Tennis elbow solution

Hi there. I'm in my 2nd year of gardening and have sore elbows to touch especially when constantly straining them everyday. You can feel tension on them when using equipment all day.

Does anyone know of any good exercises and whether the support bands work, as it's not easy to stop for 4 weeks ‍♂️

3 days off and they feel so much better.

Thanks in advance.

 

Buy yourself some resistance bands, and use them to exercise the arms and shoulders fairly gently but repetitively. It should be quite hard work but not to the extent of sweating or huffing and puffing. It's important to address it as it's caused by inflammation of a tendon that runs right alongside a nerve that serves much of your arm and hand. The inflammation can press on the nerve, causing pain but worse, can cause temporary loss of feeling in the fingers, and if it gets bad enough, it can damage the nerve.

So don't ignore it. If possible, see a physio via the GP. But in the absence of professional advice, what's worked for me with a number of different tendon injuries (I've had many) is the resistance band exercises.

 

I developed tennis elbow in both elbows just around the time that COVID started. I didn't want to add extra pressure to the NHS as they had far more pressing issues.

So I did a lot of research on line and discovered, thankfully, that it usually clears up within a few months by itself. My right elbow did, it's absolutely fine now, but my left one, more than two years later, is still giving me some real problems.

If I go to the doctor's, which is looking more and more likely, I'm going to ask him for a steroid injection. I once had de quervains tenosynovitis in the tendons of my thumb, similar to a tennis elbow situation. I had a steroid injection in that, and it cleared up almost immediately, and hasn't bothered me since, and that was 5 years or so ago now. So I think that a steroid injection in my left elbow might cure me.

Have you actually been to the doctors to discuss your options? If so, did they mention that if other things fail, then a steroid injection may do the trick?

 

I had it 2 years ago and had Physio.
Fortunately I already had ( and use ) resistance bands and that is what my Physiotherapist suggested. It worked for .

 

Hi,

Any recommendation of which make of bands are better, so many around.

Also, any links to good ytubes etc for elbow/band exercises.

thanks

 

Doctors are generally reluctant to give steroid injections in most scenarios. They have a secret flow chart of things to try. It goes something like this:

Rest and ibuprofen - in the sporting world this is a shortcut to PRICE, which stands for Protect, Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation. I guess they don't recommend this because they know most people won't follow it.

Physio - simple exercises that aim to stimulate the natural healing process.

Steroid injection - reduce inflammation by suppressing the natural chemistry that your body uses in the healing process.

Surgery - when all else fails, they can surgically repair the injury, relocate nerves, or whatever else is necessary. This is a last resort because apart from the expense, it comes with a long recovery time and usually depends on physio too.

One of the reasons they try to avoid steroids if they can is that you only get so many shots. The steroid weakens the tissue making it more prone to repeat injury. There is also a tiny but quantifiable risk of complications including infection at the injection site. It also doesn't work for everyone in all cases.

My worst tendon injury by far was a 25% tear of my supraspinatus tendon. That's the one that runs between two bones in the shoulder and operates the arm. I tore 25% of its width in the worst possible point, close to it's insertion point in the bone, meaning surgery would involve actually cutting the tendon off the bone, stretching the good bit in, and pinning it back on to the bone. This was a more complicated injury than typical mild tendonitis so fortunately I got to see specialists and had a scan so they could see exactly what's what. In terms of symptoms, it was regular pain to the level that sometimes I thought I'd pass out, if I moved my arm in certain ways (so don't do that I hear you say, but these were not big movements, we're talking totally natural reflex movements, like forgetting your injury and lifting a cup of tea to take a swig).

I was lucky to be referred to a really good physio who worked with me to see what I could already do, then gave me a set of exercises with a resistance band, which I performed daily as per her instructions. At this point, the doctors and consultants were all saying it's likely to need surgery but let's try physio first. When I went back to my next physio session, I'd made good progress. This is the funny part. The physio, impressed by my progress, massively increased my exercise program. I did it. It was hard work. I felt like I'd end up like Arnold Schwarzenegger by the time I next see the physio.

The injury happened at the start of covid and like you I didn't want to burden the NHS so it wasn't until about a year ago that I gave in and sought professional help. I was discharged from the process a few months ago now, and have almost full range of motion in my arm and shoulder.i still regularly do exercises to strengthen the injury site, and build flexibility back. In terms of strength, it's close to normal. In terms of range of motion, it's got a bit to go but it's a lot better than it was. In terms of pain, I get a slight niggle now and then, just an ache really, but it's generally fine.

Last point on the exercises, I have incorporated them into my regular routine. Not at the intensity of when I was going through physio, but at least 3 times a week I'll do a light workout in that area, just to keep it strong to reduce the risk of it happening again.