Nagging Elbow Injury

[bigmand]

I started working out last fall and have made some great gains, however, I could have made so much more if it hadn't been for my elbow. I went to the orthopedist last fall and he told me I had golfers elbow. He told me to go light, ice my elbow, and do this excercise. Well I tried that but it didn't go away. I pretty much went against my body and worked through it, even though i knew that it was preventing me from making tricep and chest gains to match the rest of my body. Anyway i took the last month and 1/2 off to make sure it would just go away, and the other day i go back in the gym to test it out, and sure enough it is still there. From what i have read the next step is surgery and I really dont want to do that.

Any suggestions or advise would be greatly appreciated.

[trez]

Hey man,

Surgery is your very LAST option to cure your elbow injury. Golfers elbow is an overuse syndrome of the tendons in the forearm. Overuse syndromes are abundant among athletes therefore there are many effective treatments available. There are still many tests to perform and methods of rehab you need to try.

Follow these steps:

1) Get an X-ray just to make sure the ligaments are intact, your cartillage isn't damaged, and you dont have bone spurs growing.

2) Get an ultrasound to find areas of inflammation.

3) If your elbow is inflamed (probably is), get your doctor to prescribe you a NSAID. If you have gastrointenstinal problems or a weak stomach, a topical anti-inflammatory would be better.

3) See a physical therapist, preferably one that specializes in sports injury's, and one who is trained in performing myofascial techniques.

4) Do your exercise rehabilitation program as prescribed and LISTEN to your therapist's advice and instructions.

If you do not recover in the time frame given by your therapst, send me a message, there are still many more more aggessive and proven treatments for chronic overuse syndromes.

Don't hesitate to ask any more questions.

peace.

[quadancer]

Same problem with me. What is INSAID?

[quadancer]

3 months later and no answer yet. I'm self-doctoring it with shark cartilage stuff, liquid glucosamine and chondroitin with MSM, and some new stuff called Celadrin.
In order not to lose my arms, I've developed a system of using the wrist straps with a "d" ring attached to the cables of the crossover machines so that I don't have to grip anything (which hurts at the point of insertion injury) and have been able to do light work to at least maintain my biceps, shoulders, chest and back. Came up with some real pumps there too! 1 week so far on the meds, except the G/C which didn't work, leading me to believe it's the tendons and not the joints that I ripped doing heavy preacher curls.

[Ratcat]

G'day cobber. I discovered that Dencorub seemed to help a little. You might like to look at it. The smelly stuff works better than the non smelly stuff.I used the non smelly stuff in public and the smelly stuff the rest of the time. Good luck with it. I needed no lifting for about 3 months but I've wasted around 12 months before that trying to 'work thru the pain' which didn't work. Cheers. /forum/images/graemlins/smile.gif