Tennis Elbow Solutions?

I throw left handed.

I get pain in my left elbow from throwing footballs too long, throwing baseball/softball too long, dips, and barbell bench press. Pretty much no other activities give me problems. Except, if I barbell bench at the beginning of the workout, certain other exercises (pull ups) can cause it to flare up the rest of the workout.

I have a pretty clean diet and take plenty of fish oil for inflammation.

Any ideas for getting rid of this? It has plagued me my whole life with baseball/football… been lifting for 2 years now and it’s recently come up during benching.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/2 … -elbow/?em

EXcept… just be aware that your problem may not be tennis elbow. Still, eccentric only movements seem to be the go.

there are some bands that you can put around your forearm i think… i know a few guys at the gym who use it and swear by them… also some tennis players in high school i knew used to wear them

The straps work, any decent pharmacy or sports store should have them. It is generally a shock related injury, so check your form inwhatever sport you do. This injury is the reason why in baseball, kids are almost forbidden to throw curve balls.

My last tennis elbow woe came as a result of a construction joint stress related injury. It took quite a while to completely heal and I had to totally rest it for a solid 3 weeks.

BG

I have it in both of my elbows and it pretty much sucks.

This probably isn’t recommended, and you will want to consult your doctor before you do this and nothing else has helped, but get a cortisone shot; rest the arm for a few weeks; then ease your way back into lifting. If you do it right the first time, there should be no need to get the shot again.

Increasing flexibility with the forearm muscles and doing stretching exercises for the forearm really helped to where I can manage the pain. Warming up the arms before I lift or play hockey keeps the pain to a minimum. If it bothers me I will ice it down and take some aleve.

The straps do work, but it only masks the problem.

My doctor advised me to lift with less weight and do more reps instead of more weight and less reps. I pretty much ignored that, but it does help with certain lifts. For me, it flares up while doing barbell flat bench press. Incline doesn’t seem to hurt as much, but I use less weight on incline than flat. It kind of sucks when it is painful to try and bench 215 lbs. I’m just glad for the hammer strength bench press and dumbells.

I’ve been experimenting with having a looser grip while benching. It does seem to help a bit, but I don’t feel comfortable on a flat bench with a loose grip around the bar, so I only do it on the hammer strength press.