UKC

Hello anything new in the treatment of tennis and golfers elbow? I've got tennis elbow on my left and golfers on my right cheers in advance

In reply to the power:

Not that I know of, just eccentric exercise (look up on net, the stick with a weight thingy) followed by working on those antagonistic muscles, works for me.

In reply to the power:
There is a theraband flexbar which you can pick up off Amazon, available in a range of resistances. Then look up theraband golfers elbow exercises on the web. The tennis elbow exercise is a reversed version.
Both myself and several climbing buddies have had really positive outcomes from this within a short period, as long as you keep up the exercises.

Hope it goes ok
Paul

In reply to the power:

This is worth a look;

http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=3614

Good Luck!

In reply to Dave Todd:
there is some good info here:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/WinterClimbsinSouthWales/

Look at the elbow link and (and comments). Bit of a gold mine.

Some things that worked for me: trigger point therapy (takes some serious reading to learn tho), buy an Armaid and use it, Tom Randals stretch at least once a day, and keep climbing but learn 'not' to do any moves to aggravate it ... ever ...

In reply to the power:

http://crusherholds.co.uk/accessories/forearm-and-wrist-exerciser

In reply to the power:

Perhaps a quick search of the forums would tell you? :P Get an armaid, theraband flexbar, light dumbbell set, and a copy of Dave Macleods book on injury. Your welcome!

In reply to the power:
My experience of this condition is once you have it you never go back to how you were before. None of my friends with it have ever fully recovered either. The physio I had when I first injured it said the same too. (I'm not saying some people don't recover 100% just don't expect this).

However you can return to a heavy climbing regime eventually with the right management. I don't really get injured outdoors but if I was leading sustained overhangs outdoors frequently I would apply similar logic to below..

The way I manage it now:
- Climb indoors only in the winter
- Never go straight to overhangs indoors, build up the grades very slowly (over a month or two) on slabs and vertical walls, then stepped overhangs, eventually to sustained overhangs. Leading sustained overhangs is my worse trigger especially clipping from a lay away on an overhang. I never do a session of just this style of climbing anymore.
- If you have a break of 3 weeks or more from climbing indoors build up slowly again
- Do stretches - wrist flexors both ways, Brachioradialis stretch (this one is very good it works even during a session if you feel tightening) https://i.ytimg.com/vi/YKhiIjvVvOo/maxresdefault.jpg

I tried all manner of other exercises, they had some effect reversing the symptoms but didn't help much at all with preventing the condition reoccurring.

In reply to the power:

If the thought of having golfer's elbow fills you with dread, you can call it climber's elbow instead. (Acceptable medical term).
I had a nasty case of climber's elbow. Seems fine now. Rest, rest and more rest.

In reply to the power:
I managed to get GE about a year ago now from a combination of work and (lack of time for climbing) hitting up a fingerboard. Antagonist exercises and stretching would relieve it somewhat but it never quite sorted itself out regardless of physiotherapy and even after 9 months it always came back as soon as I started to climb remotely hard . Bizarrely sleeping seemed to make it worse as well ( guess I sleep in some strange positions).

I since started using a elbow strap and it has started easing. I use it anytime I'm climbing or doing anything that I think will aggravate it and the symptoms are going slowly. Keep doing the exercises though.

In reply to the power:

I suffered from tennis elbow in both arms a few years ago as a result of excessive keyboard use at work - it is a typical RSI (repetitive strain injury) and an extremely painful condition which was eventually sorted with a few steroid injections by my GP. Needless to say, my keyboard activity had to be adjusted accordingly with regular breaks etc.
I didn't climb much at the time but now climb 3 or 4 times a week with no further symptoms.

In reply to johnt:

Out of interest how long have you been climbing 3-4 times per week now?

I'm not really sure if mine is partially related to keyboard use also. That's never the actual trigger to a bad episode but it could be a contributing factor.

In reply to the power:

I'm halfway through writing up a blog about Golfer's elbow having had it badly in the past (to the point of pain carrying a pint of milk), and then recovering, but here's a quick rough summary:

• Make sure it's definitely golfers and not pronator teres or something else
• Do eccentric exercises, lots of them - how you do them is really important, the elbow angle, the weight, the reps, the speed (Dave Mac's book is good on this as is Julian Saunders blog below - tho I needed to increase the reps and weight more than DM recommends). Basically you need to irritate the tendon, it has to cause some discomfort, and the weight needs to be sufficient to require almost max effort after 15 reps.
• Make sure your posture is good and strengthen your core, shoulders and triceps.
• Try and do less computer based work or if you have to take 5 mins every 25 mins rest.
• Stretch

More here

http://drjuliansaunders.com/dodgy-elbows/
http://www.rockandice.com/lates-news/rock-climbing-injury-dodgy-elbows-revi...

Don't rest completely unless it's so bad it causes pain when washing hair etc, if so, just do the eccentrics and stretching. Otherwise climb, but try not to do too much or aggravate it.

It's caused by poor healing cycles in the tendon, so you need to strengthen and rehabilitate your way out of it. Plenty of other little things that will make a difference (armaid, massage etc are all secondary to good eccentrics and stretching).

Collagen (the tissue that reforms the tendon) takes about 100 days to form in the tendons, so don't expect a quick fix ie probably at least 3 months if you've got it badly. But one day you wake up and it's magically gone. I'll get round to finishing the blog at some point.