Tennis Elbow

J

JustAGirl

Member
Hi, I've just been diagnosed with tennis elbow and wondered if anyone could offer any suggestions as to how I can carry on working out, whilst still resting my arm enough for the injury to heal?
I did ICE Chiseled Lower Body and Blast this morning using no weights (and missing out the burpees) and had a really effective workout, are there any other workouts that work well without weights?
Any advice gratefully received!
Anita
 
I hurt my elbow last year over-doing it with band assisted pull-ups. I avoided moves that caused pain like upright rows and lateral raises for about 6 months! I still used all my Cathe arsenal, just modified for that one arm that would complain if I used it wrong! A tennis playing friend told me that my injury reminded her of when she had tennis elbow; she suggested I use a Thera Bar for therapy and it WORKED!!!! I bought mine at a local physical therapy clinic and still use it to help strengthen my forearms and keep the ouchie elbow at bay! Good luck, Anita, I hope you are back in fighting form soon.
 
Hi Nancy,
Thank you for your advice. I'll certainly see if I can find a Thera Bar!
I really didn't want to stop using Cathe's workouts whilst waiting for this elbow to heal, so I'll adapt and modify as you did.
Anita
 
Be careful though. Tennis elbow (tendonitis) is not just the result of a lack of forearm strength. There are multiple factors. It can often occur with either a triceps muscle involvement or a biceps muscle involvement (or rather, from irritation of the tendons/ligaments attaching triceps muscle to the elbow joint). For me, it is biceps training that causes problems and pain. To avoid flare ups, I have to ensure that I create balance in my training between these two opposing muscle groups. I have to complete one triceps exercise for each biceps exercise I complete. Otherwise, I am in trouble and back to flare ups. Some of the best tricep exercises are not, in fact, kick backs and need not feature weights either. Resistance band work for triceps has helped me build better strength and protection into my elbow joint than weights for the triceps. Without this, I would not be able to work the biceps at all without constant pain and irritation.

Clare
 
Thanks for your reply,Claire.
My physio thinks the tennis elbow injury occurred when I hit my elbow against a door frame!
I'll certainly bear your advice in mind when I can start lifting the weights again, as working both "sides" of the muscle makes perfect sense.
Anita
 
Just in case this is of any use to anyone with tennis elbow or forearm pain, this is the treatment my Physiotherapist gave me. I am just starting Week 6 of the plan and my arm is 80% better, the majority of pain has gone and my grip strength has improved dramatically
Weeks 1-4 -
  1. Weekly massage, ultrasound and acupuncture sessions.
  2. Three times per week, place injured forearm on table with back of hand flexed up (in a loose fist), place your opposite hand on top of your fist and push away from your body - try your hardest to resist the pushing with your injured arm, hold for a count on ten and rest. Do three reps of this and try to do it three times per day. When this no longer hurts, progress onto slow wrist curls with a light DB. Do the wrist curls with your arm supported on a table, with your wrist hanging over so that you can curl up and down. Do as many reps as you can to initiate a light burn in the muscle. repeat three times per day.
  3. Daily - as often as you can, self massage of the afflicted area and stretching your wrist by extending your arm with palm down and using the other hand to press down on the back of the hand, hold for a count of 10-15.
  4. Exercise regime - no restriction on lower body and cardio, upper body exercises restricted to palm up exercises e.g. bicep curls (not hammer curls), W curls, palm up lat and front raises etc.
  5. Use ice or heat if needed to help with the pain. Can take paracetamol, but not any anti-inflammatory e.g ibuprofen.
Week 5 -
  1. Massage, ultrasound and acupuncture session.
  2. Continue with at home exercises listed above (2 & 3)
  3. Can bring in chest presses on a gym machine, start light and keep a loose grip on the handles - three sets of 10-12 reps. Give yourself 2- 3days rest before repeating this exercise. (For info, my forearm burned quite a lot after the first session, but the chest DOMS quickly acted as a counter irritant!)
  4. Use ice, heat, painkillers if needed (I haven't needed to)
Week 6-
  1. Continue with at home exercises
  2. Released to workout as normal BUT using light weights and higher reps!

Week 10-
  1. Massage, Ultrasound and acupuncture session - this can be cancelled if I feel I don't need it.
The whole time I have carried on with my Cathe workouts, I have done lower body, cardio or metabolic cardio (ICE has featured heavily!) Whenever there was an upper body move that wasn't "palms-up" I either substituted a palm up move or did the movement without weight.

There you have it, this plan has worked for me and I wanted to share it with other Cathletes in case the exercises might be useful to someone else. But please remember, this my treatment plan for my injury - what worked for me may not work for you - go see a physiotherapist if you can!

Anita
 
JustAGirl said:
There you have it, this plan has worked for me and I wanted to share it with other Cathletes in case the exercises might be useful to someone else. But please remember, this my treatment plan for my injury - what worked for me may not work for you - go see a physiotherapist if you can![/QUOTE]
Thanks for sharing your treatment:)

I shall take your advice highlighted above on the board in case any injury happen. This make a lot of
sense I think:)
Click to expand...
 
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