Coming back from Golfer's elbow

[Finster]

I've had Golfer's elbow for a couple months now. Began in November, took 5 weeks off, started playing again for a month and began feeling pain again, now on my second break. I've been doing rehab exercises, using heat therapy, etc. I am pain free with activities of daily living and my exercises. How do I know when its time to get back out on the courts again?

 

[S&V-not_dead_yet]

I've had Golfer's elbow for a couple months now. Began in November, took 5 weeks off, started playing again for a month and began feeling pain again, now on my second break. I've been doing rehab exercises, using heat therapy, etc. I am pain free with activities of daily living and my exercises. How do I know when its time to get back out on the courts again?

Can you shadow swing without pain? I'm rehabbing also and I find that the FH hurts more than the BH [which would probably be TE].

The lag especially is more stressful.

If that's OK, then try doing drop feeds from the SL and an easy swing.

See how you feel the next day: Still OK? Maybe then try from the BL.

Anyways, you get the idea: try to ease back in incrementally rather than going from 0 to 100 in one shot.

 

[Finster]

Yes, shadowing with no pain. All strokes. Maybe I'll try some drop feeds next week then. Thanks!

 

[PKorda]

Get a theraband and do strengthening exercises if you're not doing that already.

 

[graycrait]

@Finster , How did you get your case of golfer's elbow?

Mostly curious as I developed my case of TE last summer from a combination of helping to refinish 4 courts at the local uni and on top of that thinking at 67 I could once again reap some benefits from swinging APDs and PDs strung with poly. The real start was mixing hundreds of pounds of sand in acrylic and using a two hand drill with a long mixing paddle to keep the sand suspended then dipping and pouring into buckets out of 55 gal drums, over and over and over. Prior to that spent a week with a 4500psi pressure washer with industrial steel circular head cleaning those courts off, all in approx. 97 degrees and humid. Got rid of the Babs, the poly and no more tennis court refinishing and took 3 months off from tennis. Everything is fine now.

 

[Finster]

I'm trying to change my FH grip from eastern to halfway to SW. Trying to change my swing path to accommodate. Misshitting/mistiming the ball, probably hitting too many balls late. Already using a flexible racquet with Multi strings and with elbow counter force brace. Got GE anyway. DIY rebabbing with flex bar theraband (reverse Tyler twist), stretching, red light therapy and deep tissue massage.

 

[bionicB]

I've had Golfer's elbow for a couple months now. Began in November, took 5 weeks off, started playing again for a month and began feeling pain again, now on my second break. I've been doing rehab exercises, using heat therapy, etc. I am pain free with activities of daily living and my exercises. How do I know when its time to get back out on the courts again?

Curious if you could share what PT exercises you're doing for your GE. I do my reverse Tyler Twists several times a day. Also do some stretches involving pulling my hand back, etc. Also do some arm strengthening exercises with a band with the idea of strengthening other muscles so as to rely less on the forearm. Haven't made a ton of improvement yet but I haven't take a solid break like you did.

 

[NE1for10is?]

You'll be ready to come back when you put gut or synthetic in your racket instead of poly.

 

[delosalpes]

I've been suffering from GE as well. Seeing a Dr in a couple of weeks (soonest I could get). I know...it's my technique...but in the meantime any suggestions. I ordered one of those flex bar things. Maybe a compression sleeve? Should I decrease stating and SW of my racquet for now to low 330s static 315ish SW?

 

[PKorda]

I've been suffering from GE as well. Seeing a Dr in a couple of weeks (soonest I could get). I know...it's my technique...but in the meantime any suggestions. I ordered one of those flex bar things. Maybe a compression sleeve? Should I decrease stating and SW of my racquet for now to low 330s static 315ish SW?

Use the flex bar, take some time off, SW not as important as stiffness, use a non-poly string if not already (at least until you're well past recovery), can also lower tension some

 

[Flair328]

I switched to a new frame and to hybrid set up when I got GE out of the blue one summer, resting for a couple of months didn't cure it, been pain free since without re occurrence.

 

[bertrevert]

Accupuncture, give it a try with electrodes attached from tensing machine.

What I get is deep tissue massage (30 mins) by expert using elbow/forearm forcefully applied to massage the sore area, followed by accupuncture + tensing mchn (30 mins).

While this is all v painful, and not a lot of fun, it mashes up the area in order for blood to flow and for it to ultimately heal stronger... yes doing GE atm...

 

[bigR]

Work on your posture and breathing. The better your posture the more the energy can transfer through your shoulder, elbow, then wrist and the less you need to grip and rip. And get a massage after you have made sure your rotator cuff and posture are improving. Otherwise try to play how you can pain free and take a day off. Slowly work yourself back as it is an overuse injury.

This video talks about tennis elbow but they overlap in a lot of ways.

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