My Elbow Hurts!

For the last several months I've add elbow pain on the outside of my shoulder.  For a while, I thought I was just bumping into things alot and it was bruised and not healing.  Then, I realized that was stupid and started to look at what I might have going on.  I self-diagnosed that I had tennis elbow.  I haven't played tennis in well over a decade, so I thought maybe it was golfer's elbow, which I do play regularly.  Again, after doing alot of googling and reading articles, I settled on tennis elbow.  After that, it was time to figure out what I could do about it, where I could go to get better, and how it could be prevented in the future.  It's not fun and I don't want something simple to hang up my long term goals.

What is Tennis Elbow

Tennis Elbow, or lateral epicondylitis, is caused from tiny tears in the tendons that attach your forearm muscles at the top to your elbow area.  It is more than just imflammation, but actual tears, that can come from repeated use or over-exertion.  For me, I get the most pain when lifting and cocking my wrist some weight resistance, and when twisting my wrist.

I mentioned that I self-diagnosed, an orthopedist or sports medicine specialist would be your best bets for fully determining what you have.  X-Rays and MRIs are often inconclusive, at best, for tennis elbow, so make sure you go to someone who knows what they are doing.

Treating Tennis Elbow

Like many sports related injuries, one of the best treatments is to rest and more importantly, don't do what you did in the first place.  I don't remmeber what I did, and it could be due to repeated use of lifting, or even my golf swing.  I'm not going to give any of that up.  You can also take anti-inflammatories, but I don't like taking drugs if I can avoid it.  You could also try a brace.  I bought an elbow band at my local sporting goods store and wore it, with decent results for a few workouts.  It minimized the pain in some of the moves that caused me the most discomfort, like pushups.  Unfortunately, once I took it off, the pain came back.  I've always felt that braces can lead to worse form so I abandoned that.  Then, I heard about a product called the Flexbar by a compnay called Thera-Band and it has done wonders for me.

Thera-Band Flexbar

The Flexbar is a 12" long rubber tube made for exercising your forearms, grip, hands, and fingets.  It comes in for different resistances so you can constantly up your resistance and stengthening.

I found a video clip and instructions at http://www.flexbar.info/ and it has helped me dramatically in just a few days.  Check out the video clip below.  I do the exercise shown for about 4-6 reps 2-3 times a day for great results so far.  What was most interesting to me was how much it hurt and home little it hurt my "good" elbow.

The Flexbar has been the product that I've been looking for.  If you have elbow pain and this it's tennis elbow, check out the Flexbar.  You don't need to live with elbow pain.