Elbow Pain

By the eay, people who played through it had to have made some change in the way they played even if they were unaware of it. A stressed tendon will not recover unless the repeated stress causing the degenerative change stops. Obviously resting will help. Some people - not everybody! - will make some stroke or grip change because the pain forces it, sometimes without knowing they are doing it. As a result the condition resolves over time. Not everybody does that.

As with any recovery, diet is also important. Since the injury is tendon related, a quick search
for tendon repairing foods suggests vitamin C. I've been downing the chewables and drinking
heaps of orange juice.

Also there are a lot of natural anti-inflammatory foods. Tumeric is a powerful one along
with many other positive powers so I've been making ginger/tumeric lattes

http://goop.com/recipes/ginger-turmeric-latte/

p.s I suggest sweetening this one with dates and a bit of honey.

http://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/foods-that-fight-inflammation

The thing about degenerative tendonopathies is that there is often surprisingly little inflammation! Pathology studies show absence or few of the kinds of cells infiltrating the diseased tendon that you would expect for a classic inflammation response. That is why steroid injections don't always work (they suppress inflamation responses). It turns out degeneration and inflammation are not the same thing, although with more advanced degeneration you do get inflammation. That is why therapies that treat it as a primarily inflammatory problem are often less effective than people hope.

Vitamin C increases cross-linking of collagen fibers. So it might help. It certainly won't hurt. Be careful about orange juice though. Lots of sugars and calories.

Tennis Elbow

Hi d3ss3n, I’m here to get a suggestion for my son’s issue. He was also diagnosed with tennis elbow in his right hand and the doctor suggested him to use ( http://www.aesmphysiotherapytoronto.ca/products/shoulder-elbow-braces ) bandit tennis elbow brace. I have seen that you are using Tennis/Golf Elbow Clasp as your doctor suggested. Is there any improvement after using that elbow clasp? My son has a match on coming November and he is very much tensed about it. The doctor informed him to use the brace and avoid playing tennis for few week. Give some suggestions or techniques that you have tried to get rid of this pain.

Thanks

I have to say - playing with an injury (table tennis), even if it's 90% healed or with a brace is very difficult. It's on your mind. You start losing a few points and you blame it on the brace. Or you avoid certain shots because you don't want to re-injure. It's very tough psychologically. If your son is tensed now it will be worse. I turned down every opportunity to play until I could do all of my normal shots without pain or a brace. I'd recommend not playing until healed.

Each injury is different and it depend on how bad yours is. A couple months is very realistic. But you need to make some changes or it I'll come back. Liighter setup? Faster setup? Change grip and handle shape? Some things you can try.

gman4911 said:

Do a google search for "Tyler Twist". It is a proven method to fix tennis and golfer's elbow. I had tennis elbow for 6 months which NSAIDs and braces couldn't fix. I was able to cure my tennis elbow in a couple months with the Tyler Twist, stretching, and massaging. It will hurt in the beginning and you may not see improvement for the first few weeks but as your forearm gets stronger the pain will slowly go away.

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I searched on Youtube for "tyler twist" and found one where a guy basically recommends 2 products - a massaging stick that you're supposed to rub your arm against, and a flexbar you're supposed to hold with both hands and twist. On Amazon they seem pretty popular, with thousands of reviews and 4.5-5.0 average rating.

Has anyone tried those things for tennis elbow? That massaging stick might be useful for other parts of the body, but what advantage does it provide for your arm? Why can't you just massage your arm with your other hand?

Great tips, also don't forget to strengthen your elbow once it's not too hurtful to do so.
Personally I used this, and some massages as well as the stretch above + regarding "creams" I think penetrex made the most positive difference for me. Although physisists seems to theorice no cream will work, but, believe in the placebo at least and it will help. But definitely DO NOT do the cream and just play without strengthening or showing care for it, because then it will inevitably become a long term issue as I got because of it... Took me several years to fix as I was too inconsistent with my repair/strengthening.

Also, I'm not bashing stretching, but at the very least strengthening had the had the most significance to my recovery.
and one guy (in the last video below) is saying stretching might even be counter productive... but clearly everyone online seems to disagree about tennis elbows and it comes down to "what works for you" xD

regarding strengthening with dumbells, once you get "comfortable" with the excercises (see video), try doing increased weight at 8 reps three times (in one day). Most important to do the three "Forearm flexion", "forearm extension", "forearm pronation and supination", (do the others if you feel like it, I never did those so much, but I'd imagine soft ball is smart also) with a light dumbell, but try to keep your WHOLE arm straight while leaning unto something when doing the forearm flexion one. (my physisist recommended that as it's more effective)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P76lkurJC_0

an alternative to dumbels would be to buy the flexbar, (look at 4:30 and out under) pretty much the same muscles as with the dumbels just slightly different.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=we4UoiKG3Co

Best of luck on your recovery!

I tried stretches, icing, rest, ibuprofen, braces, etc. nothing worked until I bought a flex bar. Flex bar got rid of my tennis elbow within weeks after having it for months. I bought the green one.

<section id=""> I am a victim of tennis elbow for around 3 different times. From Web:

Tennis elbow is often an overuse injury. It occurs when the muscles and tendons in your forearm are strained due to a repetitive or strenuous activity.

Tennis elbow can also sometimes occur after banging or knocking your elbow.
If the muscles and tendons in your forearm are strained, tiny tears and inflammation can develop near the bony lump (lateral epicondyle) on the outside of your elbow.
You may get tennis elbow if your forearm muscles are not used to doing a certain activity, such as gardening or decorating. However, even if you use your forearm muscles frequently, you can still injure them.

It is overuse injury, for sure. NO exercise can help (my experience) except changing your techniques, lighter blade/rubber combo, and/or rest for at least couple months. It is the main reason why I stop using inverted rubber for backhand.

</section>

I got rid of TE with just two exercises with a dumbbell. I had to do these exercises three times a day for 12 weeks and now I'm pain free. Exercises DO help.

tropical said:

<section id="">
It is overuse injury, for sure. NO exercise can help (my experience) except changing your techniques, lighter blade/rubber combo, and/or rest for at least couple months. It is the main reason why I stop using inverted rubber for backhand.

</section>

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Maybe it was your particular case, but in general exercises do help. All the above exercises are good for strengthening your forearm muscles. But offcourse, before strengthening them, you should heal the tendon -for a month or two... (when I had my tennis elbow for the first time, it was the hardest part- not to go to the gym and TT club... )

Can please provide links to those exercise or describe them ?

rogerino75 said:

I got rid of TE with just two exercises with a dumbbell. I had to do these exercises three times a day for 12 weeks and now I'm pain free. Exercises DO help.

Click to expand...

ttmonster said:

Can please provide links to those exercise or describe them ?

Click to expand...

OK. I will try to describe them. I have to correct myself first. You have to do this two times a day. 15 times, 3 reps each exercise. Use a table for both.

Use so much weight that you feel it in the muscles afterward. Go down slowly like in the pics. If its very painful you have to reduce weight.

Use your other arm to lift up the dumbbell after last pic on both exercises. Hope it helps

I've played through an injury before, and it did not end well. It resulted in a partial muscle tear, and recovery took half a year. I should have just rested 3 to 4 weeks instead. Lesson learned.