Golfers elbow

[Mazda]

Has anyone out there suffered from golfers elbow? I have been nursing a tender elbow for 2 years. I have tried icing, anti inflammatory drugs, rest and a steroid shot. The pain/stiffness never completely went away. With skiing season approaching I'm starting to panic that I will not recover. Has anyone successfully dealt with a similar condition?

[eleeski]

Try switching to a bent handle. That eased the stress on my elbows. I hate the bent handle for performance but my elbows are much happier. Just a couple of straight handle sets lights it up again.

 

Youth is wasted on young people!

 

Eric

[bkreis]

Make sure your gloves are not ripped, handle/rope are not breaking, avoid slack line hits, and google lateral/ medial epicondylitis and follow the regimen for treatment.

[Texas6]

The use of a radius handle has helped mine quite a bit. I will add that I switch to a baseball grip (both hands over the top of the handle) when I am getting pulled out of the water and then again at my pull out at the end of my pass. I have also began using the arm bands on both my forearms which I am told helps preventatively, but not much after the inflamation begins. Other than that, I have to deal with it and it is really tough to make disappear once it starts. Last season was my best in several years due to implementing the above measures however.

[kfennell]

My problems were more in my forearms then my elbow, but changing handle to the biggest one I could get (handle diamater and width) Helped quite a bit.

[BobF]

Yep. I've had it for a couple of years. I skied most of last year with a tennis elbow strap similar to this one:link Seems to help a lot.

 

Also, start with both palms down - this will also help. I'm betting it's in your "up" arm, usually left elbow for rff skiers.

[9400]

I've had it bad a few times, the cleaner I ski, the less it affects me. I also went to getting up with both palms down. For me, eliminate the "hits" and the elbow feels pretty good, if I'm doing splash turns and not controlling the rope, the elbow feels like sheet.

[A_B]

This sidelined me for a year and a half after screwing mine up while playing football with the kids. Knifing pain just coming out of the water (with hands on top).

 

ASTYM therapy helped a lot http://www.astym.com/default.asp. There is also a stretch you and everyone else should be doing daily if you have problems. Stand in front of a table and reverse your hand so your fingers grab the edge and then put your palm down on the table. Lean over your straightened arm so you get a good stretch, not painful stretch.

 

Massaging the area along the inner arm up into bicep also helps blood flow. Light curls with high reps also help, and you will know if it is too much weight, as it will hurt. You want blood flow to help healing. Tieing a 10 or 20 pound weight on an 1" dowel and winding it up and down also helps, again, as light as you need so it doesn't hurt.

 

There is also a rubber tube Theraband Flextube product I bought and you twist it and I am not sure this helped a whole lot. It is kind of funky to use.

 

I also went to PT and was getting anti-imflamatory patch injections. With deep tissue massage.

 

Put it all together, and I finally got back on the water toward the middle of last summer and was able to ski at a moderate level without pain.

 

Cortizone lasted a few days for me. Not a solution.

[ski4xtc]

I had a severe case several years ago. Lasted over a year. IBU helped to calm it down and I also went to a radius bent handle with the anti-roll. I do not know if the anti-roll had anything to do with the recovery but I do believe the bent handle did. I also try to never take a hit out of the buoy. Has not come back since.

[scuppers]

Unbelieveable as it may seem - doing arm curls and extensions on a machine, with perfect form and very percise and deliberate movements cured me. I had it in both elbows.

[Texas6]

@scuppers, good point actually. Lots of pull ups in my workout routine during the offseason seem to have helped mine a bit as well.

[Chef23]

What @AB said plus strengthening that @scuppers discussed. Don't bump weight up quickly just do low weight and high reps. I have struggled with this for a long time and seem to be healthy finally.

[ForrestGump]

I got rid of my elbow issues when I switched from an Elite to a Goode Mid. I hate it that MS was right.

[Wish]

I'll add something the Italian national record holder told me ( no name.. Don't want the "name dropper" butten clicked). Anyway, he used a rope needle and placed a piece of rubber tubing ( small thicker walled) into the hollow of the bridal where it would fit. As the line tightns it compressses the tubing inside the rope and acts a a shock obsorber. He only uses this handle in practice I believe as it would make the handle to short. I tried it. And it worked for me along with clincher type gloves and a bent/radious handle. Like all suggestion above.

[davemac]

one strange thing I found is that rest and/or "doing nothing" does not make it go away. I had it bad from golfing a few years back. Season ends in Oct up here. By March it was still as bad as ever. Eventually ended up in PT to get rid of it.

[londonskier]

Get a bent handle. That alone has cured the problem for four skiers at my club including me. Give it at least four sets.

[skihart]

A bent handle really helped me as well......

[PBD]

Here is an exercise that seems to have cured me of the problem you describe:

 

Hold your hand out straight with the palm out and the fingers up, like a cop stopping traffic. With the other hand pull your fingers back toward your body, then point your fingers towards the floor and pull back on the fingers again. Repeat with other hand.

[RichardDoane]

@PBD -good stretching tip, it's little things like that comment that make the BOS such a useful tool

[Dusty]

Like scuppers said- the curls with perfect form/lower weights can 'rehab' them. (Too much weight and bad form can(did) cause the problem.) During my rehabbing I did only hammer curls until the muscles were strong enough to ensure control and proper form.

[Nater]

Have to agree with MS. Suffered for years with this until I figured out that my ski set up was the cause of this for me.

[Ham_Wallace]

Radius handle, fixed mine. (along with cold beer and advil)

[lpskier]

I have tried and implemented just about all of the above, plus new rope twice a season to avoid overly stiff mainlines. Still have golfer's elbow pretty bad. Cortisone works for me, so I will probably get a shot as I get closer to June, but what I am thinking about right now is Platelet Rich Plasma Therapy. Has anyone tried it? @Brent, what does your wife think? @Nater: What did you change in your ski set up that helped?

[The_MS]

Squeeze a hand ball. 20 reps holding each for 5 seconds.

[The_MS]

Do not hang on to slack.

[Nater]

Look into Prolo-Therapy injections. Cortisone worked temporary for me as well but Prolo seemed to help in healing it.

[Nater]

@lpskier, I seem to feel my elbow flare up when I have to much tip in my ski set up resulting in slack line at the finish of the turn causing the hits.

[A_B]

A friends wife had PRP in shoulder and she is very good now. She was Ina lot of pain initially and I doubt you will be skiing for several weeks. I checked into it as a last resort, and it was going to be over winter for me. Luckily, the above regimen I listed got me turned around. I have been using a radius ARS for years, more for tennis elbow. My golfers was initiated in football, but skiimg really inflamed it.

[teammalibu]

MS I dont know any hard core bouy chasers that hold on to slack. Do you?

[Horton]

I take drugs

[Azzure]

Get yourself a chiropractor with an orthopedic speciality. They work wonders. Sounds like "voo doo" but they can manipulate bones and are amazing. Good luck. I see mine on a regular basis for stuff.

[skiinxs]

I highly recommend PRP (Platelet Rich Plasma) therapy. I have had eight treatments in various locations and all but two have been successful. The two that didn't work were in my right shoulder, followed by surgery. After the surgery, from the work that had to be done, I know there is no way anything would have helped but getting it fixed. In August of 2010 both elbows were so sore during and after skiing it made it pretty hard to think about skiing again. The left elbow had a huge bone spur that was cutting through the tricep, so I decided that it needed surgery. The right elbow actually hurt worse and I decided to do PRP on that one. I started off with a PRP injection in the bottom of the elbow, where most of the pain was. In two to three weeks it was 75% better. At that time, with the reduced pail level in the bottom, the top was then hurting the worst. I then had a PRP injection in the top. In another two to three weeks, the top was 95% better and the bottom was around 80% improved. I decided to have a second injection in the bottom (three total injections in the elbow overall). After another three weeks both the top and bottom felt like they have improved 95%, I skied all last summer after the treatments (from September 2010 to November 2010) with no new flare ups. (The surgery on my left elbow was Jan 2011). I skied today, and as I write this there is very, very, minor tenderness in my right elbow, and a little more tenderness in the left (surgery) elbow. My guess is that in a few years, PRP will be tried before most orthopedic surgeries. I see absolutely no downside to it. Very little pain having the injections in elbows, a little more in shoulders, pretty unpleasant in ankles, and hurts like H*LL in a heel, but worked extremely well in all cases except my shoulder. (The shoulder took a two row rotater cuff repair with two anchors, a slap repair, three more pages of surgeons notes including grinding the inside of the bursa to make space). Hmmmm ..... maybe I'm getting too old for this sport!

Dave

[The_MS]

@teammalibu

I never hold on to slack.

[eleeski]

This thread made my elbow start hurting again. And I haven't started skiing yet!

Eric

[Mazda]

I had a PRP injection 3 months ago and it doesn't seem to have a great effect. In any case, Thank you all for the very helpfull comments.

[lpskier]

@skiinxs Were you required to lay off the elbow after the injections? In other words, if I had an injection now, would I have to take time off while the elbow healed? Second question: Any problems with your insurance company? Thanks!

[A_B]

@eleeski, you could go blind too, so better slow down... LOL couldn't resist.

[6balls]

Quit golfing.

[skiinxs]

The doc recommends that I take it easy for a couple weeks after the PRP. No problem with insurance at all, mine simply doesn't cover it. Some do though.

Dave

[Mazda]

Any recccomedations as to the best bent/radius handle out there?

[eleeski]

AB, I already need glasses!

Eric

[Texas6]

MasterLine has a radius with a very slight bend, and it's worked great for me

[A_B]

When I checked with my insurance last year, they were balking on covering PRP. I went with ASTYM, and that was.

At the time, there wasn't much published on golfers elbow and PRP, so that along with insurance made me postpone it.

So far so good this year, although, I can feel both elbows a little. I tweaked the left elbow hitting a non-visable tree root playing golf last summer. My right elbow had been the original problem. Now I have both less than 100%. Sucks to get old.