Even as an exercise physiologist, tendons had a way of humbling me last year. Check out the skimmable highlights below or read my full story!

Achilles. Hamstring. Glute med. The trifecta of tendinopathies hit me hard in 2023-24.

I felt the signs—stiffness, that sharp localized pain after workouts. I knew what they meant. I’ve coached dozens of athletes and individuals through similar issues. But like so many, I pushed through.

I told myself it would “settle.” It didn’t. I stretched it more. It kept getting worse. I went to therapy to bandaid the fact that it was just poor load management and the tendon was telling me to "lay off". It kept getting worse. You get the picture.
​
This landed me in emergency mode come January 2024 when I needed a bone scan just 4 months from my Boston Marathon debut.... and that woke me up to the strengths I could leverage.

I remembered I could do what I always do: I dug deeper & I revisited the research, refined my protocols, and experimented on myself.

And here’s what I had to remind myself:
✅ Tendons thrive on precision—not just strength, but the right kind of loading.
✅ Recovery isn’t passive. Collagen synthesis, timing, and patience play a massive role.
✅ Pain isn’t the enemy. Poor load management is.

The truth is, tendons demand respect. Ignore the signals, and you’ll pay for it later.

I put together a full breakdown on everything I learned last year—both from the research and through trial and error—so you can avoid the same mistakes I made.

📖 Check out my tips: 16 Things You Need to Know About Tendons If You're Injured​

​

And if you're curious, my personal protocol for recovery went something like this:

✅ Every morning I did 3-5 sets of isometrics up to 3/10 pain for 30 seconds on and 2 minutes rest
✅ Every night I did something fatiguing for the muscle attached to the problematic tendon, in positions with no pain. Typically 1-2 max rep set of calf raises (for achilles) or a max side plank hold (for glute med)
✅ No passive therapy like massage/needling (that might shock some individuals). I had overdone passive therapy, which had made things worse. No more irritating the area. It needed load and then time to rest.
✅ No crossing my legs while seated (that position stretches the glute med tendon and loads it. Once I realized this was flaring me up, I started to make more progress by avoiding it. Sleeping with a pillow between the legs also helped).
✅ I did the above for 4 months straight before the Boston marathon while running on treadmills (level/predictable running felt better than outside) and while progressively adding heavy strength work in ranges that didn't piss off my tendons
✅ I ran pain free at Boston then took 3 months off of running to continue to rebuild strength!

​

​

In 2 weeks I plan to share some of my fave rehab exercises for glute med that I've been experimenting with. Stay tuned for that.
​
​In the meantime, here's my 3 go-to exercises for TFL rehab for your viewing pleasure:

If you're not injured - HERE is a detailed blog on why strength training is key for endurance athletes like me. Hip Foundations is 3 days of strength and 1 day of mobility/release and it can probably help too, HERE.

LASTLY - unrelated to tendons. Vital's Nick just broke a WORLD RECORD! Check it out:

Reply here if you need anything or just want to say hi!

Yours in physiology,

Carla