this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2023
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I'm not even 40 and my elbows are totally ruined from using a mouse and keyboard, game controller and phone too much... My gaming days are nearly over and it SUCKS
Hey I see you. I had some serious tennis elbow a few years ago that basically prevented me from using my dominant hand for a few weeks. I couldn't even lift a cup of water with it. I went to PT and they gave me some exercises and stretches to do. The stretches maybe helped but the exercises were trivially easy and did nothing for me. It feels like it got better just by leaving it alone more than anything. It's acted up every once in a while since then, mostly when I get cocky and do something stupid. Recently I decided to find out how to actually fix it, and I found out that the exercises they gave me were actually ineffective, according to the medical literature. In order to improve tendon health and heal chronic tendon injuries, you need to do resistance training. The best method to improve tendon strength and health is to do like 2 or 3 low rep sets, with as much weight as you can handle, every week. It takes high tension to grow tendons, with low tension doing basically nothing. You also want to do the exercises with slow deliberate motion to avoid sudden high loading of the tendons. I've been doing that for my tennis elbow for the past couple months and it has helped a lot. It was scary at first to load my elbow with a lot of weight, but I slowly worked up to it and was careful every time and haven't had a flareup since, despite doing more lifting than I have in my life. My suggestion is to find an exercise that works the problem tendons, and slowly increase the resistance over some weeks, to as much weight as you can lift. Always be slow and deliberate. It shouldn't cause you pain at any point, and if it does back off to where it doesn't.
Tldr; research says to improve tendon strength do high weight low rep exercises with slow deliberate motion. Growing tendons takes longer than muscles so take your time. Should help your pain. Is working forme.y
Can you link to these tendon exercises?
The ones I do are mostly heavy isometrics. I do weighted dead hangs for the inside forearms and isometric reverse grip barbell curls for the outside forearms. For the curls I'll hold at about 90 degrees. For both I shoot for more than 20 second holds with as much weight as I can. The specific exercises aren't as important as doing something that creates a lot of tension on the tendons you want to work, sustaining the tension, and being safe. The last thing you want is to exacerbate the problem.
This is amazing advice. I'll look in to this, thank you.
Have you considered going to a PT?
Have done, best they could do was tell me to stop doing the things that trigger it... Great!
Standing desk, more ergonomics, and ibuprofen.
Also, here's a good stretch:
With your arms straight, grab your hands together behind your back. With your fingers laced, lift them directly up, while looking up. That's it. It really helps with standing straight.
Tried tried and tried... Some things there are no going back from and injuries of this type can be one of them. Of the hand full of specialists I've seen about it, all of them said the same.
Yeah, that's how it goes sometimes. I can't cycle anymore for similar reasons. One cool thing is, you can still do it, just not habitually. Best of luck with your pain.
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