Viewing 27 posts - 1 through 27 (of 27 total)
  • Tennis Elbow Advice Please
  • steelfan
    Free Member

    I’ve come down with a case of Tennis Elbow this week and its really painful when riding the bike and flares up the day after.

    Is there anything I can do to speed up the healing process and how long should I stay off the bike?

    boxfish
    Free Member

    Rest, rest and more rest. There’s no quick fix. Recovery can take from weeks, or in my case, I’m still getting pain a year later 😯

    Or just ride no-handed

    slackalice
    Free Member

    I use a brace/strap and is good for limiting the movement of the tendon. Makes riding my bike and working very doable. Google it, Amazon have some I think.

    gt900uk
    Free Member

    Took over a year for me to be over it completely. I rested it for a bit then just put up with it as the pain lessened. There are some exercises you can do that definitely helped take the edge off for me.

    chrisdiesel
    Free Member

    Had pain for 6+ months, seen a specialist who took blood and injected 2ml into the tendon area near the elbow and generally stabbed about abit to cause a bit of inflammation to promote repair and the extra blood aids the repair. I though it was bollox but its been 2 weeks and it actually feels better!!!

    ampthill
    Full Member

    Ice or peas over the affected area

    I’d see a physio

    Don’t keep riding and provoking it!!!

    Or it will knacker other areas of you life

    jambalaya
    Free Member

    What Amphill says – you need to rest or it will get worse.

    For me I out thicker grips on the racquet as its caused by gripping too tight, perhaps something similar on the bike would help

    andy7t2
    Free Member

    went to see a physiotherapist on the NHS, gave me a range of exercises and course of acupuncture, sorted within 8 weeks. When i spoke to him he said it can last for 2 yrs so definitely worth getting sorted.

    teamhurtmore
    Free Member

    Sympathies, I succumbed after two sets last night. Couldn’t even hold a beer afterwards. Still painful this morning. ice, rest, manipulation and tight arm brace worked last time.

    Don’t fancy gripping the handlebars today though!

    scotroutes
    Full Member

    I suffered using various remedies for a year or so then succumbed to the cortisone injection. Painful as **** but cleared it up never to return. If it were to happen again I would just ask for the injection straight away.

    TurnerGuy
    Free Member

    have a poke around the muscle to see if there are any sore spots.

    If there are go and get a sport massage to concentrate on that area – percussive type massage tp really ‘smash it up’. Wait for it to recover, using ice, etc.

    Then use a grip exerciser or powerball to exercise the muscle and keep it in better shape.

    My elbow was in a state a few years ago – had 3 sport massages with the guy really hammering it, and it has been fine since, with a bit of grip exercising every now and again.

    Before that I had pyroformis syndrome and a sore spot in my glut – same treatment fixed that – minus the grip exercisers…

    glupton1976
    Free Member

    Make two fists – put the back of each fist against each other then whilst keeping the fists together try and get your elbows as far apart as possible.

    Munqe-chick
    Free Member

    Have you officially been diagnosed with that or is is self diagnosis? when you talk about riding are you saying MTBing? I’ve been diagnosed with tenni elbow which is from too much computer use, tensing the muscles in the forearm which is preventing the ulnar head (I think!!?) from moving freely. I’ve had acupuncture and kinesiology taping which seems to have helped, however I still have days when it’s painful and days when it isn’t. I was told if it doesn’t aggravate it to continue doing it so I’ve found MTBing is fine for it. Just spent 3 days MTBing in Wales had it taped up and this week my arm has never felt better…probably because I haven’t been forced to sit in front of a computer. If you ride a road bike DON’T use the tops, this forces your arm to sit in an un natural position, whereas on the hoods that is your arms natural sitting position if your arm was hanging down by your side.

    Just make sure you get proper treatment, resting it alone won’t do anything. you need to deal with the tense muscles and locked joints. Good luck as it is a right pain in the ass.

    TurnerGuy
    Free Member

    Good luck as it is a right pain in the ass.

    no, he is only complaining about the elbow…

    munge-chick – you should take my advice as well, mine was aggravated by long hours of computer use. Currently working 12+ hours every day for the last 8 weeks and no elbow problems…

    brokensoul
    Free Member

    +1 Sports massage. I had tennis elbow about 15 years ago, had a few sports massages which sorted it out. Luckily, it’s never come back.

    martinhutch
    Full Member

    If it’s only been a few days, chances are that rest, ice and gentle stretching/massage will settle it. If it lingers on for weeks despite these steps, or starts causing pain when loaded in everyday activities (tipping out a saucepan was the classic one for me) then it might be time to see a physio.

    I found the stretches and dumb-bell exercises detailed here useful once the pain levels had settled down a bit. May work better from climber’s perspective though.

    fastfarrell
    Free Member

    I had it in both arms, cut out the mountain biking for a while, bought a road bike to maintain my overall fitness, got smacked up on nurofen and did some specific exercises, when I played out on the mtb I wore a brace on my forearm just before the elbow to reduce any more damage.

    Link to the exercises i did, it takes yonks to get back to normal, no quick fix!

    Elbow Tendonitis Exercises for Mountain Bikers

    TurnerGuy
    Free Member

    no quick fix!

    I don’t agree, mine and my piriformis syndrome fixed up pretty quick once I had some heavy massage work on the offending muscles.

    I think it works along the lines of damaging the muscle and then it repairs, or something like that.

    I have a friend who is an osteopath and practices deep needle acupuncture, and the acupuncture seems to work along the same lines.

    bazhall
    Free Member

    I have suffered from tendonitis and tenosynovitis for the past 3 and half years and it is not nice, I sometimes get pain free periods but not that often due to the tenosynovitis, which is when the tendon sheath becomes swollen. You should really get the pain diagnosed to see if it is tennis elbow or golfers elbow which affects the inside of the elbow instead, like others have said rest, rest and more rest along with ice and ibuprofen to keep any swelling down.

    glupton1976
    Free Member

    Is your pain on a definite spot over the bony bit on the outside of your elbow or is it more spread out than that? True tennis elbow is a very localised pain.

    Spongebob
    Free Member

    I had that. I used one of these

    I think it helped, but the injury will take time to heal and you never know whether the expensive gadget you bought did the trick, or whether it got better on its own.

    As a last resort, Hydrocortisone injections offer relief, but the problem isn’t often resolved. These injections can cause unsightly localised disfiguration from the uneven breakdown of fat, or so I was told by my GP. Oh and these injections are very painful.

    steelfan
    Free Member

    Thanks for all the advice. It was self diagnosis but now its been confirmed by a physio that it is tennis elbow.
    It seems a little better this week so will see how it goes staying off the bike for a while. Its a real struggle having to get the train to work when the weather is so nice and I could be riding the bike!

    Munqe-chick
    Free Member

    How is it all going? mine had pretty much gone for 2m onths …now it’s suddenly back and can’t figure out why! Just a tad hacked off.

    How’s everyone elses?

    TurnerGuy
    Free Member

    Everytime I get a hint of it I pull out the grip exerciser and start using it – and it goes.

    Munqe-chick
    Free Member

    What as it like squeezing a tennis ball? Does that help? If so I’ll have to give it a go! It isn’t even that painful (in comparison to some injuries) it’s more the level of pain (if you get what I mean) the constant pins and needles and feeling mildly painful and odd that annoys me.

    mrmonkfinger
    Free Member

    Tennis ball squeezing is good grip exercise.

    Recently had a dose of tension problems in my wrist. Bloody painful, i was lucky and mine cleated up with rest. Had to strap the wrist to stop me from using it.

    Apparently it’s likely to flare up again in the future – joyous.

    I’m about to get the sledgehammer out to start doing some wrist levers as well as doing some wrist rollers and gripper work, I’ve been neglecting any grip training for too long.

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