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Training with tennis elbow


bbbean

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A year ago last October, I developed a bad case of tennis elbow. On my doctor's advice, I took the winter off from shooting, reloading, dry firing, or anything else I could avoid. I got through most of last season with only minor problems, and adopted a regimen of exercises and wore a brace whenever I shot or reloaded. Took it easy again this past winter, but now I'm finding a host of bad habits that have crept into my technique ver the winter.

The big problem? Just when I need to step up my practice routine and I'm shooting matches regularly my tennis elbow has flared up in a major way.

Any suggestions for how to get my technique back and shoot a seasons worth of matches at the same time my elbow pain is increasing?

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Did your doctor recommend a workout to strengthen your arms to counteract your tennis elbow?

Reloading really gets me the worst when it comes to Tennis elbow. I'm getting a super 1050 so I no longer have the torqy down stroke and press up to seat the primer that I've been doing for years on my RL550B. It never fails, a weekend of reloading results in a nice case of tennis elbow for me.

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Tennis elbow sucks and it seems to creep in now and then and once it comes back it's a bitch to get rid of it.

On reloading- I know it's probably inconvenient but do lots of small batches. I have issues with my wrist if I go to much at a time. They have supports for wrists as well as the elbow thingy. I usually can do 200-300 at a time without issues. Sometimes I'll do a couple batches spread out a day.

When shooting- dry fire or live- use a good elbow brace- they do help. When you get a flare up use advil and ice. You need to control it so the pain isn't overwhelming.

As far as exercising- I'm no expert but be careful. I hurt my LEFT arm (right hand shooter) going too hard with the CoC grips. I don't think you need to go crazy to get good grip strength and make sure to do exercises with rubber-bands to strengthen the other muscles. IronMind has some good ones.

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Barry, I had the same issue. I wore a brace on my elbow for two years. I started daily exercises with a rubber band extending the fingers and with a bigger elastic band, doing wrist curls, reverse wrist curls and I went to therapy once a week for maybe 3 months. I can still feel it but it's much, much better.

I pretty much gave up dryfire and concentrated on live fire.

Your doctor can give you a directly in the afflicted area (can't remember the name of the medicine right now, I'm old CORTISONE! I REMEMBERED) and that gave me great relief for about 6 weeks per shot.

Good luck man, it sucks for sure.

Edited by BillD
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I heard about this new treatment they are using on professional football players where they take blood and spin it separating your platelets, then they inject your own platelets into the effected area. Its called platelet rich plasma therapy or PRP treatment. I hear mixed results. Online I found something about a study in Denmark that proved it fruitless, but on the other hand I've heard a first hand account of it working. Might be an option to consider..

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I am a real newbie to competitive shooting, but I have dealt with tennis elbow for a while. I have had cortisone shots, but it took several months of physical therapy to fix it. After doing a lot of gun manipulations, it always seems to flare up. I picked up an armaid, which really helps a lot as it allows you to roll out the knots in your forearms which are a big trigger point for the inflammation and pain. It looks like a big lobster claw but it really works. Hope you feel better.

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I had it last year. In the end what helped was the elbow brace, icing down the area, and drugs (Meloxicam and a topical cream). It was so bad that I couldn't even pick up my laptop or open a bottle. It took over six months to get through it but it eventually went away.

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I had the shots and wore the brace for a year. No improvement after the shots wore off. I didn't improve until I started therapy and they broke up all the scar tissue on the tendon. That and the exercises have really helped.

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I'm having the same problem with my right elbow more often in the past few months. I hate to take pain meds so I try to stick with ice or some topical pain cream to deal with my aching elbow.

Last night, during dry fire practice, just getting my pistol out of the holster (single stack/belt level)got so bad that I opted to practice with my production rig with a DOH holster.

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I have recently developed a bad case of shooters elbow- the doctor recommended the shot and physical therapy. I now have exercises/stretches and ice it several times a day. I am off the Advil and getting back into dryfiring.

It sounds strange, but training up for area 1 in SS caused it to flare up in a bad way. It still hurts to draw from my regular belt rig, but I just made the switch to limited and drawing off of my DAA racemaster does not hurt at all. Bad news is the snap of the .40 and the pain has lead to a flinch...

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