What is best way to repair Tennis Elbow

I know this sounds stupid but I got tennis elbow from working out. I think I overdid it on the triceps with the lat pulldown bar. anywho, what is the best way to have this repair itself? It is tough to just put it in a sling because of my job so I do need to be able to use both arms and it's not that it is in complete agony all the time. Only when I pick something up or grip something hard or even making a fist hard... hell shaking hands can actually hurt. I've had this for lik 2 months and would like to be able to get back to working out but I don't want to hurt it any more then I have. Any help would be great.

Thanks,
Steve

[QUOTE=HydraSports;339543091]I know this sounds stupid but I got tennis elbow from working out. I think I overdid it on the triceps with the lat pulldown bar. anywho, what is the best way to have this repair itself? It is tough to just put it in a sling because of my job so I do need to be able to use both arms and it's not that it is in complete agony all the time. Only when I pick something up or grip something hard or even making a fist hard... hell shaking hands can actually hurt. I've had this for lik 2 months and would like to be able to get back to working out but I don't want to hurt it any more then I have. Any help would be great.

Thanks,
Steve[/QUOTE]

See a Physiotherapist, assuming you are in the US they are called physical therapists. They are the specialists in this area.

[QUOTE=HydraSports;339543091]I know this sounds stupid but I got tennis elbow from working out. I think I overdid it on the triceps with the lat pulldown bar. anywho, what is the best way to have this repair itself? It is tough to just put it in a sling because of my job so I do need to be able to use both arms and it's not that it is in complete agony all the time. Only when I pick something up or grip something hard or even making a fist hard... hell shaking hands can actually hurt. I've had this for lik 2 months and would like to be able to get back to working out but I don't want to hurt it any more then I have. Any help would be great.

Thanks,
Steve[/QUOTE]


I would highly recommend sticking to SLOW eccentric training with 20% less weight than you've been using, Ibuprofen 1800mgs or as close as u can get for 10 days, Ice and compress post workout 20 minutes

this should greatly help your tennis elbow, and dont allow any excessive straight arm strain (i.e. Shrugs, deadlifts..etc)

This happened to me last year. One of my clients is an orthopedic surgeon, and he gave me a tennis elbow brace and told me to take 3200mg of ibuprofen/day split into 4 doses. He said in order to get the anti-inflamatory benefit you need 800mg. Just make sure you take it w/ food or at least milk, otherwise you **** blood.

[QUOTE=HydraSports;339543091]I know this sounds stupid but I got tennis elbow from working out. I think I overdid it on the triceps with the lat pulldown bar. anywho, what is the best way to have this repair itself? It is tough to just put it in a sling because of my job so I do need to be able to use both arms and it's not that it is in complete agony all the time. Only when I pick something up or grip something hard or even making a fist hard... hell shaking hands can actually hurt. I've had this for lik 2 months and would like to be able to get back to working out but I don't want to hurt it any more then I have. Any help would be great.

Thanks,
Steve[/QUOTE]

First of all tennis elbow is lateral epicondylitis which is on the thumb side of the elbow from the anatomical position... Is this what you have? To me, since gripping is your major issue, it sounds like golfer's/pitcher's elbow which is on the little finger side in the anatomical position.

[img]http://www.eorthopod.com/images/ContentImages/elbow/elbow_anatomy/elbow_anatomy07c.jpg[/img]

I had medial epicondylitis and as a personal trainer it was almost debilitating. It would hurt while picking weights up, spotting people and even writing sometimes...

I remember I had it when I first got a new job at and I had to shake 20 hands a day and it literally hurt bad to shake hands, I eventually stopped gripping people's hands when we shook and got weird looks for not shaking hands like a man ;)

My doctor (client who was a doctor) told me to take an insane amount of aleve or ibuprophen like the other posters on the forum and I did and got super bad stomach aches and it did not help me w/ my tendinitis...

[b]3 Things that Helped me Get Rid of it:[/b]

1. [u]I wore a Tendinitis Elbow Band[/u]: I wore the exact pro-tec brand band as you see in the following picture. In the picture it is being worn too high up on the elbow though, it should be down an inch or so to help distribute the force on a larger surface area of the tendon.
[img]http://www.irishfit.eu/protecpics/ELBOW_ST.gif[/img]

2. [u]I Stopped Lightly Gripping Stuff[/u]: I remember I would always do this as I was training clients, for example, I would pick up a 45 pound dumbbell with my fingertips and grab other heavy stuff w/ my fingers instead of my palm. Think about the grip shaking someone's hand... It is not a good grip and puts tremendous strain on your tendons (think how many pull-ups you can do on a bar vs. if you were holding someone's hands). Always grab stuff as hard as you can and try to avoid all exercises and activities which you don't have a complete grip. Another thing which was bad for me was bicycle riding, where my arms were fully extended and grabbing the brakes (in San Francisco Hills) put me in the same weak grip position as shaking hands which hurt like hell. Another activity I had to give up was video games.

3. [u]I never let my arms Fully Extend under Tension while Training[/u]: This seemed to help tremendously. I would always do every exercise w/ full range of motion before, after the tendinitis, I would grab the lat pull bar w/ arms bent and never let them fully extend under the weight, same for biceps curls, tri ext, bench press, and all other exercises..

This is kind of bro-science-ish but those are the 3 things which I did to completely eliminate my tendinitis I had for over a year and it's been around 2 years w/ no problems. I hope you haven't trained through too much pain and did damage that cannot be fixed.

Thanks for reading the long post...

[QUOTE=askthetrainer;339651831]First of all tennis elbow is lateral epicondylitis which is on the thumb side of the elbow from the anatomical position... Is this what you have? To me, since gripping is your major issue, it sounds like golfer's/pitcher's elbow which is on the little finger side in the anatomical position.

[img]http://www.eorthopod.com/images/ContentImages/elbow/elbow_anatomy/elbow_anatomy07c.jpg[/img]

I had medial epicondylitis and as a personal trainer it was almost debilitating. It would hurt while picking weights up, spotting people and even writing sometimes...

I remember I had it when I first got a new job at and I had to shake 20 hands a day and it literally hurt bad to shake hands, I eventually stopped gripping people's hands when we shook and got weird looks for not shaking hands like a man ;)

My doctor (client who was a doctor) told me to take an insane amount of aleve or ibuprophen like the other posters on the forum and I did and got super bad stomach aches and it did not help me w/ my tendinitis...

[b]3 Things that Helped me Get Rid of it:[/b]

1. [u]I wore a Tendinitis Elbow Band[/u]: I wore the exact pro-tec brand band as you see in the following picture. In the picture it is being worn too high up on the elbow though, it should be down an inch or so to help distribute the force on a larger surface area of the tendon.
[img]http://www.irishfit.eu/protecpics/ELBOW_ST.gif[/img]

2. [u]I Stopped Lightly Gripping Stuff[/u]: I remember I would always do this as I was training clients, for example, I would pick up a 45 pound dumbbell with my fingertips and grab other heavy stuff w/ my fingers instead of my palm. Think about the grip shaking someone's hand... It is not a good grip and puts tremendous strain on your tendons (think how many pull-ups you can do on a bar vs. if you were holding someone's hands). Always grab stuff as hard as you can and try to avoid all exercises and activities which you don't have a complete grip. Another thing which was bad for me was bicycle riding, where my arms were fully extended and grabbing the brakes (in San Francisco Hills) put me in the same weak grip position as shaking hands which hurt like hell. Another activity I had to give up was video games.

3. [u]I never let my arms Fully Extend under Tension while Training[/u]: This seemed to help tremendously. I would always do every exercise w/ full range of motion before, after the tendinitis, I would grab the lat pull bar w/ arms bent and never let them fully extend under the weight, same for biceps curls, tri ext, bench press, and all other exercises..

This is kind of bro-science-ish but those are the 3 things which I did to completely eliminate my tendinitis I had for over a year and it's been around 2 years w/ no problems. I hope you haven't trained through too much pain and did damage that cannot be fixed.

Thanks for reading the long post...[/QUOTE]


Definately should see your MD and recommend a therapist related however.

The forearm muscles need to be strong and proper from is a must.
Especially if you use a 1 handed backhand and your elbow is too far in front of the racket when hitting the ball this can contribute to tennis elbow.
Also make sure the racket is not too big and you are using the proper grip.
Once you know there is no major injury reverse curls and regular wrist curls reverse wrist curls and wrist rolls with a circular crip with rope and a few lbs and roll it up and roll it down slow.

Good luck.

I have had this for about 2 months as well. It's really starting to drive me crazy. I feel like all my hard work is just going down the drain. Since I can't do much my routine consists of leg and core exercises only. (and back extensions on a stability ball HA!) Should I continue to ignore upperbody untill my arm heals fully? Any exercises that anyone can suggest that I could incorperate to my half @ss routine?