cellular level without emitting heat or damaging tissues.

Q6: Can a chiropractor help with elbow or shoulder tendonitis? A: Absolutely. Chiropractors evaluate joint mechanics, surrounding muscle activity, and soft tissue health to deliver comprehensive care for peripheral joint conditions like tennis elbow and rotator cuff tendonitis.

Book a Consult with Our Chiro Brisbane

We understand how frustrating tendonitis can be. When a nagging pain in your shoulder, elbow, or wrist keeps you from enjoying your favorite sport, excelling at work, or simply carrying out daily household tasks, it easy to feel overwhelmed.

At Our Chiro Brisbane, our dedicated practitioners take the time to listen and thoroughly evaluate your condition. By identifying the true cause of your tendon overload, we create a clear, personalised recovery path to reduce your pain, improve mobility, and help you get back to living life comfortably.

Don’t let tendon pain hold you back any longer. Book an appointment with Our Chiro Brisbane today or call us on (07) 3257 0399

References

Video Transcript

Something that we see in the clinic every day and get a lot of questions about is tendonitis and what causes it and how can you treat it. So tendonitis is often from overuse or repetitive strain. So if you think about someone in the gym for example, lifting incorrectly or overloading what they’re doing in the gym, so that could cause inflammation around the tendon or tendonitis. Certain professions such as a chef chopping all the time, builders using hammers, tennis players, you can even have acute injuries such as falls, accidents that can create tendonitis. So tendonitis is where you have irritation or microtrauma to the tendon and there’s obviously a lot of inflammation around there. The body can’t keep up with repair and you end up with quite a lot of pain and swelling around that area. Patients notice on certain movements or doing certain activities there’s pain. Another example would be rotator cuff injuries or frozen shoulder. Sometimes you would have tendonitis or tendonopathies that are created there and then you would have a reduction in the movement of the shoulder. So we would look at doing things where we’re reducing and facilitating the repair of the tendons and the microtrauma around that. Some of those techniques would be cold laser which is painless and really effective at actually improving blood flow and cellular repair. Shockwave therapy to help break down adhesions around the area to actually get better movement of the shoulder. We would use dry needling to help take pressure and pain away from the muscles that are either overused or underactive. Mobilisation techniques, adjustment techniques, just to name a few of the ways we would treat tendonitis in the shoulder. Another really common one that we’ve all heard of is golfer’s elbow or tennis elbow. So tennis elbow synonymous with, not just tennis, but for example builders using hammers and using repetitive movement or lifting problems. So you would end up with pain on the outside of your elbow and to grasp things, like grasp strength is reduced, and lifting things is painful. So again we would look at doing active release around the muscles in and around the forearm, doing some needling techniques, cold laser, kinesio taping, and obviously some stretches that they can do at home to help reduce that inflammation around the tendon. So tendonitis is a very, very common problem, something that we see all the time. There’s lots of different reasons it’s happened from trauma like I said, repetitive movements, and so you see it with people in different professions, all walks of life. It’s not just elderly people, it’s not just young people, it’s across the whole range of society. And something that’s treated quite effectively as well.