Tennis elbow

[Indiana Bass1]

I need help with a bad case of tennis elbow. It has really limited my fishing for the last 3 years and I am sick of it. Is there a fix or is it time to find a new hobby? I can't imagine not being able to bass fish folks.

[Hammer 4]

Have you seen a doctor..?

I use to play tennis 5 times a week, and developed what I thought was tennis elbow. Went to the doctors, and found out I had bone spurs, which required surgery, with a 6 week down time..

I never did get the surgery, and haven't had any problems for a couple years. Rest, and ice seemed to have paid off..at least until I start abusing my arm..

[Indiana Bass1]

Resting and icing the elbow currently. I am going to therapy but so far just doing stretches and icing. Fished for 5 hrs two weeks ago and could not push down on my deodarant button the next morning without going to my knees.

[Hammer 4]

Not that it would help, but do you overhead cast alott..?

I found that a low sidearm cast seems to be much more comfortable for me.

[Indiana Bass1]

90% of the time I use a sidearm cast. It seems that when I reel in it hurts real bad or when setting the hook. WOW that is unreal pain.

[Hammer 4]

Wow..I think if I were you..I'd give the arm a rest for a couple of weeks. Ibprophen works great at reducing inflamation and pain..I take the 800mg.

[Indiana Bass1]

Doing that too!

[Hammer 4]

Just from experiencing pain in a few places, I would say this..if the pain is bad, and you don't get much relief, go back to the Doctor.

Good luck with the elbow, hope you feel better soon...life w/o fishing can be a drag.

[5bass]

I've had it in both elbows a couple times each, now I have 'golf elbow' which is on the inside of the elbow instead of the outside like Tennis elbow.

Each time I've had tennis elbow I've gotten cortisone shots and worn one of the bands around my arm that helps keep the muscles from over-flexing and irritating the tennis elbow. I wear the armband 24/7 by the way. 

Painful stuff man, just get the shot, wear the band and take it easy.

[NorcalBassin]

Okay... here you go. I treat this injury all the time and it is relatively easy to fix. First thing, if it hurts when you forcefully make a fist (usually the case) you can check to see if you are a good candidate for a band/strap brace (as mentioned by F.B.L) by firmly pressing down on your proximal forearm right over the painful area. If the pain significantly lessens or resolves with the pressure, then you are a good candidate for one of the braces... if not then it's basically worthless.

A nice self-treatment technique is to lean your upper arm into a door jam with your elbow flexed. You want the door jam to stabilize your upper arm while the elbow is just past the edge. Flex your elbow to 90 degrees, reach across with your good hand and grab the bottom of your elbow, and then squeeze your injured hand as you maintain the medial-lateral force on your elbow. Should be pain free with this technique about 75% of the time. If pain free, repeat 10 repititions 3-5 times per day for a week and you should be much better within a week or two.

If you still have pain, ask your therapist if they know how to do the Mulligan elbow mobilization (I suspect they don't since they haven't been doing it)... having your therapist tweak the position of the elbow and altering the direction of force with a different hand placement is necessary with the other 25% of the population. An advanced mobilization of your radial head also works wonders, but try the above self-treatment first with your second option being more advanced manual techniques by your therapist. Injections should pretty much be a second to last option (only ahead of surgery), as long term studies show no significant relief (similar outcomes to "wait and see"). Once you get the symptoms under control you want to start an eccentric strengthening program. PM me if you need any additional help... I don't want to hi-jack the thread into an online medical course. NEVER let anyone operate on your elbow for this condition until your cervical spine has been fully evaluated (symptoms often referred). Hope this helps.

[Indiana Bass1]

Do I squeeze constantly with the injured hand or squeeze and let off and then squeeze and let off? I would like to thank everyone who has responded to my post.

[NorcalBassin]

Just give a nice sub-maximal squeeze... should take about 3 seconds per repetition.

[I.rar]

Okay... here you go. I treat this injury all the time and it is relatively easy to fix. First thing, if it hurts when you forcefully make a fist (usually the case) you can check to see if you are a good candidate for a band/strap brace (as mentioned by F.B.L) by firmly pressing down on your proximal forearm right over the painful area. If the pain significantly lessens or resolves with the pressure, then you are a good candidate for one of the braces... if not then it's basically worthless.

A nice self-treatment technique is to lean your upper arm into a door jam with your elbow flexed. You want the door jam to stabilize your upper arm while the elbow is just past the edge. Flex your elbow to 90 degrees, reach across with your good hand and grab the bottom of your elbow, and then squeeze your injured hand as you maintain the medial-lateral force on your elbow. Should be pain free with this technique about 75% of the time. If pain free, repeat 10 repititions 3-5 times per day for a week and you should be much better within a week or two.

If you still have pain, ask your therapist if they know how to do the Mulligan elbow mobilization (I suspect they don't since they haven't been doing it)... having your therapist tweak the position of the elbow and altering the direction of force with a different hand placement is necessary with the other 25% of the population. An advanced mobilization of your radial head also works wonders, but try the above self-treatment first with your second option being more advanced manual techniques by your therapist. Injections should pretty much be a second to last option (only ahead of surgery), as long term studies show no significant relief (similar outcomes to "wait and see"). Once you get the symptoms under control you want to start an eccentric strengthening program. PM me if you need any additional help... I don't want to hi-jack the thread into an online medical course. NEVER let anyone operate on your elbow for this condition until your cervical spine has been fully evaluated (symptoms often referred). Hope this helps.

great post. while im sure i dont have tennis/golf/fishing elbow , if im out on the water for a few hours , my elbow does begin to hurt. ill give that a shot next time it gives me problems. thanks.

[cart7t]

I had it pretty bad for years.  I finally took a 6-8 month rest from fishing to help in the heeling (going fishing was merely aggravating it making my day on the water painful anyway.)

I haven't had a problem since.  I also followed some advice from pro Larry Nixon who also had a serious case of TE.  Bassmaster had an article on it along with pictorials on his exercises he did to smooth things out.

[Raul]

Use spinning gear.

[Wayne P.]

I took care of the few times I have had it by switching from left to right or right to left reels so I could rest the painful arm. I wind the reel with the injured side.

[roadwarrior]

Okay... here you go. I treat this injury all the time and it is relatively easy to fix. First thing, if it hurts when you forcefully make a fist (usually the case) you can check to see if you are a good candidate for a band/strap brace (as mentioned by F.B.L) by firmly pressing down on your proximal forearm right over the painful area. If the pain significantly lessens or resolves with the pressure, then you are a good candidate for one of the braces... if not then it's basically worthless.

A nice self-treatment technique is to lean your upper arm into a door jam with your elbow flexed. You want the door jam to stabilize your upper arm while the elbow is just past the edge. Flex your elbow to 90 degrees, reach across with your good hand and grab the bottom of your elbow, and then squeeze your injured hand as you maintain the medial-lateral force on your elbow. Should be pain free with this technique about 75% of the time. If pain free, repeat 10 repititions 3-5 times per day for a week and you should be much better within a week or two.

If you still have pain, ask your therapist if they know how to do the Mulligan elbow mobilization (I suspect they don't since they haven't been doing it)... having your therapist tweak the position of the elbow and altering the direction of force with a different hand placement is necessary with the other 25% of the population. An advanced mobilization of your radial head also works wonders, but try the above self-treatment first with your second option being more advanced manual techniques by your therapist. Injections should pretty much be a second to last option (only ahead of surgery), as long term studies show no significant relief (similar outcomes to "wait and see"). Once you get the symptoms under control you want to start an eccentric strengthening program. PM me if you need any additional help... I don't want to hi-jack the thread into an online medical course. NEVER let anyone operate on your elbow for this condition until your cervical spine has been fully evaluated (symptoms often referred). Hope this helps.

Thank you!

Do you use the same exercise for "golf elbow"? My pain is on the inside as FBL described.

-Kent

[Crestliner2008]

Great post NorcalBassin! THANKS! Wish I'd have read that about 2 years ago, when I developed "tennis elbow" from drop shotting and fishing in general. (And yes, you can get it using a spinning rod as well!)

I had to get 4 cordizone (sp) shots and weeks of physical therapy before I was somewhat back to normal. To this day I still wear my "Band-It" brace on my forearm, just ahead of my elbow - just in case! They never did give me "preventable" exercises to do though? I certain will try these suggestions.

[Md]

I also had golf elbow (inner elbow) and made a doctor visit. He referred me to this site: http://www.ubsportsmed.buffalo.edu/education/medialepic2.html

I also wore a brace for quite some time and it helps a ton! Now it's completely gone and I'm back to painless fishing for two years now.

[George Welcome]

Years back people went to Readers Digest for their medical advise. Today it's the internet.

Go to a MD!

[NorcalBassin]

Do you use the same exercise for "golf elbow"? My pain is on the inside as FBL described.

-Kent

Definitely give the same technique a try. If it is not pain free with that technique, you may want to pull the bottom of your elbow towards you instead of pushing it away as you squeeze.

Md- that site is a little "old school" in its rehabilitation protocol and could definitely be updated with something more evidence-based... however, "old school" has helped thousands of people over the years and should still help a certain subset of patients.

George- Non-orthopedic MD's generally don't know much about treating orthopedic injuries (such as tennis or golf elbow), so I would recommend going to a specialist if/when symptoms get that severe. Sadly, doing "internet" research often results in someone knowing more on the topic than the MD they're paying to see (family docs are more concerned about keeping you alive).