Tendon Injury Treatment Ideas

Two time-honored remedies for injured tendons seem to be falling on their faces in well-designed clinical trials.  he first, corticosteroid injections into the injured tendon, has been shown to provide only short-term relief, sometimes with poorer long-term results than doing nothing at all.

The second, resting the injured joint, is supposed to prevent matters from getting worse. But it may also fail to make them any better.

Rather, working the joint in a way that doesn’t aggravate the injury but strengthens supporting tissues and stimulates blood flow to the painful area may promote healing faster than “a tincture of time.”

Conlcusion:  “The stronger the shoulder muscles are when the tendinopathy calms down, the better shape the shoulder is in to take over movement without further injury,” Dr. Moffat said. “You don’t want the muscles to weaken, which is what happens when you rest and do nothing. That leaves you vulnerable to further injury.”   http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/01/health/01brody.html?_r=3&ref=science

This mirrors my experience, and I've had many bouts of tendon issues in inner/outer elbow, shoulder, and knees through the last 20 years.  It always heals, and the best course seems to be "do what you can, as much as you can" until, for no apparent reason, something heals.  It would seem obvious that taking advantage of injury to work on greater precision in technique would be smart, as would a review of diet to see what anti-inflammatory elements may be eliminated (for me, recently, that was a call to restrict intake of nuts and seeds).
Bottom line - this article suggests we should (and I do) train through and around tendon irritation.  It appears that activity is part of healing for these types of injuries, whereas for ligament injuries, in which the ligaments may for example tear away from their attachment points on the bones, the rest gives needed time for the tear to reattach to the bones and regain needed strength.  I saw this in a finger dislocation, for example, which, after the injury, I could move all kinds of weird ways, but after six weeks of healing, was as stable as before the injury.  Tendon injuries, though, respond so slowly that 'resting' them just leaves you weak and vulnerable to more injury.