Bulletman's dealing w/ Tendonitis (tennis elbow) Journal

[bulletman]

Since dealing with Tendonitis (or tendinitis) has become so central to my workign out, I figured I'd retitle my thread sort of and start afresh.

Here's a link to my our journal for those interested

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=595055

Anyway, some background...

I've been working out in earnest for about a year now. About 5 months in, I must have overdone something and wound up with tennis elbow in my left elbow. Coincidentally, I do play tennis, but I'm right handed, and it really doesn't seem to have anything to do with my condition. My son on the other hand is a budding Tennis fiend, but that's another story...

Tendonitis is typically brought on by intense overuse, especially when you haven't worked slowly up to your level of intensity. It's mainly manifested (for me) as pain in the outer elbow, radiating into my forearm, wrist and even fingers. Golfer's elbow starts on the inner elbow, thankfully I only have one kind of tendinitis. It severely effects my grip. In the morning, I wake up with my arm feeling painfully stiff. I hate it. I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

More later... including "The Shot"...

[bulletman]

Way back a while ago, I think it was March, I couldn't take the pain anymore, so I got a shot of cortisone in my elbow from the PA at my HMO. It immediately hurt like hell, after all it was shot right into the joint! After a week though, things were back to normal. Except for the white spot on my elbow where the cortisone messed with the pigment (apparently that's pretty common). And so it went up until about 6 weeks ago, when, at about the same time as the pigmentation came back, so did the pain! Ack!

So I tried to rest it and stretch it as recommended on the internet. This hasn't helped much. Resting just seemed to make it stiffer, especially when I got up in the AM, so I get a referal to a orthopaedic MD. He takes some xrays, tweaks my elbow and wrist, "yup, textbook case of tennis elbow" goes out of the room and comes back with another cortisone shot.

Now I've read that you shouldn't get too many cortisone shots (which he agreed is true, but since my last one was so long ago, he didn't seem too alarmed). So I ask, hey, how about some physical therapy? He said he had figured I'd want a shot since the last one worked well for me, but PT was definitely a good option if I was willing to give it a try. So we settle on trying it for 6 weeks, and if it doesn't help, I'll try another shot...

Saw the nice PT lady today, more on that later...

[joed]

...Saw the nice PT lady today, more on that later...

Yeah they're all nice until they start rubbing the gel on your arm & applying the heat, then moving things around that don't want to be moved around. Curious to see what she'll have you doing at home between your sessions.

[bulletman]

I only have 2 simple things to do in between visits (so far), stretching, arm straight out, hand pulled down facing toward body, and very light eccentric wrist curls. Coincidentally, these were the same two exercises I had read about doing on the internet. I'm doing them far more religiously now though, and it seems like it may actually be helping.

This evening I helped my son do his workout, so this journal may become a father and son journal! He's 12 and want's to seriously train to improve his tennis game. This was his workout:

bench press (powertec) 50#+bar 4x8
shoulder press 20#pt+bar 4x8
seated cable rows 50# 3x8
leg extensions 45# 3x12
leg curls 20# 2x8

It was a good first workout for him, he was trying quite hard!

[dbx]

This evening I helped my son do his workout, so this journal may become a father and son journal! He's 12 and want's to seriously train to improve his tennis game. This was his workout:

bench press (powertec) 50#+bar 4x8
shoulder press 20#pt+bar 4x8
seated cable rows 50# 3x8
leg extensions 45# 3x12
leg curls 20# 2x8

It was a good first workout for him, he was trying quite hard!

Hey, that's pretty damn good for a 12yr old. I can picture the young lad's face turning red with determination doing those presses That's cool.

[bulletman]

Did you miss me? The family and I went down to Aruba for a last summer fling, which was fantastic! The only unfortunate thing was that the tendinitis went down with me and followed me back , but I'm dealing with it.

The tendinitis seems worse on days where I don't exercise or at least really stretch things out. I got a little working out at the hotel's gym, but it wasn't exactly convenient. We'll just count those as extra days. Now I'm really getting back into things (and doing a lot of icing and massaging on my elbow, which seems to help a lot).

I've restarted the Clout, which still tastes awfull. I do think that it's helped my performance though, the weights I'm lifting seem to be up in general, including setting a PB on bench (converted from powertec 305# to 228# equivalent!). I guess I must not be really hardcore though, even though its helping I don't know if I would buy it based simply on the taste.

I started doing Waterbury's SOB training on saturday

powertec BB press 250# (plus bar) 10x3 superset w/
pulldown 170# 10x5

deadlifts w/ hex bar 180# (plus hex bar) 10x3 superset w/
calf raises 220# (plus bar) 10x5

my hams and glutes are furious with me, which is exactly what I was hoping for from the hex bar DL's!

Tomorrow is a high rep day, we'll see how that goes. I'm pretty much going easy on anything that would isolate biceps and triceps. (no suprise there).

[dbx]

Glad to see you back. Congrats on the new PB!

Aruba eh? I went there 3 times in 12 month period back in 03'. Avg year round temp of 86F. Yeah, I loved it. I stayed at the Aruba Sonesta Resort, now owned by/called Renaissance, which is the only hotel that has it's own private island (complete with topless beaches ). Carlos & Charlie's a couple blocks away. Mmm, I loved the place.

Sorry to hear about the tedonitis still bothering you. Your workouts look pretty good though!

[bulletman]

Thanks DBX. Just so happens that's the same place we stayed at! Now known as the Rennaisance Oceanfront Suites (and Casino). The private Island was nice, but it was really buggy, and their mosquito's were like horseflies compared to what we're used to!!! We stayed on the family friendly beach, but we did briefly visit the top-optional side because that's where the flamingoes were hanging out (and that's all that was hanging out at the time).

We loved it and are making plans to visit again (albeit in a year or two). My son and I have always been big into snorkeling, this time we did an intro to Scuba diving, and now we're going to go and get certified.

[dbx]

Thanks DBX. Just so happens that's the same place we stayed at! Now known as the Rennaisance Oceanfront Suites (and Casino). The private Island was nice, but it was really buggy, and their mosquito's were like horseflies compared to what we're used to!!! We stayed on the family friendly beach, but we did briefly visit the top-optional side because that's where the flamingoes were hanging out (and that's all that was hanging out at the time).

We loved it and are making plans to visit again (albeit in a year or two). My son and I have always been big into snorkeling, this time we did an intro to Scuba diving, and now we're going to go and get certified.

Hmm, I never experienced any bugs like that, but my 3x trips were in the fall (ours), winter, and early spring. I have my pic with some of those flamingos lol. Did you see the iguanas when you got off the boat laying on the docks? Bis SOBs eh? The one thing I didn't like was the gritty sand, as I prefer the FL gulf or Cancun to any beaches I've been to...... anywhere. It's cool the way the boat comes inside the "hotel lobby" every 15-20mins all day long too. Stuff is pretty pricey down there too, and I wasn't wild about the food in general. Steak? Bleck, forget it. Did they stick you with their triangular shaped change when you used U.S. currency? (Florins I think?) You can go deep sea fishing on a private boat for like $175-$200 for a 1/2 day which is cheap too, but I never did it. Yeah, great memories

[Hibiscus09]

How about some photos from Aruba? That sounds great! It's wonderful you have such a close relationship with your son.

I'm sorry your elbow is still bothering you.

[evandrouscanga]

yea i wanna no what happen to ur tennis elbow, u have a nice journal going