elbow pain

[bigp3]

I have the worlds worst elbow pain when I am doing tricep exercises it does not hurt on pressing but only push down and extension style exercises. My doc says it is just tendonitis and to work through it, but I am fucked when I do triceps. I can not do any weight and I dont want to blow out a tendon or something. The pain is on the outside of my elbow. Any help or suggestions..

Thanks

 

[gymtime]

Unfortunately, my experience has been that the only way to eliminate the pain, or at least lessen it, is to do what your doc says, work through it. It will take some time and you'll have to start with lighter weights, but it's the only thing that will help. And it WILL help, just have to be patient.

 

[b fold the truth]

Have you tried doing
Lying dbell tricep extension for volume?

Tate Presses?

B True

 

[louden_swain]

Simple answer:

Glucosamine, rest, and exercises that DO NOT inflict pain in the area.

 

[RusPA81]

I had the same problem. Make sure to stretch your triceps before and after training them. Also stretch them on at least 2 non-training days. Icing them will also help. This is the only to actually to actually treat the problem. All the supplements you can take will just mask the problem. If don't know how to stretch the tri's, just say so and either myself and I am sure some other people will try to explain it to you.

 

[bigp3]

yea I know how to stretch them and I have been doing it. I guess I am just going to have to work through it. Strangely enough I have found dips do not hurt. you would think they would,,, what the fuck. Thanks for the help guys

 

[DrBones]

IF you have tendonitis, I'd avoid EVERYTHING that irritates it... if you aggravate it too much you are going to create a lot of scar tissue on your tendons which will cause more future problems...
I'd be careful, take anti-inflamatories, and ice your joints. Post training I'd use heat on your elbow to increase blood flow... then a little while later ice it again to reduce inflamation... Repeat this as often as possible to help decrease healing time..

 

[big4life]

IF you have tendonitis, I'd avoid EVERYTHING that irritates it... if you aggravate it too much you are going to create a lot of scar tissue on your tendons which will cause more future problems...
I'd be careful, take anti-inflamatories, and ice your joints. Post training I'd use heat on your elbow to increase blood flow... then a little while later ice it again to reduce inflamation... Repeat this as often as possible to help decrease healing time..

Yep, ice and a anti inflammatory are your best bet. Like he said, if you keep aggravating it, you will get a build-up of scar tissue, and serious problems.

One of the best things that I found was deep ice massage. Where you numb your elbow with ice and have someone that knows what they are doing get in there and give you a deep massage in that area. It hurts like hell, but it does help.

 

[Zyglamail]

Yep, ice and a anti inflammatory are your best bet. Like he said, if you keep aggravating it, you will get a build-up of scar tissue, and serious problems.

One of the best things that I found was deep ice massage. Where you numb your elbow with ice and have someone that knows what they are doing get in there and give you a deep massage in that area. It hurts like hell, but it does help.

It does sound like tendonitis, however I totally disagree with with your recomendations for treatment. Tendons/ligaments have poor circulation but are high in nerve density. These nerves serve many functions and when the tissue is damaged it unfortunatly causes a lot of pain. Are you aware that inflamation is a key element in healing? Ice and anti-inflamatories will help with the pain, but they will also reduce inflamation which is essential to the healing process. Rest is also not the best way to approach an injured are because motion increases blood flow and so does heat. What I recommend is doing light weights that cause little to no pain, but still work the area, this will increase blood flow and in turn help the body get needed healing elements to the injured area. Heat instead of ice will also aid in healing. Avoid anti-inflamatories at all costs. If the pain is to much to handle use acetometaphine(sp?) (ie tylenol). Doctors today treat symptoms (ie pain) but in doing so they ignore the actual problem.

DrBones, as for scare tissue, it is largely made up of collogen, which is also the primary component of tendons/ligaments. Tendons and ligament cells have a normal half life of approx 300-500 days so under normal conditions an injury, especially treated with ice and anti-inflamatories can take that long OR LONGER to heal. The key to rapid healing is encouraging the body to heal itself. Tendons and ligaments, when injured are capabe of greatly increasing cell creation which in turn aids in healing however far to many people circumvent the process by icing it, resting it and taking anti-inflamatories or even worse corticosteroids.

bigp3, take a few minutes and visit prolonews.com to learn more about prolotherapy and the healing process, find out for yourself why the common recomendations are not in an athletes best interest.

 

[The Syndicate]

I have the same problem. I do one arm push downs to warm up, then I do DB extensions very slowly with a weight I can do 12 times to failure, then I do close grip pushdowns. These exercises don't hurt as much as close grip bench and extensions do

 

[DrBones]

Zyglamail,
Thats some great information... I wish i knew that before...
However, Don't you think it would be in the best interest of the injured person to take some sort of anti-inflamatory initially to reduce excessive inflamation?
For instance, I hurt my rotator cuff 2 days ago. Its not the first time I hurt it.... If it wasn't for taking anti-inflamatories the first night I hurt it, there would have been no chance in hell I would have been able to lift the next day. I have to take into account that I went into the hot tub for about half an hour that day, ice it when i got out and did many stretches and rotator cuff excersices in an attempt to have it recovered enough to workout the following day. The anti-inflamatories, reduced the swelling which allowed my shoulder to function without impingement...
You probably have a lot more knowledge in this area than I do...
But don't you think a healthy combination or heat, ice and active recovery would be more beneficial than just allowing the tendons to be inflamed to the point where its virtually unusable?
Thanks

 

[Zyglamail]

Zyglamail,
Thats some great information... I wish i knew that before...
However, Don't you think it would be in the best interest of the injured person to take some sort of anti-inflamatory initially to reduce excessive inflamation?
For instance, I hurt my rotator cuff 2 days ago. Its not the first time I hurt it.... If it wasn't for taking anti-inflamatories the first night I hurt it, there would have been no chance in hell I would have been able to lift the next day. I have to take into account that I went into the hot tub for about half an hour that day, ice it when i got out and did many stretches and rotator cuff excersices in an attempt to have it recovered enough to workout the following day. The anti-inflamatories, reduced the swelling which allowed my shoulder to function without impingement...
You probably have a lot more knowledge in this area than I do...
But don't you think a healthy combination or heat, ice and active recovery would be more beneficial than just allowing the tendons to be inflamed to the point where its virtually unusable?
Thanks

Thats the biggest problem today is people would rather deal with the symptom and not the actual problem. In the case of your shoulder, sure the anti-inflamatories helped with the pain, but do not confuse lack of pain with being healed. On the contrary, as I stated above by not willing to sacrifice comfort you suspended the healing process and in turn you now have a tendon/ligament in a weakened state, sure you can now rush back into the gym, but the truama that has occured is not gone. What this means is that you are more likely to injure it again additionally the injury, since area is allready weakened, is likely to be more severe.

Active recovery in itself is a good idea because it uses the area and helps with blood flow, heat is also good but ice will constrict blood vessels and reduce blood flow and in turn the flow of healing ingredients to the damaged area.

Let me give you a brief overview of my severe tendonitis. It was so bad I could not even curl a 20lb dumbell. Pressing of any kind was at half the weight I could handle for fear of the shooting pain and throbbing that followed. Like most I jumped on inflamation meds and they helped for a while but things continued to get worse. I finally took 2 weeks off from lifting and continued on anti-inflamatories. I felt like a million bucks. First day back in the gym my elbow was throbbing like I had no time off and now was also weaker than ever before. The end result is the rest and anti-inflamatories prevented any healing at all and I made no progress. My doc said to stop lifting...yea right....then mentioned cortisone but I knew that was detrimental and I was bound and determined to fix the problem. What I discovered was prolotherapy. This is the process of injecting a fluid into the injured tendons/ligaments in the injured area. This fluid (which varies depending on where it is and your doc) is intended to CAUSE inflamation in such a fashion as to promote the bodies own healing. After my first treatment I was sore as hell for a couple days and missed a week in the gym, then I heit the weights again and did what I could comfortably do. 2 seeks later I went back for second treatment and this time just rearranged things so my off days fell on the days after treatment so didnt miss any gym time. I kept working the area and as the weeks went by the pain dissapated, in 4 weeks another treatment and one again 4 weeks after that. SO basically in a 3 and a half month period I went from not being able to curl 20lbs due to pain to curling 70lbs nearly pain free. During that time I missed maybe 2 workouts from the treatment and did not take ONE anti-inflamatory. Now, the choice is yours, but before you decide what avenue to follow take a look around the boards and get a good feel for just how many people are hear living with chronic pain and Ask them what they do for it. Now, find the handfull of people here who have had prolo done and get their input. When you are done comparing notes let me know if you still feel the same way about ice and anti-inflamatories.

 

[Citruscide]

Zyg... post here more often will you? That was an awesome post/2

What are your thoughts on Icy Hot to help??

C-ditty

 

[big4life]

Actually I looked into prolotherapy for my elbow pain, but before I tried it, my physical therapist tried the deep ice massage and it helped clear it up. Whether it was one or a combination of the things they tried, I don't know. All I know is it worked for me.

 

[DrBones]

Zyg,
Great post, Karma for you...
I am going to take your word for it and stop taking anti-inflamatories...

Whats your take on deep tissue massage?
I've been getting it done for a few months now and it has COMPLETELY reveresed the effects of so many of the problems i had previously... I wasn't taking anti-inflamatories for a few months while getting this done and my shoulder has been acting as good as new (other than my recent fuck up)
I couldn't bench more than 135 without EXTREME pain... and now that I've been getting the deep tissue massages, I'm able to bench 225+ without any discomfort....
Just trying to bring up some other options..
I really appreciate you putting the time in to answer my questions.
Thanks

 

[b fold the truth]

If you CAN take time off...do it. If you can't, I never can, then you have to find ways around it.

Icy-Hot and the occasional ibuprofen works for me.

B True

 

[Zyglamail]

The problem with running one type of treatment past another odc who doesnt do it is that you get their uneducated opinion on what the problem is. Many prolodocs specialize or at least started their career in sports medicine and concentrate on chronic pain. Surgeons cut and slice, therapists utilize what they know etc. One thing I have noticed as that many prolodocs sought to actually heal people through physical therapy etc and when the found they couldnt help most people they sought alternatives and prolo is what many of them found and have stuck with due to its simplicity and effectiveness.

I have not studied the effects of topical products like icy hot so cant really comment on their effects on sprains/strains. ART or massage often time can help greatly too, but its most often best for muscle problems and not as effective at fixing tendon/ligament damage.

No matter what you try I am just trying to imparct the fact that as athletes we have to think outside the box per se and look at long term health and our ability to persue an active lifestyle. Most docs treat the symptom because that is all the average person cares about. We, as avid lifters and athletes want more than a cure for the pain, we want a fix and not to have to worry about it reocurring. Having spewed forth all that I am just trying to stress the importance that inflamation (and unfortunatly the assiciated pain) has in the healing process. Next time you reach for that bottle just ask yourself...self, is the pain so bad I need these pills or is healing my first priority?

P.S. I am in the process of compiling very detailed information on inflamation, the healing process, the negative effects of anti-inflamatories and how prolo addresses these issues. Not sure when I will get it done but its something I will post when completed.

 

[Fatty4You]

I have elbow pain and my doctor said to try massaging the area around my tendon. Said that should get blood flowing to that area, and the blood brings withit healing.

 

[Zyglamail]

I have elbow pain and my doctor said to try massaging the area around my tendon. Said that should get blood flowing to that area, and the blood brings withit healing.

Yes, especially the deep painfull massage, it in essence causes mild imflamation of its own and hence helps the healing process.