Tendons & Lactic Acid

Tendons attach muscle to bone eg. the Achillies Tendon attaches your Gastrocnemius to your heel. They allow the contraction to move bones.Poor training can damage tendons, if for example a person was using weights that were too heavy for them they could tear the associated tendons. However exercise that is appropriate to a persons level will strengthen tendons and make them more flexible, and less prone to injury. 

Tendonitis (Inflammation of a tendon)  Symptoms:

• Tenderness
• Pain
• Swelling
• Warm skin
• Reduced movement of the muscles

How to avoid problems with tendons:

• Avoid repetatie movements 
• Exercises to stregnthen muscles around affected tendon
• Seek appropriate treatment e.g physio or doctor
• Rest

After a prolonged of exercise (which used up oxygen) there is an absence of oxgen in the muscles and lactic acid is formed in the working muscles. Lactic acid caused muscle pain and often this leads us to stop or reduce the activity we are doing. In other words, the uncomfortable build-up of lactic acid means we can not continue exercise for too long. When we recover, we take in oxygen and this helps to convert lactic acid into waste products that we can get rid of.

An active, healthy lifestyle will:

• Improve the muscles' capacity of using oxygen more efficiently
• Help muscles deal with larger amounts of lactic acid
• Ensure that we can keep going for longer in activities by delaying the onset of lactic acid. 

Smoking and alcohol consumtion will slow down our ability to deal with lactic acid.