Nasty Elbow Tendonitis

Bigger Stronger Leaner Competitive Bodybuilding
1

This has been an on again, off again type thing with my left elbow only. It used to just hurt mostly when doing tri’s, but now it is starting to affect things like pull-ups too, feeling some aggravation in the pulling tendons. Here’s what I am doing so far -

Regenicare, joint supplement with glucosamine, chondroiton, MSM and protectin

Extra dose of Flameout, 3 servings of 2

Circummin

Ultrasound therapy, got one at home (I think it’s overrated though)

Ice it when I can

I will probably take the rest of this week of too, at least from upper body training, as it has gotten pretty painful. I heard about some kind of therapy too where blood is taken from one part of the body and injected into the problem area. I might see if someone around here does that.

I guess this is as pretty common complaint, but it just sucks taking time off. I might try wearing a sleeve or something too when training, but I don’t think those help a whole lot for my case. Bench and Incline last night weren’t real bad, but dips really hurt, right below the elbow point on the triceps side.

Anything else I’m missing here for ideas to beat this thing?

2

I had to ditch tricep isolation movements and stick to pressing. But if compound movements are hurting, I don’t know what to tell you.

Some people will tell you glucosamine and chondroiton don’t do anything. I’ve had good results with them, but they only work long term as in 6 months or more.

You may try wraps and sleeves while training for support/warmth if you haven’t.

3

I’ve been having issues with lateral epicondylitis for the last few months myself. I use a wrap for added warmth, keep the curcumin and Flameouts at every feeding, and always use an ice treatment after every session.

I did have to relent and get a cortisone shot last month (took a few days off), but as long as I’m careful with the excessive pressing (something I probably agravated with my 2 chest sessions and a shoulder session each week), I’ve been doing okay now.

S

4

[quote]I did have to relent and get a cortisone shot last month (took a few days off), but as long as I’m careful with the excessive pressing (something I probably agravated with my 2 chest sessions and a shoulder session each week), I’ve been doing okay now.

S
[/quote]

Did training feel better after you got the shot? I’ve heard varying opinions about getting that.

5

The use of elbow sleeves has pretty much eliminated my elbow pain.

(Knock Wood)

6

I definitely noticed a difference in training. Again, I also went back to a regular, 1 chest session split, and even spaced out my chest and shoudler days so I had an extra day’s rest in between. Sure, I had to backoff a little bit as far as some of the explosive work I was doing, but I still try to accelerate the weights as forcefully as I can, just have to be a bit more careful with my turnarounds for a while. You might find a similar approach might make things more ‘manageable’ until things get around to fully healing.

S

7

I’ve had this for a while, and played around with a number of fixes. Found out it was my biceps being too tight- tennis ball on the bis plus hard stretching has almost cured it.

8

A.R.T

9

[quote]paulypaul wrote:
This has been an on again, off again type thing with my left elbow only. It used to just hurt mostly when doing tri’s, but now it is starting to affect things like pull-ups too, feeling some aggravation in the pulling tendons. Here’s what I am doing so far -

Regenicare, joint supplement with glucosamine, chondroiton, MSM and protectin

Extra dose of Flameout, 3 servings of 2

Circummin

Ultrasound therapy, got one at home (I think it’s overrated though)

Ice it when I can

I will probably take the rest of this week of too, at least from upper body training, as it has gotten pretty painful. I heard about some kind of therapy too where blood is taken from one part of the body and injected into the problem area. I might see if someone around here does that.

I guess this is as pretty common complaint, but it just sucks taking time off. I might try wearing a sleeve or something too when training, but I don’t think those help a whole lot for my case. Bench and Incline last night weren’t real bad, but dips really hurt, right below the elbow point on the triceps side.

Anything else I’m missing here for ideas to beat this thing?[/quote]

Ice should be a major aid…not just when you can. You should be icing it after every weight session. Keep in mind tendons take a long time to repair. I had some elbow tendonitis(golfer’s elbow). Took me about 8 months to get back to 100%(no pain during and after lifting). Only about 2 months to get back to heavy lifting. So if your tendons are bad enough to cause pain, Resting 1 week won’t do much.

It does suck taking time off, but if you don’t do something, it will just keep getting worse.

10

I have been dealing with Golfer’s elbow for the past 4 months and can only tell you what has worked and not worked so well for me. From 1-10 here goes:

ice 2 times a day +6
Ultrasound +2 (don’t bother)
taking time off +3
working with lighter weights and using straps +6
Use an elbow brace that keeps pressure on all 3 tendons so they all do the same amount of work +7
take Aleve for inflammation +4
stretching at the wrist +6

I tried taking a couple weeks off from anything that bothered it and the muscles surrounding the area atrophied and the pain came right back when I resumed the movements. I know it sucks to have to move lighter weights, but it will be a must if you want to rid the pain. Always use an elbow brace when working out that keeps pressure on the tendons to prevent overuse of the tendon that causes the pain. Cortisone shot will definitely help with the pain, but will only cover the problem up instead of fixing it.

11

Thanks for all the tips. I guess the most important thing right now is to take time off, as much as I don’t want to. The pain is worse than it’s ever been though, so I’ll rest at least a week. I am concerned though because it just feels like my whole arm is a little out of whack right now, not just the elbow. Even curls are hurting. Ironic too because almost 2 years ago I fractured the humerus of my other arm. I had surgery and got it plated and that is now my “good” arm at the moment. Who knows, maybe the pain stems from shifting too much when I lift, although I think my form is pretty good. I also have been guilty of being a little upper-body happy lately, so I need to better balance the program out once things resume agian.

Right now I am also seeing a chiropractor who uses something called the Graston Technique, maybe somewhat similar to A R T. I actually had some noticeable relief after the first visit, but the pain soon came back. See how the follow-up sessions go.

As far as stresses outside the gym, I sometimes had a tendency to lay on my side in bed on that arm, so I have stopped that. Whenever I lay next to my girl too, there tends to be limited space and I have noticed my elbow started getting flared up again when I was spending a lot of time with her. I’ll save the jokester’s the time, I’m not going to break up with her, at least not for that reason lol.

12

contrast hydrotherapy. bucket of ice water. bucket of hot water. ice. heat. repeat. helped my wrist tendonitis.

13

i’ve got tendonitis in my right elbow. there was an article on here about doing the negative portion of a rep helping tendonitis, i think it was “eccentric” or something. the article had people doing calf raises for achilles tendonitis, so they’d calf raise w/ the good calf and do the negative with the bad calf. at the end, 14/15 were fixed and the one other dude elected to have surgery. maybe lean against a wall with the bad arm and do a negative pushup move, without pushing away again, then do it again? it seemes to help my elbow.

14

[quote]UFgator11 wrote:
i’ve got tendonitis in my right elbow. there was an article on here about doing the negative portion of a rep helping tendonitis, i think it was “eccentric” or something. the article had people doing calf raises for achilles tendonitis, so they’d calf raise w/ the good calf and do the negative with the bad calf. at the end, 14/15 were fixed and the one other dude elected to have surgery. maybe lean against a wall with the bad arm and do a negative pushup move, without pushing away again, then do it again? it seemes to help my elbow.[/quote]

Good tip, I will try this. Found the article too…