Power in Tendons and Ligaments

[MightyB]

seriously... what the heck is that supposed to mean? People always talking about power in their tendons and shiite... not that I'm a physiologist or anything- but power is more of a muscular strength thing in my world.

[Kevin73]

What connects the muscle to the bone?

Your muscles are strong enough right now, that if you were able to fully flex them, you would literally be able to rip them from the bone. Your body has "sensors" that limit how much flex is allowed. If the connective tissue is stronger, and you have trained your nervous system through heavy lifting you are able to use more of what you have.

This was the purpose of the dynamic tension forms. It allowed a person to use the full amount of their muscles in throwing a punch. There are other ways as well, but that is one of the most traditional.

[TaichiMantis]

And now that I have to have ACL surgery, I can appreciate it even more.:(

[Oso]

mass confusion reigns.

[sanjuro_ronin]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tendon

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ligament

[sanjuro_ronin]

http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/tendon-strength-training-7

Tendon Strength Training: Performance benefits of optimising both components of your muscle tendon units

For most coaches and athletes the main aim of a strength programme is to increase the strength of the muscles. If the programme is targeting a specific sport, then the aim is to strengthen the most relevant muscles, using movements similar to those used in the sport itself. A runner, for example, may choose to do the lunge exercise, which works the hip and thigh muscles used during running.

Thinking about strength training from a different angle, it is interesting to consider the fact that muscles are attached to tendons and that connective tissue runs parallel to the muscle fibres through the muscle. This means that in many athletic movements the force is produced not just from the muscle contraction but also from a release of elastic energy from the tendon component. Therefore it is useful to think of force production as coming from a ‘muscle tendon unit’ (MTU) working as one system, whose two components may come into effect at different times.

Take, for example, the ankle movement during running: when the foot strikes the ground, at first the ankle dorsiflexes (flexes backwards) – the lower leg and foot angle getting smaller as the body absorbs the impact and the knee bends; then the centre of mass of the runner moves forwards and the ankle joint plantarflexes (forwards), with the lower leg and foot angle increasing as the knee extends and the toe pushes off the ground.

Interestingly, research using electromyography as an indicator of calf muscle activity during running shows that the calf muscles are very active during the dorsiflexion phase and not active during the plantarflexion phase. This is contrary to what you might expect, as the theoretical role of the calf muscles is to contract concentrically (shorten) when the ankle plantarflexes. So how can the ankle plantarflex without any activity from the calf muscle? The answer is that the Achilles tendon is stretched during the dorsiflexion phase of the ankle movement, and the elastic energy stored during stretching is then released when the Achilles shortens. During running, the role of the calf muscle is to control the movement of the ankle with an eccentric (lengthening) contraction during the dorsiflexion (shock absorbing) phase, while the role of the Achilles tendon is to release energy while it shortens to plantarflex the ankle and push off the ground.

This pattern of tendon stretch followed by shortening is common to many sporting movements. For example, the trunk and shoulder tendons stretch and then shorten during throwing movements such as those used in javelin, tennis and golf; the hip flexor tendons stretch and shorten during kicking movements; and the knee and Achilles tendons stretch and shorten during jumping movements. The technical term for this kind of movement is ‘stretch shorten cycle’, or SSC. Such movements are also commonly described as ‘plyometric’.

The simple reason why this SSC pattern of movement is so common is because it is efficient. If force can be produced with the release of elastic energy, the muscles can get away with doing less work. That makes elastic energy useful either for offsetting fatigue (with distance running, for example) or enabling greater force production (eg for throwing events).
How strength training targets tendons

Having established that the muscle tendon unit has two separate components that contribute to force production, the key question for athletes and coaches is how to improve the tendon’s elastic energy release as well as the strength of the muscles. This forces us to consider strength training from a non-traditional perspective in relation to how it targets tendon rather than muscle. But before doing that we need to examine the characteristics of tendons more closely, since different training methods are beneficial for different types of tendons.

For the purposes of this article, tendons can be thought of pretty much like elastic bands(1). The energy stored by such bands is proportional to the extent to which they are stretched. Long elastic bands are good at storing energy, and thin bands are ‘compliant’ in that they can be stretched very easily, with little force. Unfortunately, though, this means they produce less force when they recoil. Thick elastic bands, on the other hand, have greater ‘stiffness’ in that they require larger forces to stretch them, but they create large forces during recoil.

Tendons may also be stiffer or more compliant and, as such, are best suited to different types of movement. If the range of motion is large and the load is light, a compliant tendon is best because it can be stretched easily under the light load through the large range, and recoil efficiently. The hip flexion movement used during sprinting is a good example: the hip flexor is stretched fully as the hip extends during push-off, and then the hip flexes as the knee comes through in front of the body.
Sprinting needs compliant tendons

Studies have shown that during sprinting the hip goes from about –20o at toe-off to +95o when the knee is at its furthest forward position. This large range of motion requires a compliant tendon to enable it to stretch easily and not limit the effectiveness of the hip extension drive. And because the leg is relatively light, the hip flexor does not need the high force recoil a stiffer tendon might create.

The shoulder movement used during the tennis serve or cricket bowling action are other examples of the benefits of compliant tendons. The tennis racquet and cricket ball are relatively light objects by comparison with the max strength of the shoulder muscles, but the muscles must be taken through a large range of motion for a fast and efficient technique, which is best achieved with compliant shoulder tendons. It is much more efficient for a tennis player or fast bowler to create speed from the tendon energy release – which can be repeated for free – than from muscle power, which is tiring.

If the range of motion required is small, a stiff tendon is best for the job, whether the load is light or heavy. Stiff tendons create big forces rapidly, which is perfect for generating power over small ranges of motion. The fact that they are also harder to stretch matters less over small ranges of motion, especially when heavy loads are involved.

The knee joint motion used during running is a good example of the effectiveness of a stiff tendon. When a runner makes contact with the ground, the knee is slightly bent at an angle of around 40o. The knee flexes to absorb the impact, which stretches the quadriceps tendon, but only to around 60o. The knee then re-extends to about 40o at toe-off. This all occurs very quickly, in about 200 milliseconds. As running speed increases, the contact time with the ground decreases (to around 100msec for élite sprinters) and the knee flexion decreases. Thus, the faster the speed the more the knee joint requires a rapid but strong extension force, which a stiff quadriceps tendon will help to create.

From these examples it is possible for coaches and athletes to see how different ranges of movements and sizes of loads are best undertaken by different types of tendons, and to design training programmes to optimise the tendon performance. A running coach, for example, would choose exercises to promote a compliant hip flexor tendon but stiff quadriceps and Achilles tendons. A tennis player might work for a compliant shoulder and wrist.

Knowledge about this kind of training is still in its infancy, but one general rule applies: heavy weight training will increase the stiffness of a muscle tendon unit, while flexibility exercises will increase compliance. (In this context, heavy weight training means lifting loads of 75-90% of one repetition maximum. Usually, athletes perform 3-5 sets of 3-6 repetitions of these kinds of loads.)

You may be thinking that this general rule is self-evident and did not require my lengthy preamble about tendons. But it is important to understand that I am focusing in this article on how to produce adaptations in the tendon component of the MTU, not simply on how to increase muscle strength, which is the traditional purpose of heavy weight training. This means rethinking the traditional reasons for performing – or not performing – such training.

[sanjuro_ronin]

Take distance runners, for example: traditionally they have not performed much heavy weight training because they have not needed great muscular strength for their event. This is not an unreasonable stance. However, the knowledge that heavy weight training may increase the stiffness of the knee and Achilles tendons, thus making them more efficient during running, should encourage distance runners to take heavy weight training much more seriously.

Tennis players and fast bowlers may be used to performing heavy upper body weight training to increase serve and bowling power. However, if the upper body and shoulder tendons become less compliant as a result of this strength programme, some of the efficiency of the technique may be lost. In this situation, athletes who need to maintain their tendon compliance may consider plyometric training rather than heavy weight training to increase power, as this form of training will not reduce tendon compliance and may increase tendon energy release.

A word of warning here: large volumes of any type of training – endurance, heavy weights or plyometrics – are likely to increase tendon stiffness. If compliance is important, then high-quality training of moderate volume is recommended.

And another thing: do not confuse ‘stiffness’ with reduced range of motion and ‘compliant’ with increased flexibility. The two terms refer to the properties of the tendon when being stretched or recoiling from stretch and not to the extent of flexibility of the muscle tendon unit. It is possible for a muscle tendon unit to have good ‘range of motion’ and good ‘stiffness’ at the same time.

The take-home message for coaches and athletes is that they need to consider the effects of a training programme on the whole MTU, and how that will impact on performance. Consider your chosen sport and then answer the following questions:

* Do the movements involve relatively light or heavy loads on the muscles?
* Do the movements involve relatively large or small ranges of motion?

The answers to these questions will give you a basic guide as to whether tendon stiffness or tendon compliance is the MTU property you want to encourage.

Returning to the example of the distance runner, an MTU-specific programme may combine heavy weight training for the leg muscles with increased stretching for the hip flexors; this will maximise stride length and hip extensor drive and increase the spring-back from Achilles and knee tendons.
The importance of low hysteresis

The next step in tendon research is to gain understanding of the optimum levels of tendon stiffness for individual athletes in relation to their chosen sport. This is likely to form the basis for exciting developments in biomechanics and strength training theory in the coming years.

Another interesting property of tendon elastic energy release is ‘hysteresis’. This refers to the amount of energy lost between the stretch and the recoil and is independent of compliance or stiffness. Stiff tendons can have low hysteresis, which means high force recoil, with maximised stretch potential energy, or high hysteresis, which may counteract the benefits of the strong and rapid recoil. All athletes would wish to have tendons with the minimum of hysteresis, as this means that every SSC movement will be more efficient, producing more power for less muscular effort. It is very important, therefore, to perform exercises that promote reduced hysteresis, whether you are working for compliant or stiff tendons.

Research has shown that both flexibility and plyometric exercises reduce the hysteresis of a muscle tendon unit, so it is beneficial to include these exercises in any programme designed to optimise SSC movement efficiency. As mentioned earlier, plyometric training in moderate volumes will not increase the stiffness of the tendon, making it a great method for increasing the elasticity of the MTU and training the fast twitch muscle fibres without compromising tendon compliance. This would be useful for many sports – volleyball and golf, for example.

As far as flexibility exercises are concerned, given the current scientific controversy over the benefits of static stretching, I would recommend dynamic stretching as being more useful, and possibly safer. It seems logical to develop a range of motion actively as this makes it more specific to the requirements of any given sport.

The second take-home message is that strength and conditioning programmes should incorporate exercise routines for optimising tendon hysteresis. For a runner, a regular dynamic stretching routine and low-impact plyometric sprint drills session could be a very good means for achieving that end.

Remember, though, that tendons adapt slowly, so you must progress your training programme gradually, especially if you perform heavy weight training and plyometric exercises. With plyometrics, it is best to monitor the volume of the session by counting the number of leg contacts or upper body throws you perform: 50-80 contacts would count as a light session, about 100 contacts moderate, and over 140 contacts heavy.

I hope this article has made you stop and think about your event, your body and what it needs in terms of both muscular strength and tendon performance. If you can design your training to optimise both components of the MTU, you should succeed in optimising your performance.

Raphael Brandon

Reference

1. ‘Optimising the Tendon for Athletic Performance’. Anthony Blazevich PhD. Presentation given at the UK Athletics Strength and Conditioning Conference, Loughborough, April 2003

[sanjuro_ronin]

http://www.muscleandstrength.com/articles/six-basic-rules-of-strength-training.html

Rule 2: Development of Ligament and Tendon Strength.

Calf Raise Strength of the muscle improves faster than tendon and ligament strength. Overlooking the overall strengthening of the ligaments is the main cause of injury. Most injuries are not in the muscle but in the ligaments. Tendons and ligaments grow stronger through anatomical adaptation to training. Without proper adaptation, vigorous strength training can injure the ligaments and tendons. By training the tendons and ligaments it causes them to enlarge in diameter, and increasing their ability to withstand tension and tearing.

Made up of the fibrous protein collagen, ligaments play the important role of attaching articulating bones to each other across a joint. The strength of a ligament directly depends on it cross-sectional area. Excessive force directed at a joint may rupture the ligaments. During regular exercise or activity ligaments are easily elongated to allow movement in the joint to move naturally. When a high load is applied in training the stiffness of the ligaments increase in order to restrict excessive motion of the joint, however if the load is too great the ligaments may not be able to withstand the stress and an injury may occur. The best way to avoid injury is to properly condition the body to handle the stress on the ligaments. Conditioning the ligaments with a cycle of loading and unloading as done in an adaptation phase of training adapts the structures of the ligaments to handle the stress and provide adequate time for regeneration. Progressively increasing the load used in training improves the visco-dynamic movements and allows them to better accommodate high tensile loads such as dynamic movements, plyometrics and maximum strength training.

The primary function of a tendon is to connect muscles to a bone. Tendons also transmit force from muscle to the bones so that movement can occur. Tendons also store elastic energy, which is so important in any ballistic movements such as plyometrics. The stronger the tendon is the greater is its capacity to store elastic energy. Athletes in track and field events have very powerful tendons. Without these strong tendons they wouldn’t be able to apply such great force against the bones to overcome the force of gravity. Tendons and ligaments are trainable. Their material and structural properties change as a result of training, increasing their thickness, strength and stiffness by up to 20%. Ligaments and tendons after an injury are healable, although they won’t recover to their pre-injury capability.

Exercise especially the type performed during the anatomical adaptation phase can be considered an important injury prevention method. The abilities of tendons and ligaments to secure the anatomical integrity of joints (ligaments), and to transmit force (tendons), can decline if their strengthening is disrupted. Equally important to note, especially for steroid users, is that abusing steroids results in increasing the muscle force at the expense of the ligaments and tendons material properties. Increasing force without correspondingly strengthening ligaments and tendons results in the ligament injuries we see today in so many sports.

[TaichiMantis]

Agree with above, and as I understand it...

For maximum power, your delivery system must be at it's most efficient. The better shape your tendons and liagaments are in, the better they can facilitate the delivery of power. This is also tied to correct structure and balance. Poor posture (structure) in any movement causes strain on the tendons and ligaments, muscle imbalances...screws up the kinetic chain, leading to inefficient power delivery.

Thank goodness my sifu knows the TCM side of TCPM. Most of the old school sifu's also learned the healing side of their martial art, including how to facilitate healing of tendon and liagment injuries. I screwed up my shoulder on a bad throw landing and could barely lift my arm. Sifu Li worked on it and then held a finger near my clavicle and said "now lift", and I could. He worked on it after the next three classes and I healed much faster than I would have.

[kfson]

The stronger the tendon is the greater is its capacity to store elastic energy.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

[taai gihk yahn]

seriously... what the heck is that supposed to mean? People always talking about power in their tendons and shiite... not that I'm a physiologist or anything- but power is more of a muscular strength thing in my world.
tendon power in a physiological sense has to do with the tendon's ability to store and release energy, so the degree of elastic recoil a tendon possesses relates to it's ability to do this; ligaments, OTOH, are designed to do one thing: keep the joint from moving beyond it's normal physiologic range when the force applied occurs in a way that the muscles are unable to do so (e.g. - when clipped in the knee laterally, the muscles are ill-designed to counteract the force in this direction, which is why the ACL and MCL bear the brunt of the damage); ligaments are non-contractile and have limited elastic capacity - basically, you want them as tight as possible, as laxity is a recipe for injury
conversely, from a TCM perspective, tendon, ligament and muscle are all lumped together as "gan" or sinew, which lends itself to many a misunderstanding about what is actually being described;


What connects the muscle to the bone?

Your muscles are strong enough right now, that if you were able to fully flex them, you would literally be able to rip them from the bone. Your body has "sensors" that limit how much flex is allowed. If the connective tissue is stronger, and you have trained your nervous system through heavy lifting you are able to use more of what you have.

This was the purpose of the dynamic tension forms. It allowed a person to use the full amount of their muscles in throwing a punch. There are other ways as well, but that is one of the most traditional.
where on earth are you getting your muscle physiology information? while bits and pieces of what you say are somewhat correct, you have mixed up several things and conflated others; for example, the "sensors" you talk about which prevent muscles from being damaged function when muscle is being passively elongated, not actively shortened, and are velocity dependent as well; second, "dynamic tension" is largely an isometric practice, and it is actually diametrically opposed to the sort of contraction that makes a punch powerful; there's more, but it's just too much to get into


And now that I have to have ACL surgery, I can appreciate it even more.:(
having once prosected out a knee in school, leaving only the ACL/PCL intact, I can tell you that even in the absence of all other ligaments they still held the joint together very strongly...


mass confusion reigns.
indeed it do...

anyway, what Sanjuro posted pretty much hits the nail on the head...

[Xiao3 Meng4]

Sanjuro ftw!

Here's a bit of extra info on connective tissue you may find interesting.

http://www.rolf.org.es/documentos/PerimysiumHypoth.pdf



Passive muscle stiffness may be influenced
by active contractility of intramuscular
connective tissue
Robert Schleip *, Ian L. Naylor, Daniel Ursu, Werner Melzer, Adjo Zorn,
Hans-Joachim Wilke, Frank Lehmann-Horn, Werner Klingler

Summary
The article introduces the hypothesis that intramuscular connective tissue, in particular the fascial layer known as the perimysium, may be capable of active contraction and consequently influence passive muscle stiffness, especially in tonic muscles. Passive muscle stiffness is also referred to as passive elasticity, passive muscular compliance, passive extensibility, resting tension, or passive muscle tone. Evidence for the hypothesis is based on five indications: (1) tonic muscles contain more perimysium and are therefore stiffer than phasic muscles;
(2) the specific collagen arrangement of the perimysium is designed to fit a load-bearing function; (3) morphological considerations as well as histological observations in our laboratory suggest that the perimysium is characterized by
a high density of myofibroblasts, a class of fibroblasts with smooth muscle-like contractile kinetics; (4) in vitro contraction tests with fascia have demonstrated that fascia, due to the presence of myofibroblasts, is able to actively contract, and that the resulting contraction forces may be strong enough to influence musculoskeletal dynamics; (5) the pronounced increase of the perimysium in muscle immobilization and in the surgical treatment of distraction osteogenesis indicates that perimysial stiffness adapts to mechanical stimulation and hence influences passive muscle stiffness. In conclusion, the perimysium seems capable of response to mechanostimulation with a myofibroblast facilitated active tissue contraction, thereby adapting passive muscle stiffness to increased tensional
demands, especially in tonic musculature. If verified, this new concept may lead to novel pharmaceutical or mechanical approaches to complement existing treatments of pathologies which are accompanied by an increase or decrease of passive muscle stiffness (e.g., muscle fibroses such as torticollis, peri-partum pelvic pain due to pelvic instability, and many others). Methods for testing this new concept are suggested, including histological examinations and specific in vitro contraction tests.

[taai gihk yahn]

Sanjuro ftw!

Here's a bit of extra info on connective tissue you may find interesting.

http://www.rolf.org.es/documentos/PerimysiumHypoth.pdf

makes sense to me; osteopathically, certain treatment approaches / results would seem to subjectively correlate with this idea;

oh, and "Medical Hypothesis" is a very cool journal - it's a lot of "on the edge" stuff that gets looked at in a "scientific" way...

[taai gihk yahn]

bold added by me:


Implications
A multitude of pathologies are accompanied and complicated by increased passive muscle stiffness. Examples range from torticollis and other muscle fibroses, to Parkinson’s rigor, ankylosing spondylitis, neck or back pain associated with chronic
muscular tightness, to muscle shortness in rehabilitation. While the primary cause of the pathology is clearly outside the field of this paper, daily motor performance is frequently impeded by secondary changes in passive muscle stiffness, particularly
in tonic muscles. Our hypothesis suggests, that – aside from myogenic changes – an increase in the perimysial stiffness may be a results of myofibroblast-facilitated contraction of this fascial layer. If verified, this could open new avenues for novel
mechanical or pharmaceutical approaches that would complement existing treatments. In spastic muscular dystrophy, for example, the soleus is often chronically shortened, which makes walking difficult. This is usually treated either surgically
or with various mechanical stretching approaches. We suggest that treatment with super-slow manual deep tissue techniques which are geared towards
sensing and influencing cellular contractility, may be helpful in this and similar conditions. Such techniques are commonly practiced by osteopaths and
by practitioners of the Rolfing method of deep tissue manipulation [31].

[31] Grodin AJ, Cantu RI. Soft tissue mobilization. In: Basmajian
JV, Nyberg R, editors. Rational manual therapies. Balti-
more: Williams & Wilkins; 1993.

FYI, Rolfing is a technique created by Ida Rolf, a PhD biochemist who studied, you guessed it, osteopathic manual therapy and came up w/her own approach which is correctly titled Structural Integration; so there...

[Oso]

my kung fu shifu said once that 'tendon/sinew' in chinese doesn't necessarily mean what the english words means. to me, this might have led to a lot of confusion in later generation students.


i'm gonna try a rolfer next...one of the CF women in our group is supposed to be the shiznit.

[taai gihk yahn]

my kung fu shifu said once that 'tendon/sinew' in chinese doesn't necessarily mean what the english words means. to me, this might have led to a lot of confusion in later generation students.


i'm gonna try a rolfer next...one of the CF women in our group is supposed to be the shiznit.

BTW, turns out that I actually know a PT in Ashevile I went school with:
http://www.idellepacker.net/
don't know if it's ur cup of tea, but she was very bright in school and has been doing Alexander Technique forever

[uki]

iron ball juggling is great for developing tendon strength in the upper body. :)

[Oso]

BTW, turns out that I actually know a PT in Ashevile I went school with:
http://www.idellepacker.net/
don't know if it's ur cup of tea, but she was very bright in school and has been doing Alexander Technique forever


thanks...i'll add the link to my list of people i'd like to spend money with :)

[kfson]

How about Yoga?

When tendons are not elastic (used in a long term exercise program), do they calcify?

[sanjuro_ronin]

One thing on dynamic tension:
It is not an isometric strength building exercise.
Isometric are basically, static holds in which maximum tension is held for a prescribed period of time, depending on the goal.
Dynamic tension is an "isokinetic" exercise, tension is held through a given range of motion and it must be, ideally, a FULL range of motion.
While isometics don't do much for strenghtening tendons because there is NO movement in them, isokinetic exeercise CAN strenghten tendons because they are invlved in the concentric and eccenttic phases of the movement.
HOWEVER, standard strengtht building exercises thend to be more effective than isokinetic ones because the degree of resistence is not only constant but also measurable.
Unlike isokinetic tension forms.

[taai gihk yahn]

iron ball juggling is great for developing tendon strength in the upper body. :)
to some degree, yes, because it is plyometric, but it would have to depend on where in the range of motion - so for forearm / wrist, I could see it, but it's not going to really hit the elastic component as much in the shoulder - but you would get more scapular stabilization work there which is also very good;

[uki]

to some degree, yes, because it is plyometric, but it would have to depend on where in the range of motion - so for forearm / wrist, I could see it, but it's not going to really hit the elastic component as much in the shoulder - but you would get more scapular stabilization work there which is also very good;it's quite amazing what alittle conscious breathing and relaxation can do when juggling the iron balls... which reminds me... i have discovered the 12 and 16 lb shot put - for indoor and outdoor use. :D

[taai gihk yahn]

it's quite amazing what alittle conscious breathing and relaxation can do when juggling the iron balls... which reminds me... i have discovered the 12 and 16 lb shot put - for indoor and outdoor use. :D

one excellent thing is that because you are moving the arms constantly is that you are pumping lymph at the axillary nodes and with conscious breathing you are working respiratory diaphragm / ribs, so you are enhancing lymphatic return from the abdominal viscera; probably getting some work into inguinal nodes as well; so for overall lymphatic drainage, it seems like a worthwhile endeavor...

[sanjuro_ronin]

one excellent thing is that because you are moving the arms constantly is that you are pumping lymph at the axillary nodes and with conscious breathing you are working respiratory diaphragm / ribs, so you are enhancing lymphatic return from the abdominal viscera; probably getting some work into inguinal nodes as well; so for overall lymphatic drainage, it seems like a worthwhile endeavor...

Well, **** you too !
:D

[uki]

one excellent thing is that because you are moving the arms constantly is that you are pumping lymph at the axillary nodes and with conscious breathing you are working respiratory diaphragm / ribs, so you are enhancing lymphatic return from the abdominal viscera; probably getting some work into inguinal nodes as well; so for overall lymphatic drainage, it seems like a worthwhile endeavor...it's nice to see someone technically break down the qualities of what i simply call a most excellent exercise. :D

i wish i could find the right words to explain the feeling i have in my body after practicing iron ball juggling...

[sanjuro_ronin]

i wish i could find the right words to explain the feeling i have in my body after practicing iron ball juggling...

I know how I feel after my balls get juggled by a nice woman.
:D

[uki]

I know how I feel after my balls get juggled by a nice woman.that too is up there on my list of good feelings. :D

[MightyB]

that too is up there on my list of good feelings. :D

I second that motion...

All in favor say "Aye"
----

Well, I asked, and got the answer- good stuff. Although I'm still under the impression that "strengthening the tendons and ligaments" when used in the martial school context falls under the category of one of those wisened cliche fortune cookie sayings that "masters" spout off without really knowing the what or why... or even the how.

[kfson]

Has anyone tried to focus chi into that area?

[IronFist]

seriously... what the heck is that supposed to mean? People always talking about power in their tendons and shiite... not that I'm a physiologist or anything- but power is more of a muscular strength thing in my world.

I didn't read the other replies, so sorry if this has been said before.

Muscles contract.

Tendons and ligaments do not.

TMAs who don't know what they're talking about tell you to do things like "move with your tendons." What they're really trying to say is "don't use too much excess muscle power."

Tendons and ligaments strengthen as you do strength training, but you can't contract them specifically.

Martial artists are like the worst people to learn physiology things from. The give you gems like:

"Move with your tendons"

"You can build muscle without protein"

"Big muscles make you slow and inflexible"

etc.

Usually they're the same people who don't spar with their students because they are "too deadly for the ring" and other such nonsense.