[quote]devildog88 wrote:
I have some tendonitis in my elbow. Do any of you have any treatment ideas? I can’t even flex my left bicep hard or it hurts. Makes it hard to do arms!! [/quote]
Take the advice some others have already given on this thread. Don’t try to train through a chronic injury like tendonitis. You will only make it worse, and ultimately lose more training time to recovery than than if you dealt with it now.
I suffered tendonitis in both elbows a few years back. The cure: a cortisone shot and a brace for the right elbow and about two months off of any direct arm training. Neither elbow has bothered me since.
Last year I developed a pretty bad case of quadricep tendonitis. The cure: about four months with no squats or lunges; some mobility work and stretching; and when the pain was about 90 percent better, working slowly back into squatting, with a lot of light weights and O-lifting before starting to squat heavy again.
Until you rest the joint and deal with the injury, it will only get worse. The worse it gets, the more likely it becomes that you will never completely recover.
This worked for me: rest, ice after workout, ibuprofin, supps incl. Joint Boost w/ glucosamine sulfate, MSM and celedrin, and another combo - alfalfa tablets, vitamin b-12, and manganese.
Hello Guys,
This is an excellent thread on elbow pain. I doc said I have tennis elbow from lifting too heavy with improper warm up for my age. I’m 45.
Did anyone else have the problem of not being able to straighten your arm out all the way? It’s been 5 weeks since I’ve done any arm workouts involving my right arm. The ROM has gotten a little better, and I’ve been using the suggested therapies from both here, and my doc.
It’s just so frustrating having made such great gains leading up to summer, and now I have to sit idle and lose some mass.
BTW, you guys all have some very good ideas for hastening the recovery time, thanks! KGC
Hey fella’s,
THe elbow seems to be getting better. I modified my bicep workout so that I do three light sets of warm up and then go heavy for four sets. I think the problem lies in the bar I was using. On the E-Z bar my arm kills me. However, if I do “Drag Curls” with the straight bar it doesn’t seem to hurt.
The PT here suggested that I switch bars and presto! He said that it is alot like carpel tunnel syndrom. When you do repetitive movements without changing your hand position it causses inflamation in the sheath that surrounds the tendon and it restricts the movement.
[quote]devildog88 wrote:
Not taken wrong at all. I was just hoping that someone out there had the same experience and had a way to relieve the pain. It is tolerable right now but I can see it getting to the point where it would hinder my workouts. At that point I will probably have to seek medical advice but until then I guess I will just have to deal with it. Thanks for you concern.
Semper Fi[/quote]
I used to play racquetball semi-professionally and I can tell you from experience there is no workaround for tendonitis. To completely heal yourself you need to eliminate any movements that irritate your condition for at least a week. Starting in week 2 begin trying the movement without any weight and then begin slowly adding weight from there, the key word being slowly. Make sure you back off on the volume as well and start working back slowly to where you were before.
I would also suggest hot compresses to warm up the area before all workouts and ice massage after each workout. I would also suggest changing the movements you do. If you always do preacher barbell curls, try changing to hammer dumbbell curls for a month or so.
Most importantly if you start to feel even a twinge of pain, back off on the volume and weight and ice that sucker religiously.
If you do not back off you will not heal. You cannot work through a condition like this.
Several years ago, I had an awful case of tendonitis in both elbows, especially the right one. It was caused by preacher curls, and reverse grip preachers. It was so bad that working arms, even tris, was out of the question. The doctor told me to stop doing preacher curls, put a cortisone shot in each elbow, and gave me a prescription for celebrex.
None of that worked. Then I took a month off, and started taking Glucosamine with Chondroitin. When I started back I switched to spider curls. It took the glucosamine and chondroitin a couple months to kick in, but the tendonitis is GONE and I can do preachers and nose breakers again! I take fish oil too, but the G&C is what kicked the tendonitis.
I have had occasional pain in my elbows when exercising, I then started taking ISS Therajoint which contains Glucosamine, Chondroitin and some other goodies; also, NOW Omega 3-6-9 oil caps. With these two products I personally have not had any joint problems and I believe helped me do my w/o’s with more increased intensity and be more enjoyable.
I have read that to make sure you warm up your joints enough before your workout in addition to warming up your muscles because you have these bursa sacks in your joints that are responsible for producing synoviol fluid which is a joint lubricant. The sacks need some stimulation to start producing the proper amount of fluid to protect your joints.
For those who may not know, Glucosamine is derived from shellfish and those individuals who may be sensitive or allergic to any form of shellfish should avoid products containing Glucosamine and should ask your MD for advice.
Let’s first firgure out what is the source of pain…direct injury to the area, overuse injury, muscle weakness? Give me some idea as I might be able to give you some ideas!
ART worked wonders on my elbows. I stopped direct arm work for about 4 weeks and had 6 ART sessions. I iced my elbows 2-3 times per day also. Find an ART practitioner and go. It was worth every penny.
I had a bad case of tennis elbow (tendonitis on outside of elbow) and tried everything. I think it important to identify what caused it and make sure as part of your treatment you correct that too. In my own case I was looking in all the wrong places. It was brought on by typing/mouse on computer at work and it took me months to make the connection! It was a form of RSI from being a computer geek. I had thought it was related to working out and it just wasn’t although it sure ended up leaving me so I couldn’t work out anymore! So switching mouse to left hand was a start. But too late as far as that fixing the problem as I was stuck with a bad case of tendonitis that i had to now fix. After months of experimenting and failing to have any real improvement. This is what worked for me:
self-massaged outer forearm deeply with thumb from other hand and also more gently in and around elbow joint while arm is fully extended to help break up any adhestions… also rolled lacrosse ball up and down outside of forearm while leaning against it rolling it up and down the wall. This hurt but it felt “right”.
stretched out elbow in extension often ( a couple times an hour )… put arm straight out in front of me, palm up pulling fingers down and back with other hand while allowing some very gentle hyperextension of elbow ( careful not to over extend here just firm enough to feel good stretch in forearm and elbow )… this further stretched out adhesions
wore a tendon strap ( aircast brand ) on upper foream while typing (wearin it right now ) to reduce stress on tendons. Also wore it when doing any other activity that i needed to do but bothered my elbow.
These three things helped some but they didn’t get rid of the stubborn inflammation which is the real nuisance part of tennis elbow as often the actual physical injury to the soft tissues is fairly minor but the inflammation has left the tendon in a bad state. So my arm was still fairly useless as a lot of pain when gripping while extending arm. Also, in my case none of the strenghthening exercises advocated for tennis elbow ( spreading fingers with rubber bands etc ) of ANY sort helped me at all. If anything they just aggravated it more. I also believe the slight atrophy you get in forearm from not using it helps as it relieves the strength of “pull” of all on the tendons on the joint allowing for imbalnces to take a break and allow better alignment of the joint. Further the softer, smaller muscle also makes it easier to “get in there” and do some useful deep massage. The strengthening exercises tended to keep the wrong muscles strong and allowed them to maintain the “grip” they have on the joint position keeping it “frozen” and also making it difficult to get productive massage.
OK, The final and I now believe the most important piece of the puzzle by far was attacking the inflamation. I started using the supplement by Biotest called FLAMEOUT. It’s basically super-concentrated fish oil… look for the advertisement on this site for full description. This stuff REALLY works. I’ve been using it 2 weeks and it is at least 50% better and I’m still improving. BTW, Complementing this with good hydration will also help with inflammation even further.
I tested my elbow it some yesterday and I can actually do some light reverse curls with dumbbell now without significant pain where a few weeks ago it was agony with 5 lbs. I also actuallyed played tennis ( figured tennis a good test for tennis elbow! right? ) and i actually got thru a set, it hurt but it was mangeable pain… i remember trying and couldnt grip and extend a racket 3 weeks ago. My elbow also started “popping” a few days ago, a good popping like my normal elbow does meaning the joint had loosened up and was no longer locked down with inflammed and shortened tendons and ligaments locking it up.
Anyway, for what it’s worth that’s my story, my own treatment for my own case of tennis elbow that has been working for me. I got absolutely nowhere for 2-3 months and finally after using the above techniques/supplements things turned around in 3-4 weeks.
I had the same problem on left elbow. All I did was quit all arm exercise, i.e. no triceps or biceps work. I stuck to compound only, specifically miliary press, rowing, bench press (as far as upper body goes).
This allowed me to slowly heal. My sore elbow is now about 60-70% better and yet still train.
I briefly used Glucosamine but didn’t continue because I felt it was avoidance of arm-specific exercises that made the difference.
Not sure where I read this advice, but started following it myself yesterday.
I went shopping for an elbow brace, you know one of those neoprene jobs? In any event, the elbow braces were all too small. I ended up buying a knee brace that fits my elbow perfectly. I’ll be using it any time a do any upper body work.
I think ConanSpeaks nailed it best. Stop doing anything that irritates it. I was a rough carpenter for over two decades and managed to make my tendons so painful that I was ready to chew my arm off at the shoulder to relieve the pain. The only thing that ever worked was giving it a break. To quote ConanSpeaks “… if you start to feel even a twinge of pain, back off …”. If you think it’s hard backing off your workouts, try backing off when you feed your family with your hammer arm. Unfortunately, backing off seems to be the best course of action.
More recently I have gotten tendonitis splitting firewood and doing direct arm work at the gym, and again the solution that worked was giving it a break.
As far as lifting advice, avoiding most single joint exercises and using multi-joint exercises instead seems to be easier on my tendons. My body seems to do a fairly good job of working around any potential elbow problems if I don’t stress them directly. I use dips/presses for triceps and chins/rows for biceps.
Arm straight down side of body. Palm facing down flex your wrist and begin rotating your hand so the fingers are pointing to your rear. Your hand and arm should be at a 90 degree angle. Try and flex your fingers/hand toward the ceiling (palm facing the ground). I also found with the same position, place your hand on a flat surface, fingers facing backwards, palm down, arm straight. The wrist action is the same as reverse wrist curls. Also buy some Horse Linament. Blue Heat is great. you can buy it off the EliteFTS website. You have an inbalance some where either in the forearm or between the lower and upper arm. Do forearm and grip work, also. Good Luck.