Cure for Tennis Elbow

[BoyGlock]

I'm glad you guys like the video. If you haven't seen it, here's the accompanying blog...

http://absolutept.com/shooters-elbow/

...in which I talk about the research behind the exercises, my experiences, and other details like whether you should rest or not, how often to train, how much weight to use, how much pain you should train through, how well and how fast it works, what not to do etc.

Thanks again for the feedback!

I very much appreciate your efforts to help. Im 8 days now into your regimen and Im 75% better. Its more than a year since I injured my elbow from dry fire and COC type gripper. Your observation that going on and off the injuring activities often results to more pain is spot on in my case. After 3 days into the regimen I resumed my almost daily dry fire. On the 7th day I was able to reload 100 rnds w/ my 550 using my right arm w/c has the elbow injury. Before this I learned to reload weak/left hand only just to keep shooting although in a very limited volume and frequency. 1.5 months ago I decided to totally abstain from any shooting related activity but often have pain anytime I stress my elbow. Its when I come across your blog thru this forum (or doodie?) that I began to realize real gains againts this injury.

Thank you.

Edited June 30, 2014 by BoyGlock

[ToddKS]

One other item of note.

Based on my experience it is more than just the exercises in the video, but also the routine of 15 rep sets and increasing the weight that are important.

I had been doing 3 of the 4 exercises prior to finding the videos but I had been using a very light weight in order to try to avoid discomfort (I was concerned about making the condition worse). When I changed to the routine in the video and started increasing the weight I had more improvement in a few days then I had in the previous month of doing the exercises with the light weight.

[badchad]

One other item of note.

Based on my experience it is more than just the exercises in the video, but also the routine of 15 rep sets and increasing the weight that are important.

I had been doing 3 of the 4 exercises prior to finding the videos but I had been using a very light weight in order to try to avoid discomfort (I was concerned about making the condition worse). When I changed to the routine in the video and started increasing the weight I had more improvement in a few days then I had in the previous month of doing the exercises with the light weight.

That's worth extra emphasis. The exercises target all the right muscles and tendons, but if you don't increase the weight they won't cause enough adaptation to do any good. I want the weights heavy enough to hurt some. I do back off a bit though if it bothers a persons wrists, but that's not too often.

[Hatchet]

http://www.thera-bandacademy.com/tba-exercise/FlexBar-Tyler-Twist-for-Tennis-Elbow

THis is the only thing that helped mine.

[dsa]

Badchad's program is the only thing that has helped me. I was seeing a local Physical Therapist and doing astym, estim and light weight resistance training therapies for about a month with very little improvement. I discovered badchad's program through a friend who discovered it via Steve Anderson's website. I had 5 days of the program under my belt when I went in for my next PT appointment. After the usual brief exam my therapist asked what I had been doing because things had changed; I had improved drastically since my last visit, I was almost pain free. My pain level went from a constant 8/10 to a 2/10 in 5 days. I am now almost 2 weeks into the program and back to dry firing and feeling much better and continuing to improve. My therapist advised me to continue with what was working and follow up with him as necessary. Badchad's program works.

[ToddKS]

^Chad,

^{What is the progression after you plateau? Do you go down in weight and up to even higher reps of go down in reps and up in weight for a while.}

^{Where I am at is I got to where I was doing my last set of curls with 35# for 15 reps. Went up to 40# but never got to 15. I have been stuck here for several weeks and the issues with my elbow are starting to return. Curious which direction you think is best.}

^Thanks,

^Todd

[badchad]

^Chad,

^{What is the progression after you plateau? Do you go down in weight and up to even higher reps of go down in reps and up in weight for a while.}

^{Where I am at is I got to where I was doing my last set of curls with 35# for 15 reps. Went up to 40# but never got to 15. I have been stuck here for several weeks and the issues with my elbow are starting to return. Curious which direction you think is best.}

^Thanks,

^Todd

I would have my patients stick with the 40s on 3rd/heavy set even if they can't get 15 reps. For rehab I stick with a goal of 15 reps, but if on the last set someone can only do 8 or 12 reps, or whatever, I just have them stick with that weight until they can do 15 clean reps, hoping to add maybe a rep or two every day or every few days until they get 15, then move up again. I think you should be training at an intensity where you CAN'T get 15 good clean reps on the 3rd/heavy set after maybe 5 workouts or so. 40 lb is pretty strong BTW and better than most of my patients get to when their symptoms resolve.

If your bad arm is still weaker than your good arm I would still recommend daily exercise but once they are equal you might reduce the frequency to doing the exercises 2-3 times per week to give you a bit more time for recovery and at that point the pain is generally down enough that daily exercise isn't as important. For general fitness I think 15 reps are on the high side, so I would lean towards increasing the weight and decreasing the reps to maybe 8-12, which in my rehab programs for tendinitis 8-12 clean reps is probably where you will start to end up on your 3rd set anyway when you do plateau. Usually a plateau isn't usually a true flatline, it's just where the gains get slower and harder. Also I think it's important to either shoot or dryfire daily (even if only 10-15 minutes) so your elbow gets/stays used to the stress of gripping the gun.

Also the best case scenario is the pain goes away in a few weeks, the worst case scenario is 75-90% of the pain goes away in a few weeks but the last 10-25% lingers for a few weeks or maybe 3 or so months. That's still pretty good, and fairly normal if you had a bad case of tendinitis to start with, but if you keep plugging away eventually the pain will be less and less and then gone for good. Thanks for the questions and let me know how it turns out, or if you have more questions, my treatment improved by listening to the feedback of other shooters so I'm always interested in individual experiences.

[Laughingdog]

I had an extremely bad case of tennis elbow in my left hand from a combination of 15k miles a year on my motorcycle, an increase in my shooting training, and an increase in the amount of typing I had to do at work. I couldn't even pick up a bottle of soda if my arm was extended too far, and at times it was difficult to even straighten my arm at all..

A combination of a red Thera-band Flexbar (I believe the exercise is called a Tyler Twist), a Dyna-Flex gyroscopic exerciser, and an ergo keyboard at work slowly got me back to 100%. The pain was at its worst in January of last year. By May I could shoot without the forearm brace, and by July I could shoot lefty without it. Now I keep a green Flex-bar at my desk and do it a couple of times a week as preventative medicine.

Whenever I've see anyone wearing a tennis elbow arm band, I have shared this with them. This year I have had a several of people walk up to thank me. It really is that reliable, and the exercise equipment isn't expensive at all.

[brisix]

I had tennis elbow for about a year. For me it went away by strength training and stretching. I used captains of crush. Warm up with the sport, 10 reps then did three sets 5 reps with the trainer; on the final rep of the final set I would squeeze and hold for 10 seconds. I stretched my wrists before, in between reps and afterwards. I do this three times a week. Took about a month for the tennis elbow to go away. I have worked my up to the #2. I still use the sport for warmup. One side effect is with my increased grip strength my pistol barely rises on recoil. It also helps I shot Production with a SP-01 Shadow

[BoyGlock]

Thanks very much Chad. After 6 months of religiously doing your regimen Im cured. I had the injury lingering for more than a year. It was my second time on the same elbow. Tried almost all known treatment w/out any success until this. I will continue this regimen at a lesser frequency to avoid another injury.

[Maynoal]

I had a fracture of the elbow joint, he had a surgical bolt inserted - which greatly prevented me from bending my right arm, but after 4 years I was used to and even did not feel any interference.