Need help with treatment for tennis elbow.

thegreatiam

Ok, so I have tennis elbow in both arms.

So I've been to the physio and have a plan of treatment. First a week of rice which is no problem. And some mild stretching. Then a week of exercises where we aim to eccentricly load the tendon. We decided that I'm just going to go ahead and get a flex bar off amazon.
I've been looking at the routine videos for flexbar and can see how it works. You twist it with your good hand and untwist it with your affected hand there by loading up the tendon under eccentric tension, great I get it no problem.

However, my tendonitis is bilateral. Any time I load up the bar to work my right hand I need to concentrically work my left arm, which is painful and defeats the point of the exercise damaging the left arm worse and vice versa when I switch sides.

I'm still on a rest week so haven't tried it yet. But it's bugging me as all the treatments seem to assume only one arm is affected even though everyone acknowledges it is common enough to get it bilaterally.

Now. I have experience in this area. With bilateral tendonitis in my legs which was treated the same way. Eccentric loading of the tendons. Basically one leg squats, use the affected leg to squat and the unaffected leg to stand back up, in my case we had to do a one leg squat and pull myself up with my arms so as to not load up the other leg incorrectly. But I can't see how I can do it again with my arms.

Anyone have an idea. I see my physio in two weeks so ill be running it all by her before I do anything. And I'm going to get another person to help with the concentric part but that solution is only temporary.

Ant11

What about locking a towel in a door and twisting the towel. You can do similar twisting movements as the flexbar and would only require one hand at a time.

Out of curiosity what did you get tennis elbow from? Did the physio discuss the origin of the problem? It's well and good treating the elbow but if you don't find out what's causing it, it will come back eventually. I had golfers elbow on n off for ages. It was from a mixture of repetitive strain and tight pec/front delt and weak rotator cuff muscles.

thegreatiam

Ant11 wrote: »

What about locking a towel in a door and twisting the towel. You can do similar twisting movements as the flexbar and would only require one hand at a time.

Out of curiosity what did you get tennis elbow from? Did the physio discuss the origin of the problem? It's well and good treating the elbow but if you don't find out what's causing it, it will come back eventually. I had golfers elbow on n off for ages. It was from a mixture of repetitive strain and tight pec/front delt and weak rotator cuff muscles.

Twisting the towel would be concentric movement. I need the opposite movement. Maybe if I over twist it. Pushing it tight may be enough, flexbar or towel.

It's from too tight shoulder and thoracic spine not letting me get into certain positions and putting force on the elbows.

Ant11

Can you not just twist the opposite direction no? Isn't that not what they do with the flex bar?

thegreatiam

Ant11 wrote: »

Can you not just twist the opposite direction no? Isn't that not what they do with the flex bar?

You Untwist it. It unwinds itself and you pretty much try to slow the twist.
Like with the towel maybe twisting it away. That's what I meant by over twist.

It's pretty hard to describe by text isn't it?

Twist by pushing it away from you instead of pulling towards you as you normally would.

I think locking the bar or towel in place should work.juat took me a while to get my head around it.

Ant11

thegreatiam wrote: »

You Untwist it. It unwinds itself and you pretty much try to slow the twist.
Like with the towel maybe twisting it away. That's what I meant by over twist.

It's pretty hard to describe by text isn't it?

Twist by pushing it away from you instead of pulling towards you as you normally would.

I think locking the bar or towel in place should work.juat took me a while to get my head around it.

Ahh the penny has dropped, I get ya now.

thegreatiam

Ant11 wrote: »

Ahh the penny has dropped, I get ya now.

Yeah it's a head melter when you're trying to write it/read it.

I think winding a rope on a stick away instead of towards is the same load. Need to check.

Ant11

Would something like this help? I know it's both hands though.

http://videocdn.bodybuilding.com/video/mp4/40000/40661l.mp4

thegreatiam

Ant11 wrote: »

Would something like this help? I know it's both hands though.

http://videocdn.bodybuilding.com/video/mp4/40000/40661l.mp4

That's the rope on a stick I was referring to. Typing is a bitch when the word is on the tip of your tongue.