OBJECTIVE To examine whether acupuncture treatment would improve outcome in chronic Achilles tendinopathy. METHODS A randomized, controlled trial at two centers of 64 randomized patients aged 18 to 70 years with chronic Achilles tendinopathy was conducted from July 2007 to April 2010, with follow-up until October, 2010. These patients were randomly allocated into an acupuncture treatment grou...

BACKGROUND Midportion Achilles tendinopathy (AT) is a common overuse injury, usually requiring several months of rehabilitation. Exercise therapy of the ankle plantar flexors (i.e. tendon loading) is considered crucial during conservative rehabilitation. Alfredson's isolated eccentric and Silbernagel's combined concentric-eccentric exercise programs have both shown beneficial results, but it is...

Objectives Current best evidence has reported that therapeutic exercise programs are designed to treat patellofemoral pain (PFP) should include both hip and knee specific exercises. The purpose of this review was (1) examine the quality/comprehensiveness reporting in field; (2) quantify extent which individual exercises comprised task-specific elements (single limb stance; eccentric control hip...

  Background: The aim of this study was to investigate muscle damage indicators and electromyography activities of quadriceps muscles at 25° of hip flexion in untrained healthy females after an eccentric exercise induced muscle fiber damage.   Methods : A total of 14 healthy females participated in this pre-experimental study. The subjects performed maximal eccentric quadriceps contractions at ...

Background: In the Postmenopausal phase, there is a drastic reduction in estrogen levels which may alter tendon metabolism and production of different growth factors, resulting chronic disorders or rupture. Achilles tendinopathy predominantly affects athletes, but it also impact individuals with sedentary lifestyles, especially women their postmenopausal stage. We studied effectiveness eccentri...

BACKGROUND Achilles tendinopathy is a common condition that can cause marked pain and disability. Numerous non-surgical treatments have been proposed for the treatment of this condition, but many of these treatments have a poor or non-existent evidence base. The exception to this is eccentric calf muscle exercises, which have become a standard non-surgical intervention for Achilles tendinopathy...

Achilles tendinopathy is a common disorder involving physically active and sedentary individuals alike. Although the processes underlying its development are poorly understood, tendinopathy is widely regarded as an ‘overuse’ injury in which the tendon fails to adapt to prevalent loading conditions. Paradoxically, there is emerging evidence that heavy eccentric loading of the Achilles tendon may...