All sport requires a degree of strength, power and speed, with physical activity depending heavily on healthy tendons. Overuse can, of course, make tendons and ligaments more prone to damage, so it is no surprise that soft tissue injuries are extremely common in both professional and amateur athletes, as they account for more than 70% of time out from sport.

Take professional German basketball player, Gavin Schilling, for example. Currently with a German Bundesliga club, he’s a 206 cm tall powerhouse. During the summer break, the 24-year-old had focused on bulking up in his hometown of Chicago (Illinois, US). “I’ve been using a training principle of muscle mass up, body fat down,” he says, flexing his huge biceps. “I’m fit and ready to play.”

That hasn't always been the case, though, as Gavin explains: “Early in the 2018–19 season, I badly hurt my foot and tore three ligaments. I soon realized that a program of simple rehab exercises and rest wasn’t going to be enough to get me back on the court in the time frame I wanted. I needed a boost to speed the process up.”

This is when Gavin started taking TENDOFORTE®, which is the latest addition to GELITA’s range of Bioactive Collagen Peptides (BCP^®s). It has been optimized to strengthen tendons and ligaments, and has been proven to reduce the incidence of sports injuries and accelerate recovery. It acts both as a preventive nutritional intervention for tendon and ligament problems, and also helps injured athletes get back to their former performance levels more quickly.

“Within two months of taking a 10 gram of the supplement per day, I noticed increased stability and strength in my ankle,” he says. Full stability was achieved several weeks earlier than his doctors expected and “compared with previous tears, my return to play was fast and smooth with no lingering issues”. 

Also during his off-season training, he kept supplementing with TENDOFORTE® to protect his ligaments and tendons: “I wanted to test whether I could increase my jumping performance”, Gavin explains. After four months of use and hard work, Gavin’s trainer relayed the good news that he’d increased his vertical jump power and height by 28% compared with the previous season. “Since then,” he says, “I’ve kept using TENDOFORTE® as part of my daily supplement intake routine, making this my best season played thus far.” He summarizes by saying that TENDOFORTE® enabled him to return to sport more quickly and safely … and that, for him, it minimizes both injuries and return-to-play times.

At an optimal daily dose of just 5 g, TENDOFORTE® is not only effective, it also performs very well in terms of texture and taste in a range of final products such as bars, drinks and powders — which is key for both compliance and a successful intervention, as well as for increased frequency of purchase by the customer.

If you’re looking for a nutritional solution that gets to the root of sports injury problems, contact us today to for further information.