Elbow pain & more

A

Alexis52

Cathlete
I believe that this is tennis elbow; it hurts and is sore right on the "funny bone". It seems that shoulder exercises bother it the most - like side lateral raises. So aside from "stop doing it if it hurts", is there a way to get past this problem?

Next - I don't understand this. My left side is definitely weaker than my right. That's normal enough. But my left arm, in particular, doesn't feel the burn when it's working hard (say bicep curls). It works one minute(with no burn) and then just fails. What's up with that? Is the arm sooo weak, that it just doesn't burn? Or am I compensating with other muscles? Does any of this make sense? Oh, the tennis elbow is on the right arm.

Someone please shed some light on this for me. Thanks, Cheryl
 
OK, I'm not going to take this personally;-) I know that some of you ladies are PTs and I could really use your input to the above problems. So pretty please, can someone give me some feedback?

P.S. If no one answers now, after my begging and pleading, I will have no choice but to take this personally!;-) :( ;-) Cheryl
 
Dear Cheryl, don't take it personally!!! :)

I was diagnosed with tennis elbow (lateral epicondylitis) earlier this year. I went to a sports doctor who gave me a cortisone shot and an elbow brace. He told me I could keep on working out with it if I used really light weight workouts rather than heavy weights/fewer rep workouts.

I followed his advice and my arm was getting better, but I got cocky and did some intense yardwork (pulling out dead bushes, pruning, etc.) and in one weekend I messed up my elbow pretty bad.

It's been several months since then. I didn't go back for more cortisone because I read that too much of it will hurt your elbow in the long run... so I tried acupuncture with deep muscle massage therapy. That seemed to help. I wear my brace religiously. I am still using light weights for upper body workouts and I ice the elbow afterwards.

I've been making some progress. I guess my point is: decide on a therapy (cortisone and rest, physical therapy and rest, whatever) and REST it as much as you can. Focus on the lower body instead (although hoisting the barbell onto your shoulders might be out...I had to figure out a way to prop up my loaded barbell high enough so I could stand under it and put it on my shoulders that way!)

Cathe's forearm exercises on Slow & Heavy are good exercises to help strengthen the tendons affected by tennis elbow. And here are some threads that helped me learn more about tennis elbow:

http://69.0.137.118/dc/dcboard.php?...opic_id=2088&mesg_id=2088&listing_type=search

http://69.0.137.118/dc/dcboard.php?...opic_id=6266&mesg_id=6266&listing_type=search

http://69.0.137.118/dc/dcboard.php?...opic_id=9767&mesg_id=9767&listing_type=search

http://www.tennis-elbow.net/tenniselbow.htm

I feel for you, Cheryl. I was so upset when people told me I needed to rest my arm. I kept pushing it and now have been properly punished by having to wait months for it to heal properly. If only I had done it right when I was first injured!

And now imagine that an echo-ey voice is booming out through your computer monitor:

DON'T LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOU!!!

:+
 
Oh my! Thanks so much for all that great info! I just did slow and heavy last nite and skipped the forearm exercises (that should have been a sign to me to DO them). Haven't seen a doctor yet cuz I know what it is cuz I had it years ago. I have one of those little braces with a gel pouch to wear. Is that the kind of brace you mean? It'll take me awhile to get thru all those threads. Great info. And.... somebody loves me!!! LOL Cheryl
 
Heh, heh! Cheryl!

Yeah, that's the kind of brace, although they also use foam pads. Either will do, as long as there's a light pressure on that area.

Give your arm a rest before you do those exercises. In fact, if you have pain now, I wouldn't do anything for a few weeks. I think those exercises should be done after you've had some time to recover, you know, as a precursor to upper body workouts, to strength the elbow once again for lifting. Here's another link with a better description of exercises for tennis elbow:

http://www.physsportsmed.com/issues/1996/05_96/nirscpa.htm

The acupuncturist told me what the sports doctor told me: if you keep reinjuring the same area, one day your tendons will refuse to heal and surgery is the only option! I met a guy who said he had THREE surgeries and he still couldn't brush his teeth with his right arm. :(

I've also heard that once you get it, the elbow that has it will always be one of your weak spots from now on. If you remember this, you can avoid reinjuring it.

So make sure you rest it thoroughly before you start lifting. Ease carefully back into weights once you've healed. Even if you pride yourself on using good form, make sure from now on you use PERFECT form. The very moment the weight negatively affects your form, decrease it!

Once you are healed, you want to make sure you don't ever have to take another lifting break like this one again, so be good!
 
I was really happy to read the response by Nitty Gritty. I suddenly developed the same thing for what I considered to be no apparant reason. I also was diagnosed with tennis elbow and this doc said it was wrist action that caused my problem (I know now that I was not keeping my wrist fixed with certain weight lifting) I did get a cortisone shot and boy was I SORRY I did that. The next few days my arm hurt so bad it made me cry. Then that pain wore off and my elbow felt pretty much okay for a while but the pain is creeping back in. I have to be really careful how I hold my wrist even when just doing normal things like picking up a purse, or moving my mouse around. Yes, rest seems to be the thing....
I don't have any comments on the weaker side thing.
-joy
 
I was diagnosed with this too. In the left elbow. I got no shots, just some exercises to do. They have really helped.

It's basically fancy wrist-flapping. Keep your forearm parallel to the ground and then, with your fingers fully extended and spread, pull your hand all the way back, hold, then all the way down. Really feel it. Do it 20 times, then flip your hand over palm up or palm down whatever is the opposite, and do the same thing 20 more times. Then twist your hand pronate/supinate 20 times, going for full range of motion so you really feel it.

He also told me to use a squeeze ball each day and to do reverse curls with light weight.

He said my tendons were weaker than my muscles and I needed to build them up. If I rested it felt better, but wasn't helping to build the weak tendons.

He also said it was good to deeply massage in the top of my forearm and to do that stretch Cathe does for the back of the forearm in S/H where you pull your hand down (not the way she does it for biceps stretches, the other way).

This has allowed me to keep doing all the things that I was doing before.

I often do these little exercises while driving or reading in bed.
 
I feel so much better knowing I have friends in pain, too;-) ! Great tips for exercises and great references. I thought I was hurting it by shoulder exercises cuz that's my weakest area. Since you mentioned that it's caused by forearm/wrist action, brainiac here realized that I've been doing something else - I don't have a barbell so I've been holding two bodybars as a substitute (12 & 18lb). Needless to say my grip and wrist form is lacking doing it that way. So see? I knew you guys would come thru for me. Thanks a wristload (duh huh huh). Cheryl
 
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