Tennis elbow

[91Bear]

I have something similar to tennis elbow even though I don't play tennis. I guess it's "cyclist's elbow." I strained/irritated a tendon in my right elbow - during a ride, I guess - and pulling on the bars continues to irritate it.

Has anyone else ever had this issue? I assume just ice/heat and ibuprofen will help and hope it goes away soon?

[zmudshark]

Epicondilitis?

I'm old. I have it. It hurts. It doesn't go away. Mine is both work and accident related.

I've found that you just have to HTFU.

[JStonebarger]

Are you sure it's tennis elbow (epicondilitis)? Seems an odd way to get it.

Very likely that it will eventually go away on its own. Stretching will sometimes help. (Tighten fist, straighten elbow, use other hand to curl wrist down until you feel a stretch.)

There are a couple braces you can try for comfort if it bothers you enough. One wraps around your forearm -- a tennis elbow strap -- and maybe half the people I give those to think they help. The other is more universally effective -- a wrist support -- but it's a bit of a pain as it actually immobilizes your wrist.

Hope some of that helps...

[berserk87]

It takes a long time to go away. Mine did but it took about a year, and then flared up every now and then after that. Be patient and try not to make that elbow angry in the meantime. The more you irritate it, the further you push back the healing process.

[ctcyclistbob]

I've had tendonitis in the elbow caused by playing racquetball. The aggravation can be on the outside of the elbow (lateral epicondylitis, i.e. tennis elbow) or inside (medial epicondylitis, i.e. golfer's elbow). Mine was lateral, and I found these to help a lot:
http://www.hughston.com/hha/a.seven.htm

Exercise 1 (palm up) helps primarily with medial pain, and 2 (palm down) with lateral pain. Do both stretches in either case though.

With the outer elbow pain it hurt to lift things with my palm down (like doing reverse curls), so lift with palm up.

For cycling maybe you can wrap your hand so your palm is more under the bar/hood to reduce the aggravation when pulling up (if lateral pain).

[benb]

I've had it on the medial side from cycling.. (bad position) and I can see it happening on the lateral side too from bar position as I've certainly had cases where something about my position made my wrist extensors (that attach to the lateral whatever) cramp up and get tight over time.

Agreed it's a pain to get rid of. Probably worth seeing a PT... the exercises and stretching can just make it worse. Of course with mine even with the PT some of the stuff they did made it worse and not better, and they didn't do anything to address whatever was causing it in the first place which would have required taking a look at the bike. I don't do any of the "assisted" stretches. If you take your other hand and "assist" in stretching the joint further it is really, really easy to aggravate the injury. Getting a small foam roller has been way way more effective for me than anything else.

If you try to HTFU and you really have this pretty soon you won't even be able to brush your teeth without pain.

[91Bear]

OK, from what I have read, maybe it's not exactly tennis elbow. My wrist movement doesn't really have any effect on it but pulling/lifting/carrying causes pain in my elbow. Bracing my weight and pulling on the bars when climbing causes pain. The other night I went walking in the neighborhood. Holding a 3-cell Maglite hurt like the dickens but holding a plastic flashlight did not, as long as I held my arm in a fairly neutral position (not bent at a 90 degree angle)

[ffnz]

I developed a bad case of tennis elbow after hitting the courts after years away from the sport. It can be surprisingly painful, often keeping me awake at night, and persistent.

After staying away from tennis for well over a year and trying different stretches and strengthening exercises (and considering surgery), I came across a study with excellent results using theraband resistance bars:

http://www.thera-bandacademy.com/tba-exercise/FlexBar-Tyler-Twist-for-Tennis-Elbow

Typically you start with lower resistance bars and work your way towards the less pliable ones. The protocol is somewhat painful in the beginning, but in my case at least worked wonders - I play four times a week without any pain, and now use the bars once or twice a month to prevent recurrence.