Tennis Elbow... I Think

BBB, if the elbow is actively aching, you still would not ice it?

I forgot to mention, in the situation related to compression of the nerve root, I had chronic hypertonicity in the forearm. It did not go away until I wore a brace at night that kept the elbow slightly bent. Without that brace, I’d wake up with my fingers, hand, forearm, and upper arm all maximally flexed. (!)

Thank goodness it was long ago, so I might not remember correctly. But I remember during the day, co-contraction of the forearm muscles. It was like the whole thing was cast out of concrete. At night, that flexion pattern would occur. Or basically I would notice it when waking.

If I may ask what is your volume like on your workouts? That has alot to do with agravated elbows.

A couple of things that will help.

  1. MSM
  2. fish oil up to 20-25grms a day.
  3. Squeeze the piss out of the bar when doing exercises
  4. Do not ice- you want heat - or use linament
  5. Make sure you are getting your thumb around the bar - no false grip for you.
  6. Sounds like your bicep tendon is bothering you.
  7. Have you noticed atrophy of the affected forearm ? If so that usaully is the bicep tendon.

fischer

I have had tennis elbow and it took a lot of rest to heal.

[quote]FISCHER613 wrote:
If I may ask what is your volume like on your workouts? That has alot to do with agravated elbows.

A couple of things that will help.

  1. MSM
  2. fish oil up to 20-25grms a day.
  3. Squeeze the piss out of the bar when doing exercises
  4. Do not ice- you want heat - or use linament
  5. Make sure you are getting your thumb around the bar - no false grip for you.
  6. Sounds like your bicep tendon is bothering you.
  7. Have you noticed atrophy of the affected forearm ? If so that usaully is the bicep tendon.

fischer[/quote]

Hi fisher, I tend to do quite a lot of volume at the moment. I noticed more pain when I have been icing steadily, it felt almost stiff and sore. I have stopped icing except for directly following a workout and I’ll try the heat treatment and see if that feels better. Funny you mention the false grip, I do all back pulling exercises with a false grip. I feel it better in the lats but I will stop that immediately. As soon as I feel I can start with chins and BB rows again I’ll use a normal grip, thumbs around the bar. I have not noticed any atrophy in my forearm but I’ve had slightly less pain since I stopped a lot of back and bi work. Just minimal back and bi’s, exercises that dont hurt too much at the moment.

I hate missing those workouts because back and bi’s are very poor bodyparts for me.

[quote]redrigo100 wrote:
I have seen it clinically, and i would be particularly suspicious of anyone presenting with bilateral tennis elbow who also has poor thoracic mobility, forward head posture and spends a lot of time working at a desk.
[/quote]

I do a lot of work at a desk and I have been told I have a forward head posture.

Since there are some very knowledgeable people here, I will describe another position that hurts in case it makes any difference in the internet diagnosis lol. If i bend my elbow at 90 degrees and make a fist there is a small amount of pain in the elbow tendon but if i straighten my arm right out and then make a tight fist, the pain is considerably worse. Hurts to reach out and shake hands with someone when I squeeze.

I’m still thinking anterior interossei nerve entrapment.

Making a fist involves an isometric contraction of the wrist flexors and extensors. Tennis elbow or lateral epicondylitis, involves chronic inflammation of the extensors tendon and/or it’s insertion.

Extending your elbow in theory should not make too much difference to your pain in “pure” tennis elbow. It could indicate a neural aspect in that this movement increases neural tension in the upper limb.

These things can be checked by a physio who will perform upper limb neural provocation tests to ascertain if there is any cervical or neural involvement, as well as checking the more standard clinical symptoms of “pure” tennis elbow.

I mentioned forward head posture and thoracic mobility, as poor thoracic mobility (thoracic spine mainly performs flexion / extension and rotation) causes increased movement at the joints above and below (cervical and lumbar spine) This increased movement over time can wear joints and discs out leading out to localized pain from the structures involved but also the potential to impinge nerves, preventing normal neural glides and presenting as referred pain distally.

Treatment for this would involve mobilisation of the thoracic spine and CT junction as well as neural glides

Have you been to see a physio yet ? I would still recommend you go and see someone. By no means do i claim to have lots of experience in this area or be hugely knowledgeable, and the advice given here is not intended for you to treat yourself, but to highlight that it is difficult to diagnose over the internet and to reiterate that i think it is worth seeing a professional.

Hope this was of some help…

I had epicondylitis, which I guess is the technical term for tennis elbow. I was receiving cortisone shots and getting electrical stimulation. However, as I found out later, the cortisone shots were weakening the bone. So, when I slipped on ice one day and landed on my shoulder, my Humerus fractured.

The Emergency Room Physician seemed to want to say that the cortisone shots were to blame, but he sort of rescinded that statement, seemingly not wanting to implicate another Physician for administering a faulty treatment.

So in addition to STILL having the problems with the elbow, I now had to contend with a torn rotator cuff (it was a surgical tear, as my Physician decided to insert a steel rod through the rotator cuff to protect the Humerus bone).

So after months of physical therapy for epicondylitis, I now had to contend with many more months for a torn rotator cuff.

If you go to Wal-Mart, or any other pharmacy, buy one of those tennis elbow wraps, preferable the one with the air-pack, as it seems to provide the best comfort. Also, doing external rotation exercises helped tremendously. Additionally, whenever I do dips, pushups, bench press, or really any type of movement pushing away from my body, I make sure my wrist is parallel, rather that perpendicular, to my forearm. It puts a lot less pressure on my elbows.

Hopefully, your issue aren’t as bad as mine were/are, as I still need to follow all the above protocols after more than 8 years.

Wow…

I feel a similar thing… Problems in both elbows, inner and outer… Gave up hammer curls and right healed as well as inner on left.

Ice hurts incredibly bad… heat helps… ibuprofen helps… hurts when actively using it, but feels better after using then before…

as luck would have it I’m having a weird heal issue that feels better after dead lifts, but then kills anytime it hasn’t been used, well or running. Almost healed up once but I fell off a ladder and that was it for healing up.

Gonna see PA for poison ivy, and assorted tendon inflammation issues tomorrow… so maybe they’ll give me prednisone and all will be better?

I’ve taken to using a tennis/golf elbow strap when I lift, added gloves with wrist support wraps in them and I can use more weight…

Does anyone have ideas in case PA doesn’t?

I went to my chiropractor today who does A.R.T. with same problem. My elbow feels way better after one visit. He said my elbow (don’t remember what bones he said) can be mis-aligned and he also told me to use ice 8-10 min 2xday. He said I get enough heat in that area when I workout. He also said hammer curls ok and to do twisting exercises where you hold a piece of pvc straight up in your hand like a sword while resting your arm on the table and let it go down on each side to help strenghten the forearm. I even worked out today and it doesn’t hurt like usual.

Thanks so much for all the replies. I thought I’d give anyone who’s interested, a quick update on whats going on. It may help others that are going through the same thing. I have been in physio for about 5 weeks now (it was diagnosed as tennis elbow). I took advice from this thread and it was pretty much in line with what physio has me doing.

Cold immediately following train
Heat or heat/cold alternating every other time.
Mild stretching
Week 5 has me doing some very light eccentric forarm movements and squeezing of tension ball.
Completely stopped all biceps and back movements including deads ARGG!
Do no movements that cause aggravation to the tendon or forearm muscles.

Four weeks of physio saw little improvement to my condition and I was following his directions to the letter. Last week I broke down at his encouragement and went to my doctor for anti-inflammatories and my arm started to feel better within one day. A week on them has the pain greatly reduced and I think I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I just hope it doesn’t come back the same as soon as i’m off the drugs but for now its relief. I can even do curls without pain but light weights. I do not do them yet for fear of a setback but I just tried it for fun.

He does some massage on the top of the forearm with quite a bit of pressure and it hurts like hell! He said that there was/is likely a strain there that has caused pressure on the tendon, which in turn has caused inflammation that wont go away.

I had a similar problem after moving house a few years back. Wouldn’t go away for months and was very limiting to my workouts. A friend suggested that I try glucosamine/chondroitin. Pain was gone within two days. Give it a try.

ok…this sounds nuts but…I had SEVERE elbow issues ( inner and outer ) and was stung on the back of the elbow by a wasp ~ painful. The wasp sting has fully healed and four weeks later I am still pain free!?? Go figure! Better than shots, no more naprosyn, ice or heat. I have also been able to increase volume and intensity and added a few movements that were impossible previously ( pullups/chinups in particular ).

ok…this sounds nuts but…I had SEVERE elbow issues ( inner and outer ) and was stung on the back of the elbow by a wasp ~ painful. The wasp sting has fully healed and four weeks later I am still pain free!?? Go figure! Better than shots, no more naprosyn, ice or heat. I have also been able to increase volume and intensity and added a few movements that were impossible previously ( pullups/chinups in particular ).