How Training Tendons Makes You Stronger Than Big Guys, by The Rep Theory on YouTube. 8 min 3 s.
- Video length
- 8 min 3 s
- Time to do it
- 20 minutes
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Steps
- 7
What you need
Steps
Start with the wall hold test. Sit with your back flat against a wall, knees bent to about 90 degrees, and hold until you have to stop. Write down the time.
Do the heavy calf hold. Stand with the balls of your feet on a step, raise your heels and hold at the top. Lean onto one leg or add weight to make it heavy.
Push something that won't move. Press your hands or shoulder into a solid door frame or wall and build the tension slowly over about 20 seconds.
Hang from a pull-up bar with straight arms and grip hard. Check the bar is firmly fixed and can hold your full body weight before you hang.
Follow the one rule: hold long and hold heavy. Aim for roughly 20 seconds per hold and pick a version you can barely finish.
Run the 12-week plan. Do the four holds two or three times a week, keep each hold near 20 seconds, and make it heavier whenever it starts to feel easy.
Retest your wall hold after a few weeks and compare the number with your first result.
Tips and common mistakes
Keep breathing through every hold, since holding your breath just makes the position harder to survive.
Make the hold heavier before you make it longer, because loading matters more than extra seconds.
Stop the hold if you feel a sharp stab in a joint, as tendon work should feel like hard effort, not pain.
Leave a rest day between heavy sessions, since tendons recover more slowly than muscle.
Questions
How long should each hold be?
Around 20 seconds. That is the length used in the tendon research the video cites, and it is long enough to load the tendon without turning into an endurance drill.
How often should I train tendons?
Two or three sessions a week is plenty to start. Leave a rest day between them so your tendons have time to recover.
Will tendon training make me bulky?
Not much. These holds are chosen for strength, and the plan is aimed at getting stronger rather than adding muscle size.
This guide was drafted from the video's details and general task knowledge. It has not been checked against the full video. Check the video and relevant product instructions before following a procedure. Report a correction.
