Tennis Elbow

AVeyRa

AVeyRa

Cathlete
I have been dealing with “tennis elbow” for about a month. It was mostly healed after I backed off on weights for the last two weeks. It was about 80% healed so I started XTrain (just weights) today. Did chest, back and shoulders this morning (which I LOVED) but now my tennis elbow is back with a vengeance. Very sore. I put Xtrain (just weights) in my rotation this month but now that’s not looking like it’s not going to work.

1) How long do I rest the elbow until it heals? (It’s not torn or anything severe, just very sore. It’s in my dominant arm so writing and cooking even make it flare up). Two weeks of babying it really helped. But that was obviously not long enough.
2) What do I do in the meantime? Just cardio?

Thanks in advance!
Anita in SC
 
I had golfers’ elbow so I don’t want to suggest anything that won’t help or might damage it further, and I am not a physical therapist, but what helped me was looking up “golfers’ elbow eccentric exercises” on YouTube, and then doing the exercises I found. That is the only thing that helped. And while I did those religiously, I also backed off of weights completely and just did cardio and some band/tubing/loop work but nothing very bicep intensive (no weights and no kickboxing). And it healed!! Another thing that helped was staying off of my phone and iPad because those tend to tense my forearm muscles which really exacerbate my golfers’ elbow. HTH!
 
It does :D Thank you! I have a few videos I’ve already found that look promising.

I’m looking around in the workout manager for a rotation that just emphasizes cardio, but can’t find one. ”Step Lovers” looks like a good one to edit for my needs, but I might just go down to the basement and look though all my videos and start at the beginning, working my way through all the Cathe (non-upper body) cardio I can get my hands on.

Filed under “Finding the Silver Lining”:
I’ve also considered that resting my upper body might be an opportunity to really work my legs, abs and increase my VO2 Max — all areas where I can improve… Sometimes blessings come in disguise. ;-D
 
AVeyRa, sorry, no advice here but wanted to send sympathy sentiments .... what a pain, literally & figuratively. I think it's in STS that Cathe mentions that not only do forearm muscles have to get used to holding heavier weights, but tendons/cartilage too (& they take longer to repair due to less blood flow). Maybe a little extra collagen with VitC to aide the tendons while you ease up on weights & heal?
 
my doctor recommending using a wrist immobilizer at night when sleeping. a brace keeps you from bending the wrist while sleeping. they are about $15 at amazon. I like Mueller brand. forces that pull on the elbow come from above and below, so restricting motion at night allows the elbow area to heal. it has worked for me every time Ive developed tennis elbow.
 
I've been living with tennis elbow since March this year. Which means, it's been almost 9 months. It is very annoying actually, because I love to lift weights and I've been pretty consistent with my resistance training. I was working out regularly 3-4 times a week alternating cardio with weight workouts. Sometimes I would do Cathe's circuit workouts where you do both. Until I couldn't - I can't remember which workout finally caused the tennis elbow but I'm sure it was one of the heavy lifting ones, like Gym Style chest and triceps or Muscle Max. Long story short, I had to stop lifting altogether. I only did cardio workout where you use mostly lower body. I didn't see any improvement for months... I wore an arm brace and did muscle exercises (where you only work the forearm muscles). Then in summer, we went on a month long holiday when I stopped doing everything - no workouts at all. That's when I finally saw some recovery on the elbow. I had originally felt the soreness most when I extended the elbow and by the end of summer the pain was gone. Great, I thought, now's the time to start lifting again. I picked up lighter weights and did a few circuit workout (like Low Impact Circuit) - and boom, the tennis elbow was back. Sooooo annoying. Now it is December and I still feel the tennis elbow albeit much less. I would love to get back to lifting again, because I feel so weak in upper body. Also jiggly arms truly bug me. But I'm so afraid to start weight training and have the tennis elbow return. I'm planning on checking in with my doctor and asking for PT referral. I'm hoping they might have some suggestions.
 
Ayse Lynn said:
I've been living with tennis elbow since March this year. Which means, it's been almost 9 months. It is very annoying actually, because I love to lift weights and I've been pretty consistent with my resistance training. I was working out regularly 3-4 times a week alternating cardio with weight workouts. Sometimes I would do Cathe's circuit workouts where you do both. Until I couldn't - I can't remember which workout finally caused the tennis elbow but I'm sure it was one of the heavy lifting ones, like Gym Style chest and triceps or Muscle Max. Long story short, I had to stop lifting altogether. I only did cardio workout where you use mostly lower body. I didn't see any improvement for months... I wore an arm brace and did muscle exercises (where you only work the forearm muscles). Then in summer, we went on a month long holiday when I stopped doing everything - no workouts at all. That's when I finally saw some recovery on the elbow. I had originally felt the soreness most when I extended the elbow and by the end of summer the pain was gone. Great, I thought, now's the time to start lifting again. I picked up lighter weights and did a few circuit workout (like Low Impact Circuit) - and boom, the tennis elbow was back. Sooooo annoying. Now it is December and I still feel the tennis elbow albeit much less. I would love to get back to lifting again, because I feel so weak in upper body. Also jiggly arms truly bug me. But I'm so afraid to start weight training and have the tennis elbow return. I'm planning on checking in with my doctor and asking for PT referral. I'm hoping they might have some suggestions.
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I don’t know why it takes so long to heal, but yes — super annoying. My rear delt was also injured at the same time. It takes longer to heal, if you can believe that. Heal up! You’ll be back to weights before you know it. It just takes awhile. Take it slow.
 
So "fun" seeing you can get Tennis Elbow even when you don't play tennis at all. ;) Logically speaking, of course weight lifting could potentially put the same strains on your forearm as you would encounter playing tennis.

Anyways, had a discussion with my PT and yep, I've got Tennis Elbow - he says it's early onset, though, so it's good I caught it when I did. He did some laser therapy and cupping on my arm, as well as some "scraping" which was basically kind of like a massage, then gave me a couple exercises that use a resistance band for me to work on that should help with the recovery.

As others have mentioned, the symptoms really make trying to do any heavy lifting near impossible - that includes upper and lower body workouts. The grip needed for really heavy weights for lower body affects the symptoms, so that rules out heavy lower body. The movements needed to heft weights into position for chest affects the symptoms, so heavy chest work is out. Biceps are just a hard NO. I've not attempted triceps... maybe they'll tolerate it. Shoulder work can be okay but lateral raises are out. Back work is fairly okay - just gotta watch it again with anything really heavy for row-type exercises. But overall, any exercise that requires a bicep-curl type of movement to get weights into place have the potential to aggravate it.

I see a lot of really light weight endurance workouts in my future while this heals. Boooooooo.
 
Kellyro77 said:
I see a lot of really light weight endurance workouts in my future while this heals. Boooooooo.
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I hear ya ... it's hard to not be able to do what we want when injured & rehabbing, but we gotta do what we gotta do. Endurance workouts have their place too. I did a stint of shoulder rehab workouts this winter. They were long & boring, BUT when I went back to my regular Cathe UB workouts I was pleasantly surprised to find I didn't loose much strength. Every athlete, including Cathletes (& Cathe herself) may find themselves rehabbing a body part at times ... "do what you can with what you have, where you are".

Hope everyone heals well & is back at it as the healing allows :).
 
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Debinmi said:
I was pleasantly surprised to find I didn't loose much strength.
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That was my case after recovering from my back issues earlier this year. I had to stay away from heavy weights there, too, and during the brief period between healing from that and this new issue cropping up, I was pleasantly surprised how quickly I was able to work back up to my heaviest weight selections. I'll have faith. :) Now, if this set me back for months and months and months, I might be a bit frustrated.

I guess if anything I don't mind the little mental mind-game I get to play with myself thinking I'm cheating because I'm not going really heavy. Although all of Cathe's endurance-type workouts really never leave me feeling like I got off easy by the end.

I pulled out Muscle Endurance for the first time in years and years (can't believe I was regularly working out to that 20 years ago!!!), and got a really thorough upper body workout from it today, even with light weights.
 
I've had pain in the elbow and forearm since last fall. Its not severe, just annoying. It gets better with rest and returns with weights. I wear a brace for workouts. Presently I'm doing circuit workouts with light to moderate weights, listening to what my arm tolerates. Haven’t done the RWH Circuit workouts in years.
We have a trip coming up, so that will be 2 weeks of rest. Shall see how it does. There's so much yard work this time of the year that fully resting it is a pipedream, so going away from here will help a lot.
 
Hey vivbc, what type of brace do you use if you don't mind sharing? I have arthritis in my left thumb joint for which I use a brace at night. When the thumb first acted up & I was fearful i might lose my grip in weightlifting (especially during chest presses), I wore it then too. It has helped with that joint (I only wear it at night now). Some kind soul on this forum directed me to it.

Hope you have a great trip! :)
 
Eek....same here! I've been dealing with left arm.....pain & soreness around elbow and
kind of forearm, seems to bother me the most with hammer curls......
 
Debinmi said:
Hey vivbc, what type of brace do you use if you don't mind sharing? I have arthritis in my left thumb joint for which I use a brace at night. When the thumb first acted up & I was fearful i might lose my grip in weightlifting (especially during chest presses), I wore it then too. It has helped with that joint (I only wear it at night now). Some kind soul on this forum directed me to it.

Hope you have a great trip!
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No idea what make it is. It wraps above and below the elbow, allowing for movement. it secures with Velcro, and doesn’t easily slip down my forearm. I find it gives a lot of support for lifting moderate weights.
this trip is long anticipated, and we are very excited!
 

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