New York Times: "A Fix for Your Tennis Elbow"

[TenFanLA]

http://www.nytimes.com/video/2012/09...nis-elbow.html

I don't know if some of you guys caught this article but since many people here suffer from TE from using polys, stiff rackets, improper form, I thought I'd post it here. I tried it with a foam floaty and it seems to help. Anybody know where I can get the rubber stick used in the video?

[Torres]

Isn't that just a Flexbar? If so, they're available everywhere. Try Amazon or any specialised fitness shop.

[Ramon]

It's the Thera-Band flexbar. I have the green one.

[Bengt]

I have both the blue and green. I recommend the blue unless you're very weak due to the pain. Btw, it works. I use it everyday as a preventative measure now.

[KenC]

My wife got bad TE a couple of years ago and I bought her both the green and red bars. At first she had noticeable pain doing the red one but after awhile she moved onto the green one and in about 3 months she was pain free. It seemed to work for her. Considering how bad she had it I was impressed at how fast she healed.

[lcalamar]

I have the green bar and it has made all the difference. I still use it regularly.

I have also used it for shoulder issues - look at some of the videos out there - but shaking it back and forth while holding it upright, while moving your arm back and forth and down to up at a diagonal - is the best therapy for shoulder issues I've found also.

[usta2050]

the bars are good but if you really want to get rid of tennis elbows, you need to rest, use soft strings like natural gut, and play with a Prokennex Kinetic racket.

[Chotobaka]

There are numerous exercises for the thumb, hand and wrist that go beyond the standard twisting that most people associate with the Flex Bar. I got turned on to it through a Sports Med facility and found it to be an effective PT tool.

[TimeToPlaySets]

$15
http://tinyurl.com/99hnhew

[TimeToPlaySets]

Originally Posted by usta2050

the bars are good but if you really want to get rid of tennis elbows, you need to rest, use soft strings like natural gut, and play with a Prokennex Kinetic racket.

Why are Prokennex Kinetic better? I saw the 7.0 has a stiffness of 68. Seems high. What older models are also good? I might pick up a used one on Zbay, if it's older and cheaper.

[Torres]

Originally Posted by Bengt

I recommend the blue unless you're very weak due to the pain.

Why would anyone need to be working with 25lbs of twisting resistance for a 0.7lb tennis racquet?

[wrxinsc]

Originally Posted by Torres

Why would anyone need to be working with 25lbs of twisting resistance for a 0.7lb tennis racquet?

the therapeutic value of this exercise / stretch has nothing to do with the relative weight of a tennis racquet.

[usta2050]

Originally Posted by TimeToPlaySets

Why are Prokennex Kinetic better? I saw the 7.0 has a stiffness of 68. Seems high. What older models are also good? I might pick up a used one on Zbay, if it's older and cheaper.

to me, they are all pretty arm friendly. but they come in different sizes so pick the size u like. i've used the oldest ones to the newest models. they are all arm friendly.

[zapvor]

pro kennex is like yonex. great frames but noone knows about it

[KenC]

Originally Posted by TimeToPlaySets

Why are Prokennex Kinetic better? I saw the 7.0 has a stiffness of 68. Seems high. What older models are also good? I might pick up a used one on Zbay, if it's older and cheaper.

I demo'ed a KI5 315 for a bit and finally bought two yesterday. They are not as stiff as they seem on paper. I feel them flex when pounding the ball. However, even if they are more stiff than people expect from a racquet for TE, the way they are constructed yields a really soft playing racquet that is excellent at removing vibrations and softening the impact on off-center hits. I think a lot of damage is done to tendons when shanking the ball and even the most flexible racquets can still send quite the shock to the elbow. What I found with the Ki5 is this shock is really well reduced.

[Torres]

Originally Posted by wrxinsc

the therapeutic value of this exercise / stretch has nothing to do with the relative weight of a tennis racquet.

The point which I'm making is that with racquet as light as 0.7lbs why does that poster insist that you need to be strengthening using a 25lb loading force? It doesn't make sense.

[mikeler]

Originally Posted by TimeToPlaySets

Why are Prokennex Kinetic better? I saw the 7.0 has a stiffness of 68. Seems high. What older models are also good? I might pick up a used one on Zbay, if it's older and cheaper.

The kinetic system is an arm saver. If you want a racket that plays stiff but feels soft, Pro Kennex is the answer.

[Bengt]

Originally Posted by Torres

The point which I'm making is that with racquet as light as 0.7lbs why does that poster insist that you need to be strengthening using a 25lb loading force? It doesn't make sense.

For the same reason baseball players train with more than 36 oz. I had to twist the green one at least 50 times a set to feel it working. It got tedious. I think the blue one would have worked better for me from the start. I had a mild/med case of TE - pain on serve and ohbh. Btw, I "recommended"; not "insisted" fwiw. Buy all 3. They're cheap.

[Karstic]

I bought one of the green ones by TheraFlex last fall, and believe it has been of great benefit. I picked up a red one, though of different manufacture, to loan out to a girl with wrist pains who asked about wrist strengthening execise. She claims it is helping her.

[Karstic]

By the way, I learned of these from a thread in the Health & Fitness forum here.