Hey, In my family a couple of us have this weird thing that the doctor calls tendonitis, or Tennis Elbow, and it's where like if you lift too much weight or too much stress is on your arm, your elbow is injured really weirdly. My dad has it really bad (I'm 16) and I get it sometimes just a little after sparring, has anyone heard about this or know what can help it?
Yup. I've got it in my shoulders. It's an inflammation of tendons and can happen to any tendon in the body - but elbows are a very common place. A chiropractor helped me with my shoulders. He had me ice it down for an hour each day in 15 minute increments (i.e.: put the ice on for 15 minutes, take it off, wait a while, then put it on for another 15 minutes). He had me do that every day for a week and it helped. Aspirin or other anti-inflammatories will help but they don't really do much to fix the problem. Icing down for a week helped immensely. But it was still giving me problems. So he used an ultrasound machine on it. The way he explained it to me was that the ultrasound penetrated into the area and helped to kickstart my body's natural healing abilities in the area. I still occasionally have trouble with it if I do a lot of repetitive motions that are shoulder intensive - but it's not a constant pain anymore. Mike
I had tendonitis in my knee. Ultrasound therapy really helped it, and I had my knee banadaged up for a while. You can buy special wraps and bandages that help reduce the pain. Ask your doctor or at a drug store. It would be a good idea to ice it down for 15-20 minutes after you train, it might help reduce the inflamation.
I have had tendonitis before and I have found that taking Flax Seed Oil and a combination of Glucosamine/MSM/Chondroitin works wonders. Hope that helps.
I get tennis elbow sometimes, and it isn't fun. Some exercises agravate it more than others. I used to fence and gave that up because (amongst other injuries) it was regularly giving problems with my elbow. One of the things that seems to get it going most (at the moment) is leaning on my desk when I type or move in my chair. My physio said it was caused by an inflamation of the sheath in which the tendon moves. Whatever starts it, it isn't nice. You can get straps to wrap around the arm just below the elbow that are meant be quite effective. I think they restrict movement of the muscle/sheath in the elbow joint area. Lots of fencers use them but I never really got on with one. Hope you find a solution that works for you soon.
