Tendinitis in the elbow and weights

recriger

Morning all
It appears that I've developed tendinitis in the right elbow. "lateral Epicondylitis"-I don't even play tennis. It is not a real dramatic case, as in it doesn't hurt at any time except when in direct use. I did chest and tri work on Monday without agrivating it, just had to focus on not gripping too tightly and controling the motions. That and the elbow strap worked out just fine.

My question arises because today is normally bi and back day. I think that I can see or figure a way to do bicep work without too much grip but I'm not sure about back work. Nearly all the back work I do requires motion while gripping. I have the feeling, though not proof, that all of them may agrivate the elbow. For example, my back portion and grip requiring portion generally includes:

Cable pull down
Dumbbell bent-over rows
Close grip pull-down
Seated high row (generally an either/or with close grip pull down)
Dead lifts

Does anyone have any suggestions or personal experience with back exercises that would go easy on tennis elbow? Or am I actually stuck and need to skip back and do legs instead since I don't run again for a couple days?

Thanks. for your help.

timeasterday

I've have tendonitis in my right elbow too - for over a year now. I got one of those upper forearm braces and that seems to help. As the amount of weight I use gets larger my elbow is actually hurting less, but that's been a long process. I think maybe my muscles are getting stronger and not stressing the joint so much.

But I don't know how to make any of those exercises less stressful on the elbow. I wouldn't skip back exercises, maybe dial back the weight. I do back workouts twice a week.

StaticEntropy

I just had tennis elbow a few weeks ago and it was definitely caused by forearm muscle imbalances. Essentially, your pulling exercises are stressing/developing your forearm flexors (grip strength) and you are undertraining your forearm extensors.

I fixed it by doing finger extensor exercises using rubberbands:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMCTDIyee60

Also, ice the area after finishing your pull and push days (I often aggravated it by doing french presses) to prevent inflammation. My tennis elbow was gone after two or three weeks of this.

Edit: I had tennis elbow on both forearms.

nick1109

Its caused by over use and too much work using flexion/extension of the elbow joint.

I always find push movements flare it up more so if I get an episode of Tennis Elbow I remove them from my routine for a while and replace them with isolation stuff like flies, lateral raises, front raises etc.

Rest, hot/cold treatment and elevation will help it heal faster

sijomial

I had this a couple of years ago and I found an upper forearm band helped a little for a while but I ended up getting much worse and lost almost all my grip strength (couldn't even grip a full bottle of wine - tragic!).
Bicep exercises almost impossible though apart from limited cable work.

Apart from rest and ibuprofen I found an elbow brace that fastened both above and below the elbow helped massively - it was made by Lonsdale.

carriem73

my massage therapist said an ice bath will help- every night for 10-15 minutes...

sunglasses_and_ocean_waves

I don't have any answers, but I have this condition. I'm seeing a sports doc next week for it.

When I got this 2 years ago, I thought I needed to rest the area until it was gone. That meant very limited lifting activities for 8 months. It stunk. This time around, I refuse to do that. I rested the area for 2 weeks and now lift very carefully with elbow & wrist support. I ice afterward too. I think this way is better, and I probably wouldn't necessarily need the doc, but I want to make sure I'm doing this correctly this time around.

BTW what finally ended the bout 2 years ago was physical therapy for an unrelated injury. The therapist was rubbing my forearm and noticed something off. I told her it was tendinitis, and she popped something for me. All was cool for over a year. Wish I knew how to do what she did.

recriger

Thanks for all the replies. I have noticed as well that it is easier to agrivate it when I include my thumb on the grip. For example, if I pick up a dumbbell with just my 4 fingers hooking the bar it doesn't really get agrivated. But if I use my thumb as the opposing clamp as one normally does the tendon gets more agrivated.

With that in mind I wanted to see if using a wrist strap for a while would help it out at all. I plan to reduce weight for a few days to let it rest and try some extensor work as well.

Does anyone use the wrist straps?