tennis elbow or golf elbow help

[caddishack]

I have been suffering with I think Golf elbow all season. Most of the year I had it in my left elbow and I can say it is painful but not really during golf. In the last 4 weeks I now have it in my right elbow too and like the left again it doesn't seem to effect my game very much at all, in fact sometimes after playing the inflamation seems to have gone down. I don't use one of those tensioning devices as I don't feel any comfort from it. I guess my real question here is this. Is this dangerous to just keep putting up with the pain. I did go to Physio a couple years ago and was told whatever condition I had was not really being benefited by phsio. Does anyone know if there are long term problems that can occur without treatment or will it just come and go on its own?

[Golfbum]

Tendinitis aka Tennis Elbow should die down during the winter months as you are not playing then.

However if it doesn't you better visit your doctor and have him/her advise you on what to do.

I had tendinitis in my right arm years ago. caused by the job I was doing. It got to the point where I had to take 3 months off work. Basically what I was told by the specialist was this "Your tendons get stretched out from doing repetitive motion. Although they will never heal properly they will heal over time." I asked about playing golf with this problem and was was told as long as golf did not aggravate the problem I would be OK.

After 3 months off work and then a change on that job I was fine. I have lost some range of motion in my right arm, mainly I can not put it behind my back like I can my left arm.
I did not take any physio, rest was what the doctor prescribed.

I would also tend to say you might be having some issues with your swing. If you are causing pain in your elbows. Not sure how often you golf but I played well over 100 rounds this year, plus I lifted hundreds of golf bags where I work. I did have some pain in my left arm, but not my elbow. That pain was not caused by golfing, but rather from lifting heavy golf bags in and out of the storage racks. Now the pain is gone after not working for 3 weeks.

Others may have varied opinions on this subject but I say rest is the best cure.

Good Luck

[caddishack]

I like you do not get the pain from golf in fact it is from my job. But unlike you I can't take 3 months off as I own the business. I am in the sign and digital printing business and when we load vinyl onto our machines they are when new quite heavy and they sit on a core holder on the floor. Getting them off the holder is where I think this all started. Repetitive in nature but not that many times per day. The pain is most severe when gripping a 60 pound roll and lifting it up to load onto the printer. I am going to post some questions on other forums within my industry to see how others have dealt with this issue. Hopefully by spring the pain will have left.

Thanks

[big mac]

Most of what Rick said is true---I have had the same problem for about 20 monthes now but I am well on my way to a cure--if you can call it that. It takes a long time--that's why people and doctors say its better to break your arm than tear a tendon---there is very little blood flow to help with the healing.

I agree that using an arm aid does not help in the healing process---what it does do is absorb shock in the arm as you stike the ball and it works wonderfully well---I played 70 games this year and stopped playing when it started to get cold. Most of my damage was done last year in late November when the ground-the ball and I were half frozen---won't do that again.

I do use the arm brace now when I play (LeStrap-25.00)

Physio did not really help--cortizone shot relieved the pain for about 2 weeks. The best pain relief I found was Ibuprophin pills--worked great!

Really the best thing is rest and don't overtax the arm when it feels good--it takes time

[BC MIST]

Ironically, I had my first physio session yesterday to deal with the same left arm problem. From my understanding, to let it go and still play/practice, will result in calcium building up making it even more difficult for the area to heal. I also believe that various exercises to strengthen the muscles around the area, will aid in healing. Time will tell if the laser, ultra sound treatments will do the trick.

Had a similar problem with plantar fascitis when training for my marathons and the calcium deposits were very visible on the X-Rays. The elbow problem, I believe is similar.
Softening the amount of shock that goes through the elbow by using graphite shafts, steel shafts with Sensicore, hitting from soft turf where possible and if you practice from mats, make sure the mats are soft, like those manufactured by Fiberbuilt, and the like.

[Chieflongtee]

FWIW

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/25/phys-ed-an-easy-fix-for-tennis-elbow/ with video