Gumby Posted January 18, 2007 Share Posted January 18, 2007 I've been training dry-firing for 1-2 hours a day for a couple months now... a few weeks ago I must have practiced for 12 hours over the weekend and the connective tissue of my lower bicep/inner elbow of my support arm became irratated. It feels a little inflammed as I present the gun, I guess because of the simultaneous lifing of my arm using my front deltoid along with contraction and exention of my biceps. Anyone else have this problem before? It hurt most as I experimented with grip rotational variation of the shooting hand grip; I believe it was non-neutral causing the support forearm to force the sights into alignment. I'll probably just use contrast baths on it and then go back to training the neutral grip that I have settled on since then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigDave Posted January 18, 2007 Share Posted January 18, 2007 I experienced something similar while shooting my .22 at 50 yds strong hand only. I was fine while I had the gun up, but as soon as I lowered it I had a sharp pain in the same area. I concluded it was just some small stabilizer muscles and their associated tendons that were being used like never before. A few ibuprofen and a couple of days rest and all was well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gumby Posted January 19, 2007 Author Share Posted January 19, 2007 I've practiced for at least an hour everyday since. Taking time off is the most difficult part... I suppose I'll have to schedule a rest period of a couple days and not touch my gun til then. Otherwise I can't help but to practice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ihatepickles Posted January 19, 2007 Share Posted January 19, 2007 (edited) I think you're describing tennis elbow. There are lots of arm supports on the market to help this condition. Rest, icing, and good medical advice will help you to prevent this issue in the long term. Edited January 19, 2007 by ihatepickles Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dirty whiteboy Posted January 19, 2007 Share Posted January 19, 2007 cut back on dry fire, you have tennis elbow....rest, ice, and advil!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
No.343 Posted January 19, 2007 Share Posted January 19, 2007 I got tendonitis in both my elbows about three years ago. I got it riding my ATVs and I did not give it time to heal. Eventually it got so bad that I could not twist the top off a beer. It took me over a year to recover. I finally stopped riding, went to the doctor, even went to accupuncture. Take this seriously. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catfish Posted January 19, 2007 Share Posted January 19, 2007 had the same/similar thing. As has been said, sounds like you have tendonitis/tennis elbow. I got an arm band to put on my upper forearm, which helped; and also ended up bringing my arms in and not extending them out so far. Still hurts every now and then and it's no fun. Sounds like you need to see a doc and follow his/her advice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gumby Posted January 20, 2007 Author Share Posted January 20, 2007 But I don't play tennis. But yes, this seems to describe it... http://www.tennis-elbow.net/tenniselbow.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AustinMike Posted January 20, 2007 Share Posted January 20, 2007 I had something that sounds similar. Figured it was "tennis elbow" and got a brace, which helped a little, but the pain wasn't going away. Got so bad, I had it looked at and ended up going to physical therapy for about 8 weeks or so. I forget all the medical terminology, but they said that there is a nerve that runs through the elbow and that there is a sheath around it which had gotten inflamed, putting constant pressure on the nerve. They did some deep massaging, chiropractic manipulations and gave me lots of exercises to do. My problem started shortly after I started shooting open and I think it boiled down to bad technique. I had a tendency to over-stretch my arms out when shooting and the open gun was battering my elbow since I wasn't flexing it all. I've worked on my gun presentation to keep the elbows bent a bit and I'm fine now. It had become extremely painful and was effecting other activities besides shooting. Don't ignore the pain and have it looked at if it doesn't improve soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Moneypenny Posted January 20, 2007 Share Posted January 20, 2007 ok it is a tennis elbow type fatigue injury. stop doing that specific thing for a while. allow your body to heal, but if you feel the urge DON"T stop training.... change your training.. you don't NEED a gun to train. you do'nt need grip. work on your footwork, box positions. shooting on the move position with hands whereever comfortable, picking the gun up from table.. not presenting it just picking it up.. or just bringing a reload to the gun. or just hand to gun. there are a million things to practice in shooting..... practice getting out of a chair fast and smooth. if your whole body is imoblizied do some eye drills shifting focus. .... i used to do those in class... really freaked out professors. feel free to email IM or call if you need any more ideas or have some i haven't thought of you'd like to share. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dfwmiket Posted January 20, 2007 Share Posted January 20, 2007 (edited) I get this a lot--- I 'used' to play tennis, and now that I shoot, I'm prone to the injury. When mine gets really bothering me, I switch and draw/dryfire with my non dominant hand. Something to think about....... -Mike Edited January 20, 2007 by cnemikeman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thejoe Posted January 31, 2007 Share Posted January 31, 2007 (edited) Fellas, I'm a Certified Athletic Trainer and have seen many injuries like this before. What you are describing is not tennis elbow as it is properly considered which is usually on the outside of the elbow. Rather this is inflammation of the biceps tendon as it inserts on the inside of the forearm. The best way to take care of this is ice, combined with a bit of rest (ie shorten your practices and try to do things that don't hurt as much) but also a lot of stretching. To stretch this muscle you'll need to hold onto a door frame (palm facing forward) at shoulder height, relax your entire shoulder and rotate your upper body gently away from the hand holding the door frame. The kind of ice therapy that works best is to take an ice cube and rub it on the affected area until it's too small to hold and then do it again. This should be about 10 minutes of ice treatment all together. If you have any questions feel free to PM me. This is what I do for a living. joe ps- I negelected to mention that stretching gently four to five times daily is ideal for the best benefit whereas one long stretching session in which you are stretching as hard as you can might actually make the arm feel worse. Edited January 31, 2007 by thejoe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FranDoc Posted January 31, 2007 Share Posted January 31, 2007 To add to Joe's comments: if the pain has reached the point where it's uncomfortable to pick up the gun and go through your draw stroke, it's worth the time/$ to have some one-on-one sessions with a physical therapist or athletic trainer. Agree with Joe that what you're describing is not a classic 'tennis elbow', aka lateral epicondylitis on the outside of the elbow. What you describe sounds like a medial epicondylitis/tendonitis of the bicep insertion. If there's pain on the back side of the inner elbow, you likely have irritated the ulnar nerve as well. There's a right way and many wrong ways to rehab this -- spoken by someone who's had to rehab both shoulders and both elbows secondary to shooting-related overuse syndromes. If you do the wrong rehab exercises, you'll hurt worse and recovery will take much longer. Seek out someone who knows how to do this the right way -- it's the shortest and most efficient path to recovery. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AustinMike Posted January 31, 2007 Share Posted January 31, 2007 (edited) If there's pain on the back side of the inner elbow, you likely have irritated the ulnar nerve as well. That's what I had! I couldn't remember the name for the thing, but it sure hurt. I initially chalked it up to "tennis elbow" and tried wearing a brace, which helped minimally. Probably more of a "string around the finger" sort of thing to help me remember not to stretch my arms so much, but it wasn't a solution. Happened after I started shooting open and I think it was a result of bad technique. I tended to stretch my arms out too much and now I make sure they are bent. I went to PT for 8 or so weeks. They fixed me up and I try to remember to do some stretching periodically. Edited January 31, 2007 by AustinMike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
txaggie Posted January 31, 2007 Share Posted January 31, 2007 Here are some good exercises for what you are describing: http://www.nismat.org/ptcor/tennis_elbow/ The thing I found that helped tremendously was the rubber band on the ends of the finger tips. Also, I found this online and tried one and I really like it, it helps the elbow/arm absorb the constant shock from recoil: http://www.uniquetek.com/site/696296/product/T1237 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gumby Posted February 5, 2007 Author Share Posted February 5, 2007 Fellas,I'm a Certified Athletic Trainer and have seen many injuries like this before. What you are describing is not tennis elbow as it is properly considered which is usually on the outside of the elbow. Rather this is inflammation of the biceps tendon as it inserts on the inside of the forearm. The best way to take care of this is ice, combined with a bit of rest (ie shorten your practices and try to do things that don't hurt as much) but also a lot of stretching. To stretch this muscle you'll need to hold onto a door frame (palm facing forward) at shoulder height, relax your entire shoulder and rotate your upper body gently away from the hand holding the door frame. The kind of ice therapy that works best is to take an ice cube and rub it on the affected area until it's too small to hold and then do it again. This should be about 10 minutes of ice treatment all together. If you have any questions feel free to PM me. This is what I do for a living. joe ps- I negelected to mention that stretching gently four to five times daily is ideal for the best benefit whereas one long stretching session in which you are stretching as hard as you can might actually make the arm feel worse. Thanks thejoe, I think that more accurately describes what my problem was. Like you said, rest, ice, and stretching seemed to clear it right up. I had the pain for about a month... all gone now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stockton Posted February 6, 2007 Share Posted February 6, 2007 [strictly kidding mode on] Well, you had better do something about it soon. It's ruining your typing too... Irritated NOT irratated Repetitive NOT repetative Inflamed NOT inflammed Lifting NOT lifing Extension NOT exention But, you got Gumby right! [/strictly kidding mode on] Also, call your doctor get an Rx for Naproxen. Trust me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryan W Posted February 6, 2007 Share Posted February 6, 2007 yep, i'm dealing with this same exact issue right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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