Kettlebell Carpal Tunnel Golf and Tennis Elbow Mega Thread

[aussieluke]

ah got you, yes i tried that with a rubber mallet. Didn't feel very good for me either.

I bought some hard tennis balls - they were actually dog toys so probably pretty terrible for tennis. They are much harder.

I also have a hard rubber cricket practice ball. Don't think you get lacrosse balls here in Aus easily, I have tried before. But this is about the same and have used that for various things too.


FWIW, the initial cause of my ME was from holding my baby daughter for hours on end night after night, with my arm/wrist in a very bad position. I didn't realise it until my kettlebell workouts started causing me pain, so I stopped doing the lifts that bothered it but carried on holding my daughter the same way. By the time I put two and two together, it was too late.

 

[beephsupreme]

@aussieluke I certainly can relate to the baby situation. When I was xxfat it wasn't so bad - just prop them up on my belly. Now I'm only xfat so that doesn't work anymore.

 

[Harald Motz]

Years ago I worked in a smithy, forging steel all day and night. Because of the grip intense work, I developed the tennis elbow.
What eventually helped to cure it, was stretching, meaning pulling gently with one hand on the fingertips of the other hand, so that I feel the stretch in the forarm. I felt the stretch in the forarm, and the pain around the elbow was soon obsolete.

 

[Keep Lifting]

ah got you, yes i tried that with a rubber mallet. Didn't feel very good for me either.

I bought some hard tennis balls - they were actually dog toys so probably pretty terrible for tennis. They are much harder.

I also have a hard rubber cricket practice ball. Don't think you get lacrosse balls here in Aus easily, I have tried before.

lacrosse is alive and well in Australia - has been since the mid80s The Home of Australian Lacrosse - Australian Lacrosse Association

 

[ramblingjon]

aussieLuke, firstly i am not a doctor and this is only based on my personal experience. As mentioned by Harald i would say that stretching is the way to go. While i never worked as a smithy and havent had carpal tunnel or tennis elbow, i was suffering from golfers elbow from pull ups and the rest (dont play golf), and i am sure it wasnt helped by holding up my kids as well!
Anyway, i tried rolling, i tried voodoo bands etc for help and they just didn't do the job like stretching does.
I do the flexibility training suggested in an earlier post on this website (sorry i cant find the link), however it gives a comprehensive set of stretches and i selected ones for the arms and shoulders, with the one helping the most being the one Harald suggested (stretching out the forearm).
More recently I have been working in the progression stretches from convict conditioning 2. In chapter 14 he talks about the functional triad and outlines three stretches bridge hold, l-hold/l-sit and twist hold. I am no where near the full stretch, but it has helped immensely. I incorporate it into my warm up and cool down, he only suggests holding each for 20 secs and i have seen massive improvement. I am currently week 12 of ROP with pull ups and have seen a large improvement with the pain i had. Additionally i am seeing the improvements in my flexibility as i progress.
cheers

 

[aussieluke]

Trouble is there is a difference between tendonitis, and tendinosis.

Tendonitis is an inflammation issue that will go away with rest, ice, stretching etc

If tendonitis goes on untreated it can become tendinosis which is no longer inflammation but degenerated tissue which needs more than that.

 

[Benedictine Monk]

Except for Voodoo bands I'm just about doing everything recommended. And I'm up to 25 lbs.
on the Tyler Twist with Theraband Flexbars. Still, I'm having some issues.

So, I decided to pick up a Logitech trackball and noticed an immediate improvement in my elbow.
So that got me curious. So, I let me trackball do the walking and came up with the missing ingredient:

The Ironmind Titan Telegraph Key for pinch gripping. Coincidentally, musicians and those suffering from
tennis elbow both reported improvements. I am really looking forward to buying this.

Don't get me wrong, the IronMind bands for working hand extensors are wonderful but I could tell there
was still something missing. Engineers and designers who work on computers all day recommended
ditching the conventional mouse and going with a trackball. What's the difference?

Your thumb is now active in a trackball device. So that was the clue that its defective pinch grip that's causing
the problem.

Let me know if anyone else has any thoughts on this.

 

[aussieluke]

Update from me: after having no luck with the partial rep wrist curls and extensions the physio gave me, I decided to try the dumbbell eccentrics again - they didn't work the first time round but I thought I'd try again after having a lot of the tension released from my forearm.

3 sets of 15 most days with a 2kg for a couple of weeks then I moved up to the 3kg as things were improving. Have been doing this a couple of weeks now and had BIG improvements!

Started testing with a 16kg kettlebell and found I could do jerks no problem. So added about 10 sets of 10 jerks to my training which was great to get some weight overhead again - even if it was only a little bit.

Soon found I could press a 16 with no pain too which was a huge step. Managed to press 3 X 10/10 with no trouble followed by a load of one arm jerks. The only thing that seemed to bother my elbow was swings.

This week after no problems at all pressing a 16 I tested a 24 which thankfully flew up and again no pain! Kept the reps low but great to get some real weight overhead again. Be a while before I test the 32 though.


In addition to all this, I picked up a cheap version of a stick / tiger tail massager. First time I used that on the inside of my wrist/forearm was like magic. Was a lot of tender spots in there and flexing and extending the wrist while doing it revealed more. Have been using this at least once daily for a good hard 5-10 minutes and think it has been a massive part of my improvements.

I'm definitely not cured yet, but improved enough to be able to lift a bell overhead again is awesome. Pain is still there if I really look for it - if I press my palm into my chest hard it causes pain in the tendon attachment at the elbow.

On a side note I have been running about 11 weeks now and started really slow on a run/walk program and can now run 30-35 minutes non stop 3 or 4 times a week and at 35 I have not felt this good in a LONG time!