I’ve had the same thing twice. The first time was a couple of years ago; I was able to get rid of it on my own by doing static stretches, Advil, rest and ice. The second time I tried on my own for months. Finally, I visited an orthopod/sports medicine MD. He gave me a shot of Cortisone (it hurt like a bitch), gave me some Naprosyn and told me to take it easy for a week.
He also recommended that I continue the static stretching as a preventive measure. No problems new problems so far its been 2 months.
It seems like it hurts on the bone, but it is actually the ligament attachment to the bone.
Well, it’s strange. Some days and heavy activities don’t cause any pain. Other times the slightest movement is painful. I suggest the Cortisone route you’ll be back on track in no time.
Only reason I’m not ready for the Cortisone route is that I’ve heard it can prevent the ligament from healing properly and possibly weakens the muscles around it or something. Trying to let it heal on its own…but it’s definately frustrating.
I have been experiencing the EXACT same problem for the EXACT same amount of time. I was wondering if you know how you might think you injured it? I know my problem started right after I spent a day raking in the yard doing spring clean-up. I figured all that repetetive motion caused inflamation and hence tendonitis. Anyways…I know what your going through, it has been very frustrating dealing with it. I currently take 6 Flameout capsules a day maybe more might help. Aside from the icing regularly, I suppose, and I hope, time will take care of it. In the meantime, just make adjustments and work around it.
[quote]butcherman7 wrote:
I have been experiencing the EXACT same problem for the EXACT same amount of time. I was wondering if you know how you might think you injured it? I know my problem started right after I spent a day raking in the yard doing spring clean-up. I figured all that repetetive motion caused inflamation and hence tendonitis. Anyways…I know what your going through, it has been very frustrating dealing with it. I currently take 6 Flameout capsules a day maybe more might help. Aside from the icing regularly, I suppose, and I hope, time will take care of it. In the meantime, just make adjustments and work around it. [/quote]
I’ve speculated what exercises might have injured it, but i think it more had to do with being stupid. I started cutting in Jan, and was doing well. Lost about 10 pounds, and just got carried away and kept working out 3 months straight without a break. One day it just started hurting out of the blue.
From what I’ve heard, the best way to take care of it is, ice/heat, stretching, massage(and cross tendon massage), and rest. I think it does help to workout a little to keep blood pumping in there. But I think it’s just one of those injuries that takes a long time to heal, depending on each persons ability to heal.
I’m personally trying to stay away from prescription meds or anythign like that which could impede healing. My pain isn’t too bad, just an annoyance. But I like lifting pain free and wouldn’t have it any other way.
I would also add a glucosamine/chon supplement daily for help the repair of ligaments/tendons/muscles. I’m taking Animal Flex right now.
I’ve definately been making progress…albeit slow progress. Used to hurt when I would wash my hair or itch my stomach(right on the tendon), but that pain is subsiding, as well as the pain in the bone.
Just trying to find a nice equillibrium while working out and trying not to aggrevate/slow down healing time for my elbow.
The reason the bone hurts, or seems like bone that hurts, is becuse the damage done to the ligament/tendon has caused a build up of calcium. This calcification of the ligament/tendon makes it feel like bone. This is your body’s reaction to the damage. As it heals or gets better the calcification should lessen.
I am battling this same form of elbow tendonitis right now myself. I had been increasing the weight on bench and increasing the volume of assistance exersices for triceps and I believe that to be the cause of it.
The approach I am taking to help remedy it is to back off the weight and volume of pressing movements, to reduce the irritation. I don’t knkow if this will help, but I am doing some very light 100 rep sets a couple times a week to get some blood flow into the tendon. Reason being I remember Thibs writing that ligaments and tendons generally get starved for blood flow during typical reps sets therefore will take longer to heal. So if you do 100 rep sets at light weight it will force blood flow into these areas to aid in quicker healing. The low weight reduces/prevents further damage. So far it has not hurt as bad, though I havent gone back to heavy pressing yet. We’ll see, I’d rather take a more proactive appraoch to healing it rather than just passively sitting around waiting for it maybe get better, I enjoy lifting too much.
[quote]redkevin79 wrote:
The reason the bone hurts, or seems like bone that hurts, is becuse the damage done to the ligament/tendon has caused a build up of calcium. This calcification of the ligament/tendon makes it feel like bone. This is your body’s reaction to the damage. As it heals or gets better the calcification should lessen.
I am battling this same form of elbow tendonitis right now myself. I had been increasing the weight on bench and increasing the volume of assistance exersices for triceps and I believe that to be the cause of it.
The approach I am taking to help remedy it is to back off the weight and volume of pressing movements, to reduce the irritation. I don’t knkow if this will help, but I am doing some very light 100 rep sets a couple times a week to get some blood flow into the tendon. Reason being I remember Thibs writing that ligaments and tendons generally get starved for blood flow during typical reps sets therefore will take longer to heal. So if you do 100 rep sets at light weight it will force blood flow into these areas to aid in quicker healing. The low weight reduces/prevents further damage. So far it has not hurt as bad, though I havent gone back to heavy pressing yet. We’ll see, I’d rather take a more proactive appraoch to healing it rather than just passively sitting around waiting for it maybe get better, I enjoy lifting too much.
[/quote]
100 rep sets, so are you just working with just the bar or something?
Yeah, my bone has been getting better. And if I work with light weight, it seems to speed it along a little…perhaps lifting light weight helps break up the calcium/scar tissue?
Icing helped my elbow, but the holy grail for me was/is to go thumbless grip on everything except pushes. I’d do it for pushes too, if I thought it was safe. I say skip the cortisone shot. Those things never helped me for anything. Just go thumbless for everything, even just picking up a dumbbell, and ice it. I bet it will clear up very quickly.
Also, stick with the thumbless after it’s all better. I can’t tell you how many times I reaggravated because I forgot and grabbed something normal. It’s easy to forget when it stops hurting.
PS. Thanks to the members who suggested I go thumbless when I posed the same question a couple of years ago.
[quote]on edge wrote:
Icing helped my elbow, but the holy grail for me was/is to go thumbless grip on everything except pushes. I’d do it for pushes too, if I thought it was safe. I say skip the cortisone shot. Those things never helped me for anything. Just go thumbless for everything, even just picking up a dumbbell, and ice it. I bet it will clear up very quickly.
Also, stick with the thumbless after it’s all better. I can’t tell you how many times I reaggravated because I forgot and grabbed something normal. It’s easy to forget when it stops hurting.
PS. Thanks to the members who suggested I go thumbless when I posed the same question a couple of years ago.[/quote]
100 rep sets, so are you just working with just the bar or something?
Yeah, my bone has been getting better. And if I work with light weight, it seems to speed it along a little…perhaps lifting light weight helps break up the calcium/scar tissue?
[/quote]
Pretty much. I don’t do all 100 reps at once, I’ll break it up into 3 sets of 30 or so over a 2-3 minute period. The article I read about it in was Thib’s “Beast Building Pt.1” He talks about tendon strengthening in the session 4 part of it. He doesn’t mention anything about tendonitis in this article, but another article I read somewhere had talked about cures for tendonitis, in which it prescribed high rep low weight sets, which was right in line with Thib’s comments.
100 rep sets, so are you just working with just the bar or something?
Yeah, my bone has been getting better. And if I work with light weight, it seems to speed it along a little…perhaps lifting light weight helps break up the calcium/scar tissue?
Pretty much. I don’t do all 100 reps at once, I’ll break it up into 3 sets of 30 or so over a 2-3 minute period. The article I read about it in was Thib’s “Beast Building Pt.1” He talks about tendon strengthening in the session 4 part of it. He doesn’t mention anything about tendonitis in this article, but another article I read somewhere had talked about cures for tendonitis, in which it prescribed high rep low weight sets, which was right in line with Thib’s comments.
[/quote]
Low eight high rep sets of what though? DB presses? Close grip? I’ve got an ongoing low level case of this, very annoying.
I’ll give the thumbless thing a try when I’m doing rows today. However, I’m not really working with weight that makes it hurt, just enough weight so I can feel my muscles being worked.
Right now I’m just doing the main compounds, squat, deads, bench, rows, military presses.
Some things I read yesterday that should help are cross tendon massaging 3-5 minutes a day.
I guess to summarize:
Ice after a workout
Ice then apply heat at some point during the day outside of a workout window
Stretching
tendon Massage
Workout - I read it’s good to rest, however as long as training is pain free and any tenderness you experience goes away quickly, this can help excellerate the healing process. Keep weights light though.