I have had a sore elbow and forearm for about 7 months I just recently started climbing again after 6 months off and it has started to hurt once again. I have only been climbing once a week and nothing extremely hard, my elbow doesn't hurt too bad and then I return to work on Monday and it starts hurting worse and worse by Friday. I am not sure that climbing is doing more damage than my job but I am sure it is a combination of them both. I cannot quit my job yet and I desperately do not want to lose the whole Summer's climbing to this problem. I don't care if I can only climb 5.6 - 5.7 all year I just don't want to lose climbing all Summer long if I can do anything about it. Please help me out if you know of anything I can do to rehab this problem sooner than later.

Jimn -- have a look at this post.

http://www.mountainproject.com/v/general_climbing/chronic_in>>>>>

Think there are others, too, that you may find searching.

PM me if you want to chat -- I've had my share of nerve/tendon therapy, surgeries, etc, but can't say I have the answer.

-Avery

I'm a journeyman Electrician myself man. Starting with the basics, if you drink coffee in the morning and beers at night(not saying you do, I don't know) and then end up doing that uber-repetetive Electrical stuff like making up endless panels and landing millions of wire and then not drinking enough water all day. You might wanna start with hydration and a regemin of excersises that work the opposing muscles/tendons of the one that's giving you troubles(pushups up would be my guess). Ibuprofen therapy at first, then opposing exercises and then climbing when it quits hurting.

P.S.- Commercial work is usually big ol' copper. Not easy on your muscles. Start doing Residential work. It's less fun, but easier on the bod. PM me if you get suicidal.

edit to add: Avery got to it first, gotta be quick!!!!!

I am just getting rid of a few months worth of tendonitis (tennis elbow). I am sure you've heard about the importance of working your antagonistic muscles. You should be doing that twice a week. Tricep exercises, reverse wrist curles, etc.

What has also helped me was getting one of those tennis elbow straps that go around your forearm, just above your elbow. You can buy them at any drugstore.

Good luck to you.

Eric

Too bad you're not a commercial plumber/pipefitter like me. Then all of your joints would hurt like hell by the end of the week, so you don't notice the elbow. The best part is that the accompanying brain damage makes you oblivious to it all.

Seriously, depending on where you work: shoot for a foreman job. Then you just need to walk around and yell, maybe write symbols on studs. However, I did the St. Julien Hotel in Boulder alongside Riviera; and the crap they put Mark through was definitely not worth it. I also did an office tower with Waynes Electric, his whole crew came out of a halfway house (bused in every day).

Sore elbows are common in construction. Definitely start wearing a strap or brace, you might have to keep it up for a year or so. Go light duty with that arm; having it strapped helps remind you to try and avoid using it.

Jimn, You're not alone. I have something going on with my inner elbow right now. It's around the joint where the bone is. Right now it's not keeping me from climbing but I know the smart thing to do is to stop climbing an try to get it healed up. However, I'm much to weak for that and continue to climb. Wild horses couldn't keep me away from eldo!

I started icing it a few weeks back and also started weight training for the "pushing" muscles in hopes to balance things out. It seems to be helping. I also try to only climb routes that are mostly vertical to less than vertical. I think this helps since I am on my feet more. I would avoid the climbing gym altogether. I feel like plastic is the root cause of most injuries.

Good luck!

I just went through physical therapy for a similar elbow problem (golfers elbow, not tennis elbow, although I have never played a game of golf in my life...) The therapist had me icing it for 20 minutes a day and strengthening opposing muscles in my arm and my shoulder (many nerves run behind your shoulder down into your arm and weak shoulder muscles can cause problems lower in you arm.) However, I really started noticing a difference when I upped my stretching to 6 times a day. Pull your palm towards your forearm and hold for a minute. Pull your fingertips back towards the top of your forearm and hold for a minute. Do each of these stretches 3 times and do the whole procedure 6 times a day. You can do this while driving, watching tv, eating, etc.

Thanks for all your replies I really appreciate it. I looked over all of them and I am going to start doing reverse wrist curls, push ups, tricep curls, along with ice, heat, ice every night and see where that gets me. I am still going to try to climb once a week on easy stuff (5.8 or lower) and maybe more footy stuff like diehedrals etc. as long as I do not feel like this is worsening my problem. Hopefully all will end well, I've never had any injuries like this and it blows.

I've managed to overtrain myself into tendonitis a few times now-I've been lucky enough that it hasn't become chronic, because every time it rears its ugly head I stop climbing IMMEDIATELY. I've hung out with and dated quite a few doctors and med students, and having access to their books, what I've prescribed for myself is a combination of 1)rest 2)light stretching a few times a day 3)self massage 4)OTC Glucosamine-Chondroitin-MSM supplements at the reccommended dosage or less 5)one Ibu in the a.m. with breakfast to take the edge off and reduce swelling during the part of the day that it hurts the most 6)hydrating beyond what's normal to keep everything lubricated and healing 7)more rest-most of your body's repair cycle takes place while you're drooling on the pillow and imagining yourself as the new highly-paid oilboy for the Hawaiian Tropic Bikini Tour. I've never had an episode last more than 2.5 weeks using this program, no matter how badly I was overworking myself to cause it. Hope that helps out-I've had 100% success and hate going to the doctor. Aleve seems to help some people BTW but it does nada for me.

Is your Ulnar nerve being pinched?

I had elbow surgery a few years ago and it shut me down for more than two years because I did some really stupid things during my recovery period. Shoot me an email and I'd be happy to share.

I used to teach Alexander Technique. I mostly taught to musicians and dancers, and usually folks who were struggling with repetitive stress injuries. I got to work with some amazing artists from groups like Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Paul Taylor Dance, et al.

The basic idea is to examine how you "use" your body. For example - is there some unnecessary tension in your shoulders? Does it help to crunch your neck and stop breathing at a crux?

There's a lot of good advice on this thread, but if you're interested in AT, PM me. It would be interesting to see if Alexander is useful or interesting to climber types. I'd be happy to do some free lessons: you might find some new, helpful ideas, I can see if I'm interested in teaching again.

Pushups help me tremendously. It may sounds dumb, but stretching worked a bit. Pushups have knocked it out.

Thanks posters, I'm dealing with the same problem (golfer's elbow), and was getting bummed because I though I might have to see a doc!

One thing to add to all the great advice above:

Sometimes recovering from tendonitis hurts worse than when you are not climbing at all. Your body puts out scar tissue that is soft and weak, you have to mold that into strong connective tissue. I spent close to a year going through the typical climb for a few weeks, elbow hurts, take off a few weeks, repeat. Finally I just started climbing moderates and continued through the pain. After a month the pain went away. Here are a few other things to consider:

-Don't massage your tendons, work on the muscle body to releave stress on the elbow.
-Don't leave ice on for more than 10-15 minutes, it can cause more harm than good.
- Don't get agro on your antagonistics, work up the volume slowly. They are easy but they can cause excess inflamation at first.
- By a real big wire cutter for work, and start using your other hand for crimping and cutting wires. Electrical work is rough on the elbows.
- like Hank said, cut down on the beer and coffee, they are the enemies of healing.

Good luck bro...tendonitis sucks...don't let it take over.

Rest assured Jimn, it appear's you are not alone out there! All good advice here from the "Veteran's" out there.