Tennis elbow

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ParHunter

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Hi

I am sure I am not he first one here to get tennis elbow.
I've had it now for about 3 month and I've been on Naproxen now or nearly two month. Every time I think it is gone it comes back a few days later. It is not really painful painful (I can still play with it) but annoying painful, especially during the week when I get it from just holding my iPad or sitting in front of the computer.

So what is your experience with tennis elbow? How long did it take. Did you continue to play (I am playing with Band-it brace) and go to the gym?

I didn't play for 2 weeks and it was getting more and more painful. I was worried that I couldn't play in our Club championship but strangely enough it felt better after to days of playing. Playing is okay as long as I am wearing my band-it.

Would you recommend seeing a Physio or is Naproxen enough o get rid of it (but how long do you have to take it?)
 
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wulsy

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Lifter said:
Whoops, didn't realize you're in England! I bet there's a similar kind of company in your country.
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Nope, we've got the state sponsored NHS which takes pride in making all health problems worse! After all is said and done dead people cost less!!!

That cheap crap poison that he's taking will give him a stomach ulcer! (sorry Parsy).
 
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Rick Dandy

New
Rest a bunch.

Ice.

After it calms down.

Massage.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/A2QQaVfeI4U" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Mediterranean Diet.

Watch the booze and smoking.

Good Luck!
 
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ParHunter

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wulsy said:
Nope, we've got the state sponsored NHS which takes pride in making all health problems worse! After all is said and done dead people cost less!!!

That cheap crap poison that he's taking will give him a stomach ulcer! (sorry Parsy).
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Actually they prescribe Omeprazole and Naproxen together to avoid the stomach ulcer.
I have private medical so the NHS isn't the limiting factor.
 
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bgoodyear

New
I've had tennis elbow on/off for about 10 years. Give it time to heal the first time or you might too.

I've done massage, ice, stretching, strength training, etc etc and they help a bit. What really helps me is to break down the underlying scar tissue. I did a few sessions of this a couple of years back:
Want to find Pain Relief for Tennis Elbow? Try Graston Technique

Since then its been about 90% better. Before that I'd have to ice after playing.
 
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Tony D'Antonio

New
I had pain in both elbows. Not sure if it was tennis elbow but it happened when I lost weight (and muscle mass) and then lifted a lot of wood doing home projects. It was so bad that I would buckle when someone would shake my hand. I took a lot of Advil over the course of a week. Once the pain went away during simple things like hand-shaking I slowly did various, light strength training exercises. I haven't had elbow problems since. It's been about 2 years.
 
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Keefer

New
I've had it in all four sides of my elbows going back 10 years (at different times). This last bout put me on the side lines for 13 months (no golf). The problem with tendonopathy is there is not a very good blood supply to tendons and ligaments, hence they can become a chronic problem.

Everyone is different and some will find their particular injured tendon heals and others will struggle. What happens is because of the lack of (healing) blood vessels in tendons and ligaments the body eventually stops trying to heal and scar tissue develops and instead of being replaced with good collagen it dies and becomes dead tissue.

This crap tissue can take a long time to heal and may never heal properly (thus becomes chronic). What they've discovered is in most cases there is no inflammation, therefore it's really tendonosis and not tendonitis.

Again, every injury is unique in that people will heal differently. This last bout I had the new FAST (Focused Aspiration Of Scar Tissue) procedure done. It's a new medical procedure that uses ultra-sonic energy to dissolve the crap tissue. I had high hopes as it was developed at the Mayo Clinic.

Unfortunately it did not work for me.

I believe Nick Price had the FAST procedure done and he's back playing after being out much of last year and the first half of this year with tendonosis of the elbow.

The thing to remember is that tendonosis caused by golf is an over-use injury. I can't practice much anymore and I don't play on consecutive days.

For many including me it's a minor inconvenience in everyday life, but is an absolute show stopper if you play sports.
 
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JEREMY5577

JEREMY5577

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If you rest it too much atrophy sets in and that is the last thing you need.

Get 10-20lb dumbell (we want heavy here don't worry we aren't lifting) and sit in chair with arm rests, place soft towl or pillow on arm rest, with dumbell in hand place towl under wrist with palm down and let dumbell hang off end of arm rest in a limp position. DO NOT LIFT DUMBELL WITH THE AFFECTED HAND!!!! From this limp position use opposite hand to lift affected hand up so wrist bends back on it's self. Let go with opposite hand and try to RESIST the dumbell from falling for as long as possible. Once it falls repeat. I'd say at least 5 sets of 20 reps 2-3 times a day. You can't over do this AS LONG AS YOU ARE USING RESISTANCE AND NOT LIFTING!!!
Pain should be better after just one day, but after 2 weeks you will notice a large bulging muscle growing on the outside of your elbow and you will not be injuring it very easily from then on out.

If the chair arm starts digging into your wrist rest your arm on your thy above your knee.

Do the exact same thing for golfers elbow just use palm up.
 
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Keefer

New
JEREMY5577 said:
If you rest it too much atrophy sets in and that is the last thing you need.

Get 10-20lb dumbell (we want heavy here don't worry we aren't lifting) and sit in chair with arm rests, place soft towl or pillow on arm rest, with dumbell in hand place towl under wrist with palm down and let dumbell hang off end of arm rest in a limp position. DO NOT LIFT DUMBELL WITH THE AFFECTED HAND!!!! From this limp position use opposite hand to lift affected hand up so wrist bends back on it's self. Let go with opposite hand and try to RESIST the dumbell from falling for as long as possible. Once it falls repeat. I'd say at least 5 sets of 20 reps 2-3 times a day. You can't over do this AS LONG AS YOU ARE USING RESISTANCE AND NOT LIFTING!!!
Pain should be better after just one day, but after 2 weeks you will notice a large bulging muscle growing on the outside of your elbow and you will not be injuring it very easily from then on out.

If the chair arm starts digging into your wrist rest your arm on your thy above your knee.

Do the exact same thing for golfers elbow just use palm up.
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What you are describing is an eccentric resistence exercise. The Tyler Twist with the rubber flex bars is a similar eccentric exercise. Eccentric exercises lengthen the muscles / tendons as it contracts. These do work for some people. I have the rubber bars and the dumb-bells and in the end they didn't work for my injury.

Again, what you'll find with tendonosis is people respond differently. The idea behind eccentric exercises is you are loading the tendon and hopefully forcing a response from the body to make good collagen (tissue) to replace the crap scar tissue.

Whether it's eccentics, prolotherapy, acupuncture, FAST procedure, open surgery or just resting it, it's a case of whatever works. When I first injured my elbow 10 years ago the physical therapist said I'd been better off breaking my elbow as bone has good blood vessels to heal as do muscles. Tendons and ligaments do not and that's why they don't heal as fast as bones and muscles do.

One thing I would advise against and that is cortisone shots. Cortisone has shown to actually degenerate the tissue further. I've had 4 cortisone shots in my elbows and they work great for a few months then you're back to square one (or worse). I regret having any cortisone shots because I never had much static (at rest) pain with my elbow tendonopathy.

If you have chronic static pain that you cannot tolerate that is another story. There's still a lot they don't know and an honest doctor will tell you that. Mother nature's resting the elbow has shown to work as well as anything, but most people don't give it enough time.

If it's a large major tear surgery may be needed, but in most cases it's many small tears that occur and surgery is not needed. Problem is people do not have the patience to wait for a tendon injury to heal as it can take what seems like forever.

My lateral left elbow tendonosis has always been low grade and has never healed, but it never stopped me from playing golf. Both lateral and medial on my right elbow have been another story.
 
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ParHunter

New
You are giving me a nice fright guys!
Fortunately it isn't very painful yet. I've ordered the flexbar and will do the exercises. Seems to yield good results according to a study from 2009. The only negative thing about this was from a guy who makes money by selling information on how to treat tennis elbow - understandable that he doesn't like an easy exercise that works in 70% of the cases ;-)
 
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Keefer

New
ParHunter said:
You are giving me a nice fright guys!
Fortunately it isn't very painful yet. I've ordered the flexbar and will do the exercises. Seems to yield good results according to a study from 2009. The only negative thing about this was from a guy who makes money by selling information on how to treat tennis elbow - understandable that he doesn't like an easy exercise that works in 70% of the cases ;-)
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They said the FAST procedure was experiencing over 90% success. Great if fall into that 90%, not so great if you're in the 10%. Again, the thing to remember is that everyone is different. My wife hurt her elbow lifting weights. She stopped lifting weights and in a few weeks it cleared up.

I played golf with a guy who got it from pushing his golf cart. Stopped walking and it cleared up in a few months. Another guy stopped playing for a few weeks and it still bothers him two years later, but not enough for him to have to stop playing. Another golfer I play with (it) took 6 months for him to return.

I've still got it in 3 sides of my elbows.

That's why they call it tendonopathy. It's a broad term that basically encompasses a diseased / injured tendon. There's still some mystery to these type injuries.

The surgeon who did my FAST procedure admitted that they hate to see someone walk into the office with this injury. They feel like failures because many times it doesn't respond to treatment.

And he has it himself.

What you're going to find is whatever works for you will be the answer for you. ;) Good Luck.......
 
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spktho

New
I've had it in both elbows for over 3 years now. With golfing and coaching baseball--throwing batting practice and hitting fungos--it'll basically never go away for me. I just try to contain it with ice and rest when I can and hope nothing tears. Whatever I do, I definitely watch where I'm walking so I don't bump the outside of either elbow on something. That's the worst part of it.
 
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Jared Willerson

Super Moderator
It's the underside of my right elbow that hurts the worst. Just toward the shoulder side of the elbow bone or the wenis (had to get that term in there somewhere ;))
 
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Keefer

New
spktho said:
I've had it in both elbows for over 3 years now. With golfing and coaching baseball--throwing batting practice and hitting fungos--it'll basically never go away for me. I just try to contain it with ice and rest when I can and hope nothing tears. Whatever I do, I definitely watch where I'm walking so I don't bump the outside of either elbow on something. That's the worst part of it.
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Yup, for many sufferers including myself (10 years now) elbow tendonosis just may be our friend for life. The goal as you've discovered is to get it so it's manageable. Warming up properly, stretching and ice after along with limiting the over-use activity is the road map for manageability.
 
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AndyC

New
I had both golfer's and tennis elbow for several years before I was educated as to the cause of the problem by Pete Egoscue. The problem being shoulder disfunction. If you view the shoulders as part of your chassis of your body and the elbows as your tires, any alignment problem will result in extreme wear and tear on your tires. The following article shows exercises recommended to help with shoulder alignment. Got Tennis Elbow? | Smitty's Tidbits

To get some immediate relief and mobility back in the elbow you might want to try this from Kelley Starrett. MobilityWOD | Banish Your Elbow Bench, Dip, Pull Up Pain, You Don

And lastly, you might want to rethink icing. MobilityWOD | People, We and a follow up MobilityWOD | Community Video – Peoples, We’ve Got to Stop Icing. A Year Later….

I have no connection with Egoscue or Starrett but have had great success following their advice.
 
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