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Tennis elbow - any sufferers?

33 posts & 26 voices | Started 1 year ago by clubber | Latest reply from Beagleboy

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clubber - Member

I've realised that I've basically had tennis elbow for the last year - started just before last year's Bristol Bike Fest which is how I suddenly realised how long it's been...

I'm fairly sure it was triggered by carrying my son (2ish at the time) around with one arm a lot of the time but it's never hurt while cycling and as such, I've not really let it stop me doing it.

Realising that a year is too long for it to just clear up (it's gone through periods of nearly going completely and then short periods of being quite painful at times) I'll obviously be heading off to the docs but has anyone had similar and what was the treatment - I'm guessing rest (eg not cycling) will be the suggestion but I'm wondering if that'll really help as cycling doesn't hurt.

TIA

Posted 1 year ago #
emac65 - Member

10ish years ago I suffered with it a for a couple of years & thought it was one of those just getting older things we get.Then I moved to a different job & haven't had it since.....Bike riding never made it worse so I never stopped doing it...

Posted 1 year ago #
Mark N - Member

Keyboard/mouse work did me in. Bike was okay luckily enough. Numerous injections made no long term benefit.

Posted 1 year ago #
TurnerGuy - Member

Where does it hurt? Tennis elbow is normally on the outside and caused by rotation of the forearm. It could be golfers elbow.

Posted 1 year ago #
yunki - Member

My mates doctor refers to it much more accurately as w*nkers cramp

Posted 1 year ago #
clubber - Member

TurnerGuy - definitely Tennis rather than Golf.

Yunki - guess that's because I'm ambidextrous

Keyboard/mouse is an interesting point - I do spend a lot of time at a computer.

Posted 1 year ago #
sambob - Member

I get it towards the end of every cricket season because I have a rubbish throwing technique. I throw well, just not correctly

Posted 1 year ago #
Glen More - Member

I suffered it for ages and tried the rest thing but it wouldn't go away. I eventually caved in and went for the hydrocortisone injection. That was painful. I mean really, really painful. However, the TE was cued within a week or so and has never returned.

Posted 1 year ago #
clubber - Member

That's very interesting to hear.. what does the HC injection actually do then?

Posted 1 year ago #
cubemeup - Member

iv had it for years from playing golf and lifting heavy weights, it can be very painful sometimes i really dont know what you can do to help it

Posted 1 year ago #
flexo - Member

I just got recently got some tenni elbow symptomes. Have felt somethings going on the tpp of my lower arm. But yesterday there was something strange going on. This is mainly from rockclimbing though, not from biking.
I've heard pushup is a good exercise to cure it. 50 a day, for as long as it takes.

Posted 1 year ago #
chickenman - Member

Climbers get Golfer's Elbow, the inside joint. You can try stretching before riding (straighten arm and bend hand right back with other hand), deep massage on the sore spot (it can't hurt enough), but the bottom line is, that unless you can completely rest it, i.e. not use that arm for 2 weeks you will require HC (I think it works by dilating the blood vessels next to the injury so that blood can flow through the scar tissue to the joint).
Get your GP to do it (use bully tactics!)

Posted 1 year ago #
PeaslakeDave - Member

isn't it a type of tendinitis?

Posted 1 year ago #
brokensoul - Member

I had tennis elbow, in both elbows, about 14 years ago. I went to a sports masseur, it took about 6 visits, but the treatment worked and the TE never came back.
Be warned though, the massage hurts!!

Posted 1 year ago #
flexo - Member

I'm pretty sure the pain is in outside joint, hence tennis elbow. This ailment comes from gripping something forcefully, while you bend your elbow in certain angles. Lots of climbers get tennis elbow, as well as golfer's elbow.

Posted 1 year ago #
chickenman - Member

Must be all they boulderers getting Tennis Elbow I reckon; there's a certain Poetic Justice that boulderers should get what is sometime refered to as W**kers Cramp...all the spills, non of the thrills of the real thing!

Posted 1 year ago #
EveryDayIsLikeSunday - Member

I too got tennis elbow from carrying my son around. I suffered for months until I got a specific tennis elbow support from a sports shop. I used it while cycling and also driving and it cleared up in about two weeks. I think the support and ibuprofen just offered enough rest for the tendon to recover.

Posted 1 year ago #
VassagoJay - Member

I had chronic TE a few years ago, Cortisone Injections worked for a little while but it kept coming back, in the end my Doc sent me for physio.
After 3 months of physio (massage/accupuncture etc) it had eased but not completely !! in the end I saw another physio and he worked out the pain that was still there was caused by a problem with my neck, a couple of visits with him trying to turn my neck around like an owl as I was right as rain I've had no pain since

Don't let it go to long before getting it sorted, I did that and it ended up being that bad that I could not lift anything with that arm

Posted 1 year ago #
flexo - Member

Nice one, chickenman!

Posted 1 year ago #
speckledbob - Member

Had it for a couple of years a while back. It's a repetetive strain injury which I got from a particular spraying contract I had. It was extremely painful. Rest didn't help. Eventually a friend of mine started giving it regular, very painful massages. Something to do with knots on the tendons or something. He used his knuckle quite violently to push them out. Well painful but damn well worked. Probably something like brokensoul is describing.

Posted 1 year ago #
fivespot - Member

Don't know about tennis elbow, but a mates got cricket d1ck, he only has a stump

Posted 1 year ago #
FOG - Member

The cheapest and least invasive fix is an epichondrial clasp [almost certainly spelt wrong] This is an elastic and hard plastic clasp that fits over your forearm just below the offending elbow which effectively stops you straining whatever it is that causes the problem. These don't cost much and are available in different sizez from medical supplies shops. It cured my longstanding problem in a fairly short time and have had no problems since.

Posted 1 year ago #
ampthill - Member

I had tennis elbow stopped me biking and climbing and all kinds of stuff

rest, ice (packet of peas) and massage shifted it in the end

but also be aware of transfered pain from the upper spines or shoulder

get you posistion checked if your at a computer alot

climbers do get tennis elbow

Posted 1 year ago #
Surrounded By Zulus - Member

Friction massage and ultrasound should sort it out.

Posted 1 year ago #
jedi - Member

i get shooting pains in both elbows.
neck injury caused it

Posted 1 year ago #
clubber - Member

Thanks very much all. Very helpful

Posted 1 year ago #
toby mc - Member

+1 for FOG. I got the same but from a Tennis shop, stretchy velcro and gel pad thingy. Around a tenner. Recommended.

Posted 1 year ago #
Alpha1653 - Member

I had golfer's elbow (essentially the same symptoms but on the inside of the elbow) from curling too heavy weights. Went to a very well recommended physio and spent a few hundred pounds on treatment but nothing worked. Then I bought one of those power ball things from Chain Reaction and it sorted my elbows in about 2 weeks. Damn site cheaper than unsuccessful physio too!

Posted 1 year ago #
bol - Member

I was inspired by this thread to go to my GP about the burning pain on the inside of my elbow. As expecked it is golfer's elbow. Going to go to the golf shop for the first time ever tomorrow and see if they've got one of the clamp things mentioned up there ^^

I'll dig out my powerball too! Cheers guys.

Posted 1 year ago #
Reluctant - Member

I had golfers elbow in 2006. It wasn't aggravated by cycling on or off road and was cleared up by a course of physio at good ol' Southmead Hospital. Been ok ever since and just do some stretching exersises if I feel a bit "twingey"

Posted 1 year ago #
TurnerGuy - Member

+1 for the powerball for golfers elbow when used in slower mode.

I got golfers elbow from playing tennis

Posted 1 year ago #
granny_ring - Member

Mine's playing up going to the quacks tomorrow.

Posted 1 year ago #
Beagleboy - Member

I struggled for about a year recently with a great deal of pain on the outside of my right elbow. I'm left handed, so it couldn't have been from the obvious, which left me a bit confused and in pain.

It cleared itself up within a few weeks after I bought and fitted a wider bar to my winter hardtail to bring it in line with my full susser. Just goes to show, eh?

B.

Posted 1 year ago #