Anyone have any tips for Tennis Elbow recovery?

[Jeff McD]

So I've come to the conclusion that any type of tennis elbow stretches or exercises are a no-go for me current because anything I do with it is super painful. So I'm currently giving it a couple of weeks of rest, and by rest I mean still working but trying to avoid using it as much as possible, just not specifically exercising or stretching my arm and icing it after work until it stops hurting enough for me to start stretching it and exercising it again. Bit annoyed as it's been about 4 months since I injured it and it's still unuseable

You are absolutely correct that it is too early to start rehab exercises if it is acutely inflamed. The real question is why is it still acutely inflamed a good four months after appearing? That suggests either something that you are still doing at work or riding your 50 pound ebike is perpetuating it, or that your strengthening exercises were too vigorous to begin with.

So the two things that help when it's acutely inflamed are icing for 20 minutes four times a day or more, and a mild compression wrap to limit swelling at the elbow. An elbow sleeve that is snug but not too tight to be worn all day and night with a wadded up ball of Kleenex or toilet paper positioned directly over the sore spot are highly recommended for this. If the ball of TP hurts too much then your sleeve is too tight. Hopefully wearing this and icing for 7 to 10 days will bring down the acute pain and inflammation. If not you might consider a local steroid injection around this tendon but only one time. If it doesn't help the first time it's not going to help to keep getting it. Of course you could also try PRP, platelet rich plasma injection. Honestly I never saw any health side effects of a single steroid injection as long as you don't inject into the tendon itself. Any orthopedist or sports medicine doctor can do this.

When you do return to strengthening I can't emphasize enough that you have to begin with a 1 pound dumbell and never increase by more than 10% when you start going up or you will blow it up again. Nobody but the physical therapists start with 1 pound. Everyone else starts with a five or 10 pounder and they just perpetuate the inflammation. You must stay within the limits of the tissues. I'm talking about the reverse wrist curl exercise. For wrist curls you would start with a 2-3 pound dumbbell. Hope this helps.

 

[BigMark]

This stuff helped me (with physical therapy) recover from a catastrophic life changing injury. 6 friends with various injuries including tennis elbow all said it helped, you will need 2-3 weeks of application though.

 

[cjc.emtb]

Carbon bar and don't stop riding...

 

[RipGroove]

Carbon bar and don't stop riding...

I stopped riding months ago, the injury didn't come from the emtb or from any repetitive motion, it was a one-off freak accident where I fell off my street trials bike and whacked the tendon on a wooden pole. It just so happened to have caused the exact same symptoms as tennis elbow because I damaged the tendon in the same place. I couldn't ride the emtb even if want to right now

 

[RipGroove]

You are absolutely correct that it is too early to start rehab exercises if it is acutely inflamed. The real question is why is it still acutely inflamed a good four months after appearing? That suggests either something that you are still doing at work or riding your 50 pound ebike is perpetuating it, or that your strengthening exercises were too vigorous to begin with.

So the two things that help when it's acutely inflamed are icing for 20 minutes four times a day or more, and a mild compression wrap to limit swelling at the elbow. An elbow sleeve that is snug but not too tight to be worn all day and night with a wadded up ball of Kleenex or toilet paper positioned directly over the sore spot are highly recommended for this. If the ball of TP hurts too much then your sleeve is too tight. Hopefully wearing this and icing for 7 to 10 days will bring down the acute pain and inflammation. If not you might consider a local steroid injection around this tendon but only one time. If it doesn't help the first time it's not going to help to keep getting it. Of course you could also try PRP, platelet rich plasma injection. Honestly I never saw any health side effects of a single steroid injection as long as you don't inject into the tendon itself. Any orthopedist or sports medicine doctor can do this.

When you do return to strengthening I can't emphasize enough that you have to begin with a 1 pound dumbell and never increase by more than 10% when you start going up or you will blow it up again. Nobody but the physical therapists start with 1 pound. Everyone else starts with a five or 10 pounder and they just perpetuate the inflammation. You must stay within the limits of the tissues. I'm talking about the reverse wrist curl exercise. For wrist curls you would start with a 2-3 pound dumbbell. Hope this helps.

Thank you, I'll definitely be following this advice. I've measured my arm and ordered a light compression elbow sleeve and I will continue icing it when I can. Unfortunately I can't avoiding using it at work, I'm a CNC machinist so I'm constantly picking up billets of steel and using hand tools all day but I'm doing my best to keep the stress away from the affected arm. My boss doesn't offer any kind of sick pay either so there's no chance of me even getting a few days off work to rest it.

 

[Marksou]

Had it in both elbows. Steroid injections fixed it both times.

 

[Jeff McD]

Wow, I feel for you. That is a rough job to be recovering from this kind of injury. And that severe a hit on the tendon complex is the type that just takes forever to heal, the people who take a year and a half. And the acute inflammation prevents rehab starting for months in the beginning. I hope for the best for you. That's a tough one. May require injection of PRP or repeated needling to calm down the inflammation so you can start rehab sooner, or even perhaps an injection of steroid. The steroidothers don't heal it, it simply lessens the inflammation enough to where are the strengthening exercises of physical therapy actually stimulate the healing process.

Only advice I can give is whenever you have to lift anything at work, lift with palms up, as opposed to the usual habit of grabbing it with palms down or sideways. Palms up relaxes those extensor tendons of the elbow and uses the flexor tendons to do the lifting, and you would even want to try to lift initially with the other hand and cradle other end on the anterior surface of injured arm rather than the hand.

 

[RipGroove]

Wow, I feel for you. That is a rough job to be recovering from this kind of injury. And that severe a hit on the tendon complex is the type that just takes forever to heal, the people who take a year and a half. And the acute inflammation prevents rehab starting for months in the beginning. I hope for the best for you. That's a tough one. May require injection of PRP or repeated needling to calm down the inflammation so you can start rehab sooner, or even perhaps an injection of steroid. The steroidothers don't heal it, it simply lessens the inflammation enough to where are the strengthening exercises of physical therapy actually stimulate the healing process.

Only advice I can give is whenever you have to lift anything at work, lift with palms up, as opposed to the usual habit of grabbing it with palms down or sideways. Palms up relaxes those extensor tendons of the elbow and uses the flexor tendons to do the lifting, and you would even want to try to lift initially with the other hand and cradle other end on the anterior surface of injured arm rather than the hand.

I've the compression sleeve on for a few days now and I've been icing it when I can and I believe it's making a difference, I was getting a fair bit of pain even when just stood still with my arm straight down by my side but that seems to be going away now which I assume is down to the sleeve and icing keeping inflammation at bay so I'll keep it up for the full 10 days and see what it's like after that

 

[Plutohora]

I fractured my elbow socket 18months ago. Daily Vit D (2,000mg), cod liver oil liquid in a table spoon and Iron tablets daily all played their part. Plus....milk.

 

[RipGroove]

Wow, I feel for you. That is a rough job to be recovering from this kind of injury. And that severe a hit on the tendon complex is the type that just takes forever to heal, the people who take a year and a half. And the acute inflammation prevents rehab starting for months in the beginning. I hope for the best for you. That's a tough one. May require injection of PRP or repeated needling to calm down the inflammation so you can start rehab sooner, or even perhaps an injection of steroid. The steroidothers don't heal it, it simply lessens the inflammation enough to where are the strengthening exercises of physical therapy actually stimulate the healing process.

Only advice I can give is whenever you have to lift anything at work, lift with palms up, as opposed to the usual habit of grabbing it with palms down or sideways. Palms up relaxes those extensor tendons of the elbow and uses the flexor tendons to do the lifting, and you would even want to try to lift initially with the other hand and cradle other end on the anterior surface of injured arm rather than the hand.

The way things are going I may have to consider the steroid injection because I'm having a lot of trouble sleeping at night due to pain every time I move my arm and currently there's no way I can even begin to start any stretching or exercises. I'll see how it is after the full 10 days of wearing the compression sleeve and icing it and go from there. I have had the injection before but it made zero difference, the doc said it would be 50/50 whether it would work because it's a tricky thing to administer to the exact area that needs it but maybe I'll get lucky this time and it'll work and allow me to start light strength exercises and more importantly actually be able to sleep at night again.

 

[Hardtail]

The way things are going I may have to consider the steroid injection because I'm having a lot of trouble sleeping at night due to pain every time I move my arm and currently there's no way I can even begin to start any stretching or exercises. I'll see how it is after the full 10 days of wearing the compression sleeve and icing it and go from there. I have had the injection before but it made zero difference, the doc said it would be 50/50 whether it would work because it's a tricky thing to administer to the exact area that needs it but maybe I'll get lucky this time and it'll work and allow me to start light strength exercises and more importantly actually be able to sleep at night again.

Like I mentioned, research peptides, BPC-157 & TB-500. As you are in acute pain go for BPC-157 daily for 4 weeks. You will likely notice a huge change after a week. Once it settles down I would then get on TB-500 for another 4 weeks to aid recovery and muscle growth.
Do your own research there is lots of information online. It will get you back on the bike in no time.

 

[RipGroove]

Like I mentioned, research peptides, BPC-157 & TB-500. As you are in acute pain go for BPC-157 daily for 4 weeks. You will likely notice a huge change after a week. Once it settles down I would then get on TB-500 for another 4 weeks to aid recovery and muscle growth.
Do your own research there is lots of information online. It will get you back on the bike in no time.

I've found so much conflicting information online, some physios and doctors swear by Rest, Ice and Compression etc while other say that's nonsense and you need heat and constant stimulation of the tendons to keep blood flow. So much of it is conflicting so I don't know where to start. My own doctor believes in total rest (saw him a few years ago when I had it in the past). Nothing I seem to do at the minute seems to help.

 

[dobbyhasfriends]

had it in both elbows for over 22 years with almost no breaks in the pain etc, just a variation in how much pain I get.
probably all from heavy work plus playing guitar.
I've tried everything apart from surgery and nothing gives any decent relief so now I have refined managing it to:
stretches - you'll find the ones that work for you
TENS machine - occasional use
ice - frequent, I know when its going to flare up and its usually if I have had a hard time at work, usually with a lot of rotational effort from forearms or shoulders. i ice the elbows before they get bad, it helps.

if you're really lucky like some, it will go away but not in my case so just learn to manage it and as a result you might be lucky.

 

[Zimmerframe]

I have a long term Achilles tendon issue which constantly varies. Nothing seems to have worked longer term with it despite trying many things and trying to monitor what does and doesn't affect it.

One thing I've recently noticed is that wearing thicker socks actually "irritates" it. It's a tiny difference, but presumably the slight increase in temperature over longer periods of time doesn't help. So with compression, I think I used to leave it on too long and I know with icepacks, sometimes I'll forget and leave them on until I've warmed them up

Depending on the circumstances, having less clothing around it might help over longer periods ?

 

[RipGroove]

After some more investigation (IE, me paying more attention to where the pains were coming from) I realized I've also must have upset my Brachioradialis muscle in my arm when I fell off and whacked my tendon, this muscle is near the tennis elbow tendon and has very similar symptoms, the difference is they are treated differently apparently. I definitely still have tennis elbow pain (which seems to be slowly getting better)but also very sharp pain from the Brachioradialis when I grip anything or try to straighten my arm. I've not found any stretches that target that muscle so for now I've bought a hard spikey deep tissue massage ball which I use 3 times a day which is definitely helping.

 

[Jeff McD]

Outstanding, if you are slightly better with the tennis elbow pain that is all that can be expected this early but it means you are on the right track! Basically the same strengthening exercises should also help brachioradialis eventually. Remember, average is one and a half years to full recovery. So keep up the good work. Google stretches for the brachioradialis.

Also remember that if your problem has gone on this long it means a more severe strain that requires strengthening 2-3 x/week for the entire rest of your life to avoid re-injury. However, stretches must remain 2x/d.

Also remember you must avoid handlebar rotated too forward or rearward which can perpetuate pain in spite of adequate rehab. You must experiment with slight forward or rearward until you find the optimum for your unique arm alignment. How far forward or rearward you can rotate depends on whether you are a relaxed rider with a more straight up position and levers around 45° w/ some elbow bend, or an aggressive rider with lower chest more bend in the elbows w/ slight drop also, & higher brake levers around 60°-80°.

You simply have to experiment to see which feels better for you.

 

[rod9301]

The way things are going I may have to consider the steroid injection because I'm having a lot of trouble sleeping at night due to pain every time I move my arm and currently there's no way I can even begin to start any stretching or exercises. I'll see how it is after the full 10 days of wearing the compression sleeve and icing it and go from there. I have had the injection before but it made zero difference, the doc said it would be 50/50 whether it would work because it's a tricky thing to administer to the exact area that needs it but maybe I'll get lucky this time and it'll work and allow me to start light strength exercises and more importantly actually be able to sleep at night again.

Make sure he doesn't inject the steroids in the tendon

 

[rod9301]

Prp injections work and so does wave shock

 

[Like a Boss]

Is anyone using red light therapy for tendon issues?

 

[Fielonator]

Get yourself some sort of a stress ball and get squeezing. I had a sore elbow from over doing it on a road bike that didn't fit well, it got so I could just about ride but was sore all the time. A few minutes a few times a day of stress ball squeezing eventually got me back to being pain free.

3 years on, no reoccurrence. I used a selection of 3 egg shaped balls I bought on amazon. There was a soft, medium and firm option and I worked my way through the lot.