Tendo Info: lets learn about this common tree planting injury

Alright, this is just a little information about a common injury that occurs in tree planting. We’ve all heard it, the dreaded TENDO. The formal name for this injury is De Quervain’s tendonitis or tenosynovitis. It’s really hard to say, so I just call it thumb tendo, here’s why:

The 2 muscles involved are the Abductor Pollicis Longus and the Extensor Pollicis Brevis. Pollicis means thumb, hence my easy given name to this injury: Thumb tendo (Tendons = connect muscle to bone. Ligaments = connect bone to bone.) The other words imply the action the muscle does (abduction and extension), and if it’s a long or short muscle. Here’s a pic of these muscles:

You can see these each of these tendons have attachment at the thumb, and they do cross the wrist joint (why some people feel it in their wrist), and the muscle belly sits on the ulna or radius. Looking at the muscles and tendons, if they become inflamed, no wonder you get pain in the wrist, thumb or forearm, swelling anywhere along either of these muscles/tendons, creakiness, redness and are not able to move it well or without pain!

Tendonitis is acute inflammation (itis) of the tendon. Tenosynovitis is acute inflammation of the sheath surrounding the tendon. If you get ‘tendo’ tree planting, you could have either one of these or both. If you don’t heal this injury, it can progress into a chronic state tendonosis which is thickening and degrading of the tendon and sheath which is a chronic condition and can be painful, decrease strength, mobility and limit movement.

Thumb tendo is caused by gripping, gripping tight, gripping and twisting, gripping and lifting. I would go on to say that in tree planting, poor fitting equipment and poor biomechanics are huge contributing factors (that I see come through my clinic anyways) for both rookie and veteran tree planters. Don’t get lazy out there and lean on your shovel! Make sure your bag set up fits your body and allows movement! Make sure your shovel fits you!

Can I just say one thing…. if you get any sort of wrist/thumb pain that resembles tendo, please please please DO NOT: poke it, massage it, move it. This will make it worse and prolong the injury. What you need to do is: Immobilize your wrist AND thumb (remember these muscle cross the thumb, wrist and are in the forearm) and seek professional help! Also: drink lots of water and electrolytes, eat nutritious food, keep your body warm and comfortable, walk to increase circulation in whole body, limit alcohol and other recreational drugs, REST… etc. Set your body up to heal this injury as fast as you can!

In my clinical observations, rookies and planters in year 1-3 tend to death grip their shovel causing too much use and tension in the thumb around the shovel handle, and not enough movement. Vets tend to have poor biomechanics, where they can compensate until they can’t (aka – that muscle thats been helping out says: I can’t take it anymore!! Resulting in injury). But, tendo can happen to anyone at any time. I mean, texting on the phone… uses these exact same muscles. In the main world, it’s called text thumb. Same-same, but different mechanism of injury.

Check out these programs if you want to prevent this injury from happening. Heads up – poor biomechanics can mean that you have poor hip mobility or even foot positioning that your wrist is in a really great position to compensate for (until it can’t!).

Tree planter: 10-week Conditioning Program 2023

Tree Planting Biomechanics: Reduce Injury and Increase Efficiency

Happy planting!