Tennis elbow, need arm exercises!

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sonyao1
sonyao1 Posts: 1 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hi all, I am currently healing from tennis elbow. Doing leg work, walking and biking. Missing upper body workout and getting stiff. Need some exercise suggestions that doesn’t include weights for my upper body.
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  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
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    Have you seen a PT? There are very specific exercises you can do to promote healing. Wrist extensions, wrist deviations, forearm supination/pronation exercise, etc. Google them. They should be done with light weight dumbbells or resistance bands or with no resistance at all. In general, you don't want to stop upper body work altogether as it promotes blood flow and healing.

    When I had a bout with tennis elbow I did some specific PT work, but also continued to do most of my regular upper body work, just with very light weights or band work. If a movement caused me more than minor pain/discomfort I either adjusted the weight or motion or dropped it altogether. Some minor discomfort is expected, but it shouldn't rise to a level higher than minor. Again, everything should be very light weight or no resistance at all...but working it helps healing. Doing nothing prolongs healing.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,195 Member
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    Another vote for physical therapy.

    In person, personalized would be best.

    If that totally can't happen, look for videos specific to tennis elbow from real, credentialed, professional physical therapists on YouTube. (Bob & Brad, for example, have some tennis elbow exercise videos.)
  • texastapdancer
    texastapdancer Posts: 20 Member
    edited May 2022
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    I'm actually going through this now, too. My doctor told me to rest it and don't lift over 10 lbs. I'm really missing my strength training. Apparently, tennis elbow can last for up to 12 months. Mine has lasted for about 3 months and it's extremely annoying. I would suggest googling exercises to help it heal. I've been dancing a lot, so it's all cardio and yoga for the moment.
    Good luck! I hope you heal soon!
  • I2k4
    I2k4 Posts: 180 Member
    edited May 2022
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    I had "tennis elbow" (first be sure it isn't "golfer's elbow" - other side of the joint) going into 2021 and it got severe by June but was gone by year end. I actually kept up a fair amount of full body exercise working around the sore place.

    Web searches brought up no end of overlapping advice, including the pretty good Bob & Brad segment mentioned above - the best from that was to try a strap which turned out to be amazingly helpful both preventing pain from ordinary activity and enabling (light) exercise stress. There is a range of them available, I can't see much to choose between the pricey therapy-branded ones and the cheap eBay strap I bought, which in fact worked well.

    Therapeutically I mainly found progressive wrist stretches and grip exercises of various kinds were good - never to force pain at the elbow joint - my experience is that pain at fixed-motion joints like the elbow and knee often results from muscle weakness and strains at much more flexible anchoring wrist/shoulder or hip/ankle joints. These are the sorts of things to try:

    https://www.theportlandclinic.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/the_portland_clinic_-_tennis_elbow_handout_0.pdf

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