I have some very painful tennis elbow (so bad that some days it hurts immensely to hold my cordless drill) and I was wondering if you all could help me with exercises and remedies to combat this nasty setback and get me back on track for pulling down harder.

I have the same thing, "medial epicondilitis", or something like that. Weakness/aching feeling in the elbow, towards the body and inside of the bend of the elbow on the medial side.

Mine has never gotten too serious and usually hurt most when I stopped climbing(immediately after coming down and between hard pulls). I find it comes back if I crank hard for 3-4 days a week for 2+ weeks.

My experience is that the best thing to do is to take time off and do self massage. Maybe some supplements might help too... maybe some lightweight curls would help, don't know...

My solution(not qualified, except this is what works for me):
1. take 2 weeks off with:
-self massage, good nutrition, light non-pull exercises
2. slowly and carefully start pulling again,
3. anytime a flare up seems to be coming on, take it easy, just gotta commit to self care... the quicker I halt activity, the quicker the recovery

Best wishes for healing!

I'm going to try using a Dyna-Flex gyro exerciser for my tendinitis to see if it helps at all. I like the thing itself, it's kind of fun to use.

The Dynaflex is more suited for lateral epicondilitis as it helps strengthen the extensors which are antagonistic to your "grip muscles", i.e. flexors. Your best bet for tennis elbow is to decrease your workload but still keep active. Some massage to the muscles (not the tendon attachment) helps as does daily icing. If you can find a neoprine sleeve with a icepack ( usually used for shin splints so buy a small size) that helps. Also check out Topricin, a topical anti-inflamitory available at Vitamin Cottage, that works amazing.

Here is a good article on the subject:http://www.athlon.com.au/articles/r&i_dodgyelbow.pdf

All good advice from the Veteran's here, but if you want to heal and still do what you love try some slab climbing! Also I'm sure you are aware drilling is tough on the bow's.

Best of luck
AT

Reverse curls saved my ass.

I had to take a month off last year it hurt so bad. I get it every now and then (when I don't take rest days) and push-ups and reverse curls help alleviate the pain.

Go out and get a 1 3/4" piece of wood, drill a hole through the diameter, and string some weight on it for reverse curls.

Similar to the above - PUSHUPS.

Climbers tend to over-train the body with too much pulling. When my elbows start feeling funny, I get down onto the floor and start doing push-ups to help balance the strength of the muscles in my arms.

True, this solution takes a couple of months to help. Nor will it help if you keep pulling down hard over-hanging routes at your current level. Someone else already recommended slab routes for a while and they are dead-on correct. Give the sore joints some rest, strengthen your arms (reverse curls or push ups).

After climbing or anything else that aggravates the pain, use ibuprofen and ice to limit the pain/swelling. This suggestion shouldn't be used to help you finish that next hard red-point, but it will help if normal day-to-day stuff is causing you problems.

Classic problem with (I found) and easy solution. Problem is that you have overdeveloped your forearms and the muscle group on the other side is weak. The tendonitis comes from the imbalance.

Reverse curls probably help. But not as much as something like a wrist roller or reverse wrist curls. Don't move the entire arm, just the wrists. See this:

http://www.wannabebig.com/article.php?articleid=189

Think of it this way - for each move up you should be doing an equal amount the other way. If you stick to this I can almost gaurantee results in a month or so.

Also, once you have the pain - that's it. You gotta stop. It only gets worse. Switch to complete rest and then slowly mix in some weight training days. You should be on NSAIDS as well. You have to reduce the swelling in order to heal - ICE!

Check out this book on it: One move too many

Ray

My bow's have hurt off and on during my climbing years. The best thing to do (other than rest) is to cross train. For every two days of hard climbing, I force myself to spend one day cross training. I incorporate all the movements you don't do while climbing. Mainly, reverse forearm curls (low weight, high reps. I use a 15lb weight, and do 60 reps 5 times), and push ups! I do all sorts of them, but the ones that help me the most are these : Start all the way up, lower yourself until your chest is almost on the ground, then quickly push up just over half way (arms are now bent at 90 degrees) and back down five times then go all the way back up (this way you are doing the opposite of a lock off, which is usually what flares up the tendentious). That is one rep. Try 10 reps to start with at 5 sets. I also do lots of other stuff already mentioned. The more I cross train, the better I seem to climb and feel.

Good luck.

If it's on the inside of the elbow, right near that little bump, it's acutally "golfer's elbow."

I suffered through that for about five years. One thing I wished I would have done early is brace the area. Sadly, I had Kaiser at the time and the doctor was totally unfamiliar with the cause or treatment so basically did nothing for me.

You can find nylon braces at the drug store that are about two inches wide that you use to brace the area right above your elbow. While I've read that some believe the bracing to be ineffective, it relieved enough of the discomfort to permit me to do everyday tasks without feeling like I was reinjuring the area grabbing a jar off the shelf.

The biggest thing is rest though. Anti-inflammatories work OK. Stay away from cortisone since, although it relieves the inflammation temporarily, it ultimately weakens the tendons. Training your antagonistic muscles will help, but only start doing that after the area has felt like it's healed some.

It was a few years before I could return to climbing at the level before injuring it. But again, that was likely to not getting good treatment at the outset. If you have decent medical insurance, get a referral to an orthopedic who handles sports injuries and try to get into therapy.

I had a huge problem with this a few months back. I tried taking time off, and training opposing muscles. None of it helped, I was still getting intense pain in my elbow. I was convinced it was tendinitis so i went to the doctors. He asked me how much caffeine i drank, and i said allot. It turns out that caffeine causes your tendons to swell, this combined with the strain we place on or body during climbing can mimic the pain felt during tendinitis. I stopped drinking caffeine and the pain went away. I hope you dont have tendinitis because it is super shitty. hope you feel better.

-Nate

A lot of great advise. Thank you very much for your time on these responses. It is a great feeling to have hope.

Hi
Wear a copper bracelet that will oxidise when you sweat and turn sections of your arm (wrist) green. It is not a quick fix but a long term solution that eliminates any surgery needed. you could find the bracelets in a health shop or vita shop. Magnets is not neccesary.