Tennis elbow

[JodyH]

The reverse dumbbell exercises

Unfortunately due to boxing and years of dirtbike/mountainbike wrecking my wrists no longer bend more than a few degrees "backwards", combined with years of rock climbing, tennis and again dirtbikes my forearms are extremely strong at curl/grip.
That's where my imbalance comes from that causes strain on the tendons.

[JodyH]

I dealt with tennis and golfer's elbow from age 30 to 36. I developed it from repetitious use from the machine I ran at work for years. In those 6 years, there were very few things that gave me much if any relief. The magic cure for me was blowing up my L5 disc, and severely herniating L3 and L4. The nearly 12 months that I had off of work completely fixed my elbow. Back sucks now tho.

Maybe i'll just hit one of my middle toes with a hammer.
That'll relieve my elbow pain without the pesky side effects of a blown out back.

Good plan!

[BWT]

You gotta take a break.

Practice SHO/WHO shooting for a while.

I have found this to be a good solution when I battled this myself.

I haven’t returned to grip focused training - Jiu Jitsu keeps my grip strong.

I haven’t found a good regimen to work grip and not develop tennis elbow.

Do you use any grip strengtheners currently?

Also, there are various stretches/extensions to try.

I would take a break (a few weeks), and then I’d return with everything you’re doing potentially on the chopping block of “Should I continue doing this?”.

Trying to identify the behaviors that are tweaking this would be good.

Trying to do the same regimen as before and then just adding more exercises to offset the injury inducing exercises did not fix this for me. I’d take a break and re-examine; perhaps a specialist visit would help.

YMMV.

[JodyH]

Do you use any grip strengtheners currently?

After years of rock climbing my grip strength has always been very high.
Before this tennis elbow set in I could easily do small (2 and 3 finger) crimp pull ups on Rock Rings.

[David S.]

Steve Anderson did an interview with Chad Reilly on That Shooting Show (Jan 10). You may want to check that episode out and consider contacting Reilly.

[P30]

imbalance

So, if this is the analysis result, then it probably points to the solution: Stretching or - what I prefer - a muscle-buildung exercise where one stretches as a side effect.

My evidence:
- I've pretty much hurt my knee two years ago (dumb ground-handling accident with my paramotor). Stretching was an important factor for recovery.
- I've also noticed after I restarted doing push-ups that they made the muscles in my foot soles smoother. Because they stretch the foot soles as a side effect (consider how much the toes are bent when doing push-ups). I could run smoother.

On the other hand, I've never had a tennis elbow, am not an expert. Is there inflammation involved? Then I suppose, you have to take a break for a while. And after that, reduce the imbalance. Against imflammation, a high-quality omega-3 oil helps. I use this: www.amazon.de/dp/B004D2QTYW

Many people eat too much omega-6 and too little omega-3. This makes inflammation. Omega-3 reduces inflammation. DHA is the most precious kind of omega-3. I suppose, this oil is similar to the one I buy here in Germany: udoschoice.com/product/omega-3-oil-dha-health-supplement/

I prefer to eat a tea spoon of it with a half banana (press banana slices into the oil). Tastes good and is healthy. Keep the oil in the fridge. Don't fry or cook with the oil (would transform it to very unhealthy trans fats).

[Peally]

It's overused brah. Just like shin splints you gotta bite the bullet and back off on the abuse a bit.

[whomever]

FWIW, my wife had it, from Bullseye pistol. I think that one handed might exacerbate it more than two handed??

She switched to shooting weak hand for a year or two, and it finally cleared up, and hasn't returned. She tried some of the bands etc, but nothing really worked but time.

Her scores dropped from maybe 800 (out of 900) to the low 700's for a few months, then she got above 800 again weak handed, and when she switched back got up to the 820's. She thought having to relearn the fundamentals weakhanded helped her shooting overall.

[Joe S]

Thread on TPI with good info:

https://www.totalprotectioninteracti...hooter-s-elbow

I've tried a lot of things for my golfer's elbows, which mostly crop up from pull-ups, heavy bent-over rows, deadlifts before I fixed my form, and occasionally randomly/due to the fact that I work with my hands.

I tried Rippetoe's "Pin-Firing" protocol. 4 or 5 sessions in, it hurt so badly I was convinced it was making it worse. Maybe I'm a wimp.

Disagree that nothing works. Things I've found that worked when I was consistent with them:

The IronMind extensor bands mentioned.

The TheraFlex thing.

That YouTube video shown - This seems for me to work the best when I am experiencing a flare-up.

When I am doing anything that really works my grip (lifting in the gym and out, and periodically during work), after every set/task that I squeeze like hell, I concentrate on flexing (technically extending) my fingers and wrists the opposing direction, splaying them out as far as possible. I think it tells the originally clenched grip muscles to relax.

I try to make sure I do a little bit of motion to warm up the joints before I do anything taxing, especially in the morning, especially in the winter. Never had to do it when I was younger, but I find that a warmup of some light goblet squats and swings on a day that I'm not actually lifting keeps me moving flexibly and without a ton of soreness, even deadlifting every other day. Never had to do serious warmups when I was younger, even when lifting heavy.

Good luck. Let us know what helps.

[scw2]

It's overused brah. Just like shin splints you gotta bite the bullet and back off on the abuse a bit.

If you listen to Chad Reilly's interview (he's the same guy that wrote the program that GJM and others have referenced above), I get the impression that he recommends that stopping is counter productive long term, since you do not address the underlying root cause. I think his argument makes sense, but I am not a doctor or PT though, so what he says could be wrong.