If you want stronger tendons, random stretching is not the whole answer.
Neither is copying three exercises from a video and repeating them forever.
Tendons adapt when they are given the right amount of load—and time to respond
Your tendons connect muscle to bone and transfer force when you walk, run, jump, lift and change direction.
Research shows that tendons can adapt to mechanical loading. Resistance training is particularly useful, but the exercise needs to be challenging enough, progressed over time and matched to the person doing it.
The goal is not to find one “best tendon exercise.”
It is to build a progression that takes the tendon from what it can tolerate now towards what you want it to handle.
What actually makes a tendon-strengthening program work?
1. Start at the right level
The right starting point depends on the tendon, your current strength, recent activity and whether pain is present.
For one person, the starting exercise may be a controlled calf raise or squat. For another, it may be a heavier gym exercise. For someone returning to running or jumping, resistance work may eventually need to progress to faster energy-storage tasks.
Starting too aggressively can provoke symptoms. Starting too easily and never progressing may fail to prepare the tendon for real life.
2. Use resistance—not stretching alone
Stretching can change how an area feels and may be useful for some people.
But tendon strengthening requires the muscle-tendon unit to produce and tolerate force.
That is why resistance exercises such as calf raises, squats, split squats, step variations, hip-strengthening exercises and hamstring-strengthening exercises commonly appear in lower-limb programs.
The exercise name matters less than whether it loads the right area at a useful level and can be progressed safely.
3. Progress more than the number of repetitions
A program can progress by changing:
- External resistance.
- Range of movement.
- Exercise position.
- Speed.
- Number of sets or repetitions.
- Frequency.
- Single-leg versus double-leg demand.
- The addition of running, hopping, jumping or change-of-direction tasks.
Progress should follow your goal. A tendon being prepared for normal walking does not need the same endpoint as one being prepared for sprinting, basketball or heavy lifting.
4. Give adaptation enough time
Tendons do not transform after one hard session.
Systematic reviews of healthy-tendon training show measurable adaptations with repeated mechanical loading, particularly resistance training. Many research programs run for weeks or months rather than days.
That does not mean every person requires the same twelve-week template. It means consistency and progression matter more than chasing an instant response.
5. Build the muscle as well as the tendon
You cannot meaningfully load a tendon without the surrounding muscles producing force.
Calf capacity matters to the Achilles. Quadriceps capacity matters to the patellar tendon. Hip-muscle capacity matters to the gluteal tendons. Hamstring strength matters to the tendons at the back of the thigh.
The program should build the wider system needed for your activity—not isolate one painful spot forever.
6. Prepare for speed when your activity demands it
Slow resistance exercise can build useful strength and capacity.
But running, jumping and field or court sport also expose tendons to faster forces.
When appropriate, rehabilitation may progress towards hopping, jumping, landing, running and change-of-direction tasks. These are not automatically the starting point, and they should not be added simply because pain is lower today.
Examples by lower-limb tendon
These are exercise categories, not personal prescriptions.
Achilles tendon
A program may progress through calf-strengthening variations and, where relevant, towards running, hopping or jumping demands.
If Achilles pain is persistent, read Premier’s Achilles tendinopathy guide.
Patellar tendon
Knee-extension, squat and split-squat patterns may help develop lower-limb capacity before progressing towards running, jumping and landing where required.
Persistent pain below the kneecap is covered in our patellar tendon and knee-pain guide.
Gluteal tendons
Hip-strengthening exercises may be selected and progressed while considering positions and activities that provoke symptoms.
Read more about outer-hip and gluteal-tendon pain.
Proximal hamstring tendon
Programs may include hip-extension and knee-flexion strength before adding faster running or sport demands where appropriate.
How heavy should tendon exercises be?
There is no safe universal number for every tendon and every person.
Research in healthy tendons suggests that higher tendon strain and resistance training can support adaptation. But a research protocol is not automatically a personal rehabilitation prescription—especially when pain, recent injury, surgery, medical conditions or uncertainty about the diagnosis are involved.
The load should be challenging enough to create a reason to adapt, tolerable enough to repeat consistently and progressed towards the activity you need.
Should tendon exercises hurt?
Pain during or after exercise is not a simple pass-or-fail test.
Some tendon-loading programs allow a degree of discomfort. That does not mean more pain creates a better result, and it does not mean everyone should train through symptoms.
Look at the whole response:
- What happens during the exercise?
- How does the area feel later that day?
- What happens the following morning?
- Is function improving?
- Can the program be progressed?
If symptoms are escalating, function is declining or you are uncertain about the diagnosis, get the problem assessed rather than continually changing exercises yourself.
Why tendon exercises sometimes fail
You may not need a completely different exercise.
The program may have stalled because:
- The diagnosis was assumed rather than assessed.
- The starting load was too high or too low.
- The same load was repeated without progression.
- Exercises did not prepare you for your real activity.
- Running, work, gym and sport demands were not considered together.
- Pain improved, but strength and capacity were never reassessed.
- A useful adjunct or different treatment pathway needed to be considered.
When to book a tendon assessment
Consider an assessment if pain is persistent, keeps returning, is changing how you walk or train, or has not improved despite following an exercise program.
Premier’s Tendon Clinic brings together assessment, objective AxIT measurement where useful, hands-on treatment, Shockwave Therapy for selected presentations and progressive rehabilitation.
Appointments are 45–60 minutes and include appropriate treatment on the first visit.
Brunswick · Fitzroy North · Thornbury
Clinical references
- Bohm S et al. Human tendon adaptation in response to mechanical loading: a systematic review and meta-analysis of exercise intervention studies on healthy adults. Sports Medicine – Open. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4532714/
- Lazarczuk SL et al. Mechanical, Material and Morphological Adaptations of Healthy Lower Limb Tendons to Mechanical Loading: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Sports Medicine. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9474511/
- Chimenti RL et al. Achilles Pain, Stiffness, and Muscle Power Deficits: Midportion Achilles Tendinopathy Revision 2024. Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy. https://www.orthopt.org/content/s/achilles-pain-stiffness-and-muscle-power-deficits-midportion-achilles-tendinopathy-revision-2024
