Well I guess as I get more into weights…I had to injure something!
I had read where switching from a straight barbell to the -ez curl bar for doing rows, this would take relief off my wrists. Well…that is true…however since my wrists felt better, I decided to slowly add weight and wound up with what feels like “tennis elbow.”
My right outer elbow is tight and feels stiff in the morning. It gets better as the day goes on but hurts if I try to quickly pick up anything remotely heavy.
This has gone on for about 2 weeks now. With my workouts, this pain does not really bother me unless i am doing triceps kickbacks or the rows with the ez-curl bar. Therefore…I have cut these things out of my workouts.
Still…the pain will not entirely go away.
I am trying Advil and ice in the evenings and some light stretching but the pain is still there. It IS getting better but not going away entirely.
Anyone know some cures or therapy for tendinitis? Any special creams or stretches that would help?
I guess at age 47, I should not expect such immediate recovery and yeah…I know…I should have gone slower with the added weight/reps and the rows. Lesson learned.
Dude… I feel for you. I had it with a dose of tendonitis and it took at least 4 mo. to subside. Besides isolating while I slept like you would with carpel t, I would soak my forearm (where my pain radiated) in a bowl of hot water with epsom salt. It seemed to help but I tried to power through it with NSAIDs and it got so bad I couldnt hold my pistol out at extension very long. I hate pain like that… dull and constant, makes me want to cut my arm off or smash it on something.
Im a wierdo in that respect, when my wisdom teeth were coming in in my early 20s, I got in trouble by my dentist for slicing my gums with a razor blade because I couldnt stand them not punching through.
I only have it on one elbow and I know EXACTLY what caused it.
Moving my rows from the straight barbell (…because it hurt my wrists) to the ez-curl bar. Then ramping up the weight more than I should have.
I know…bonehead move and normally I am pretty careful in adding weight and keeping good form but I over did it!
Finding that stretching and ice is helping.
Some exercises make it hurt and I have backed them off. Some don’t hurt my elbow at all or are minimal and I keep doing them. The triceps stuff and hammer curls really hurt. However doing curls on the cable machine or isolated bicep curls with dumb bells really does not aggravate it.
I shot my Glock 22 this past weekend and was not overly bothered by that. Many times, the pain comes and goes.
I may try the epsom salt soak…have not tried that yet.
Man…is sucks getting old! LOL
If this takes months to heal…maybe that is not abnormal, eh?
Same age and had my first dose 6 months ago… Decades of sports and martial arts seem to be coming home to roost…I wore a strap, not sure if it helped, but it reminded me to be kind to the injury. Mine felt better at the 3-4 month period. You’ve heard it before: getting old ain’t for pussies.
I had a small bout of tennis elbow/carpal tunnel, went to a massage therapist who found knots up in my neck/shoulder area that I didn’t even know were there, but she would push on them, and I’d get shooting pains from elbow to hand, it’s amazing how interconnected the body is. I found that it helped me a ton.
This. Even standing around, certain muscles get stressed/tight, which eventually leads to pain. A massage therapist is a good idea, but a simple foam roller (or my favorite - a baseball) does the trick because you can pinpoint those deep tissue knots. Youtube has tons of videos on this.
With your support hand, feel around the elbow area and look for any soreness and/or pain. Specifically, right under the elbow joint where your triceps connect. Achy/numb/pain areas are tense and should be worked over with the foam roller or baseball. A threshold for pain comes in handy here.
I JUST a couple weeks ago had a shot in my right elbow to cure the same thing, and I had a WICKED case of it. Couldn’t even shake a mans hand, or shoot a handgun. It would wake me up hurting bad.
The doc gave me I think, a cortisone {sp?} shot…and that bitch aint hurt a minute since. GET THE SHOT!!
Relative rest, avoid activities that cause pain/stress
Ice massage until numb 2-3x day
Get tennis elbow splint, wear 1-1.5" past point of pain, toward hand
OTC NSAID’s e.g. ibuprofen if you have no medical contraindications
Perform sub-maximal multiple angle wrist isometrics: flexion,extension, pronation and supination
Be patient, can be slow to heal, in some cases a year.
In severe cases, I use a wrist splint with my patients to block their ability to extend the wrist past a neutral position. This effectively allows the tendons affecting by tennis elbow (ECRB or extensor carpi radialis brevis muscle) to rest and not pull on their bony attachment.
Lastly, See your doctor if symptoms fail to respond to conservative care within 6 weeks or if the pain impairs your ability to perform your daily activities/job.
Actually, the eccentric exercises are helping out TONS. So is the ice and admittedly…I have not been icing it regularly until now.
I also used the foam roller trick and that too is helping.
So no more triceps exercises, skull crushers or hammer curls until this is better. I also think that by me “powering through” the pain during these exercises…I was prolonging the pain and injury.
It is odd how some exercises aggravate the injury and others really don’t bother it.
As one of those dumb sods that has gotten tendonitis in one elbow and then the other, my advice is to not allow the other elbow to overcompensate during your workout!
I tried to power through and chased it back and forth between my two arms for a year before I finally stopped and let it fully heal. After 2 injections in each elbow my Doctor said if I didn’t get it under control he was going to have to cut the adhesions.
Flying Hunter is spot on. My PT did REALLY deep icing until it was numb. I have a shelf in my freezer devoted to ice packs! Cross tissue massage (a special kind of pain) was also helpful to break up the adhesions. The elbow bands can help if they’re tight enough and placed properly. They help isolate the end of the tendon and reduce the pressure on that connection.
I also lowered the weight I was lifting and focused on increasing range of motion and including supporting/stabilizing muscles. Dumbells instead of barbell exercises allow the arms to move independently instead of in lock step. Dropped my bench press but switched to dumbell presses while laying on an exercise ball etc. This type of exercises bring other muscles into play with less isolation of the large muscles.
Pulling exercises do not involve the elbows. The actual problem is the grip you use. Grip the bar like you hold a bucket by the handle and let your forearm relax. The tendonitis is caused by the forearm muscles not at the elbow joint itself. The only relief for tendonitis is to rest it and ice it for a few weeks.
Also, some people find relief using fatgripz and similar products, like T Grips. I’m playing with Globe Gripz now and they may be the best of the bunch.
I find neoprene sleeves helpful myself as they offer a little support, but more important, keep the muscles, tendons, joint warm.
I would also recommend some sort of Ace type elbow sleeve to wear during training. They offer very little in support but they are great for creating and maintaining heat in the joint. I have had zero luck with the narrow bands that they market specifically for tennis elbow. One thing for sure is these injuries generally take a long time to heal so you have to find ways to work around them. I have had issues for years and its just as mentally aggravating as it is physical. I train hard and move some pretty big weight with no problem, but try to put a gallon of milk on the upper shelve in the fridge…Fail.
I got the same injury from spending a lot of shooting one year. It started in May, and by October it hurt to do anything. It took 4 or 5 months of Physical Therapy and all kinds of stretching/Ice/Anti-Inflammatory drugs to get it better. From there I re-worked some things and knock on wood, haven’t had a re-occurrence in two years.
Well my elbow IS getting better…but it is slow going.
Doing my stretching, icing and exercises for it daily.
Tailored the workout where I can avoid triceps kickbacks, hammer curls and upward rows…the things that REALLY irritate the elbow the most. Laid off the pushups too. Surprisingly, most of the other things I do really don’t make it flare up too badly.
I am actually surprised at what exercises hurt it and which ones don’t really hurt at all. Don’t want to stop upper body workouts entirely…that would just suck.
I had a pulled shoulder months ago and it too lasted for a while. I did not stop working out but worked AROUND it and it eventually went away.
I guess after 10 months of seriously getting back into lifting after being away from it for so long…I should expect some sort of set back. Hell…I am much older now! LOL
Lesson learned…slow down, stretch more and ease into new exercises.
Thanks everyone for the help…this forum is always very helpful.
Will, thanks for the link. I know what caused my injury (getting too carried away on upward rows with ez curl bar LOL) nice to have more resources on how to cure it and avoid it in the future.
Odd…I played tennis for years and never came close to getting tennis elbow! LOL
