UKC

After 12 months of suffering with Golfer's Elbow and succesfully recovering I said I'd blog about it back in December, but never got round to finishing it.

I found there's lots of conflicting information out there and it felt like such an odd (and frustrating injury) which responded to treatment, only when you really understood the feedback it was giving you. So here's my summary of 12 months of learning about the injury and how I rehabbed it to the point where I'm (hopefully) injury free and have been for nearly 3 months.

I know people are always asking for elbow advice on here, so hopefully this is helpful:

https://johnroberts.me/outdoors/2016/03/10-things-ive-learned-about-climber...

PS - I'm not a doctor or medical professional, so don't take this as definitive!

In reply to JR:
You may well find you are always susceptible to similar re-injuries now, most the people I know including my self that have had it are anyways. It used to be a continual cycle of thinking I knew the 'cure'. Until I realised it was more about knowing the triggers.

In reply to CurlyStevo:

No doubt about that, but doing eccentrics as soon as it re-appears at all seems to keep it at bay.

In reply to JR:
I thought eccentrics were useful at one point. But for me stretches seem more important and knowing the triggers. Every injury is different though. Mine had no known injury event and came on slowly, yours was more of a definite known injury.

I think computer work is part of the problem - unfortunately that's my career.

My main triggers are leading consistently overhanging routes indoors, unfortunately more and more walls seem to be shunning flat walls, slabs and corners. Also not building up climbing intensity slowly. I can trad climb a lot though, that generally is fine.

In reply to JR:

I had bad cases of climbers elbow after 3 weeks in America, overdoing it. Swollen, painful to look at. I rested from climbing for something like 9 months and they recovered and I haven't had any problems since. I guess all these injuries are slightly different in their own way, but my elbows definitely told me to rest.

In reply to CurlyStevo:

It does seem a very "personal" injury. I found the stretches were effective on their own when the injury wasn't that bad, if it was painful at rest, little improved it except the eccentrics. Agree RE computer work.

In reply to JR:

I suffered a similar injury on the climbing wall about 3 years ago and am still conscious of it now if I try certain moves such as strenuous undercut or sidepull lock-offs. I had lots of medical advice and several physical interventions including cortisone, needle puncture therapy to try increase the blood flow around the site and even a concentrated re-infusion of my own blood into the injury to try stimulate recovery. Non seemed to have any significant long term effect and the musculoskeletal specialist I was seeing described this tendon as 'a human design fault'! After several weeks of rest I started climbing again, cautiously, and gradually built up tolerance usually wearing an elastic elbow support which gave me a bit of confidence but I suspect the effect was more psychological than anything. Climbing less steep but more technical routes relying on good footwork and body positioning rather than arm power was my solution. Perhaps my recovery time was longer because of my age (mid 60s) but but my advice to fellow sufferers is don't expect a miracle quick-fix. It will get better in time but it may be quite a long time.
Dave

In reply to JR:

I'm interested in reading, but its a broken link for me...

In reply to maxsmith:

How odd, it's definitely live and working - I can see on Google Analytics there's quite a lot of people reading it!

https://johnroberts.me/outdoors/2016/03/10-things-ive-learned-about-climber...

In reply to JR:

must be a security setting on my PC, I'll try another computer, thanks John

In reply to maxsmith:

try this link instead:

http://bit.ly/badelbows

In reply to JR:

Great article - many thanks for sharing.
I had tennis elbow (epicondylitis) for a year and was driven to distraction with rest, ice, steroid injections, physio, acupuncture, surgeon and MRI. I couldn't brush my teeth, pick up a kettle or turn a key in the door at the worst point.

I climb nowhere near as hard as you, but wanted to carry on enjoying myself. In the end it was correct exercise that sorted it out, recommended by a climbing mate.

Your article will hopefully save a lot of folk the repetitive and soul destroying medical visits including 1 GP who told me "your elbow's trashed, you'll never climb again"

Cheers

In reply to JR:

I rehabbed tennis elbow using wrist curls but it does re-occur and only in my left arm - which I broke many years ago. I think I use this arm differently and load it at a slightly different angle which contributes to the elbow problem (left shoulder not brilliant either)!

In reply to Babika:

Thanks, appreciate that!

In reply to CurlyStevo:


Are you certain yours is golfer's elbow. Sounds very similar to what I had and when first diagnosed by a physio I was told it was golfer's.

Years later I saw a different physio and it turned out it wasn't tendinitis at all. It was problem of the ulna nerve. Same symptoms as golfer's in the exact same place.

In reply to stp:

Mine is tendonitis.

In reply to CurlyStevo:
So tendonitis and tendonosis are different things, both part of tendinopathy. Tendonitis is basically inflammation from overuse, tendonosis is more chronic pain/damage from poor healing and collagen damage.

Tendonosis is what the eccentric exercises target, and reverses the poor healing cycle.

You can get rid of tendonitis with a bit of rest and stretching, hence your recovery. You cannot get rid of tendonosis without actively strengthening your way out of it.

I added a short section to the blog to clarify it, thanks!

In reply to JR:

I think a lot of people now just refer to "tendonopathy", to account for the fact that a lot of injuries have a certain amount of damage, as well as inflammation.

I've had the same as you John, only it was the "lowering out the dumbell hammer" exercise that fixed mine. After months of doing it to no effect, as soon as I started doing it at various different arm angles, and really making it hurt, it fixed in about 2 weeks. To fend it off, good stretching, especially of biceps, and straight back on the exercises seems to work.

In reply to JR:

Really useful overview with some great links. Helps me understand why five and a half months of rest has achieved very little! I have noticed previously that moderate climbing is manageable, but the nagging injury persists and leads me to avoid situations where the loading might be quite intense. Eccentric exercises it is then!

In reply to Derek Furze:

Hope it helps! Good luck

In reply to JR:

Thanks for writing this, great article.

I had this on my Right elbow a few years ago which took me about 18 months to resolve. I found that the main thing delaying the healing was the lack of good information and I too went through many papers, websites etc to try and understand the injury. It seems we both had a very similar experience and I agreed with pretty much everything you have mentioned. I thought about writing a similar piece but it appears I am too lazy, I am therefore very happy that you have made the great effort to document this.

I am currently just recovering from the same thing on my Left side, this time it has resolved in about 6 months.

Duncan

In reply to JR:
Mostly these injuries are tendonosis apparently, I wasn't distinguishing between tendonosis and tendonitis. By definition tennis / golfers elbow injuries which are persistent are almost certainly tendonosis.