help!is this tennis elbow?

tennismate29

tennismate29

New User
It's been nearly two weeks now and i am still experiencing this pain. i don't know if its tennis elbow because my elbow does not hurt, it's more of like the muscle but im not sure. My grip has also weakened.

Here is where it hurts
3a5df1de


Im trying to press it but the sharp pain does not reach the elbow. Where exactly is the pain in tennis elbow?:confused:
 
Google: pictures tennis elbow
https://www.google.com/search?q=pic...UKofkoAT8loGABg&ved=0CCcQsAQ&biw=1003&bih=644

You have an unknown injury. Use the internet to inform yourself but not for diagnosis or treatment.

There are many elbow injuries including nerve injuries or pinches that can cause pain at other locations like the elbow. See a well-qualified Dr for a diagnosis.

Stop stressing it immediately. Don't stress an unknown injury and especially don't stress any tendon tear such as Tennis Elbow. Defective healing can result, tendinosis. Think about the small torn area of the tendon trying to heal while it is subject to the same extreme forces that damaged it in the first place.

Tendinitis (with inflammation) vs tendinosis (defectively healed tendon).
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1122566/

If you want to increase your chances of developing chronic (permanent) Tennis Elbow continue playing on it for a short time.
 
Last edited:
The location of you pain does not appear to indicate TE at all. The location of pain for TE is somewhat South of the location that you have indicated in your pic. I assume that your pic is the outside (lateral side) of your left arm, correct? Compare it to the location shown in the image below.

forearm-extensor-muscles.jpg


Note that the pain for TE would not be felt directly on the bony part of the elbow itself. It is actually felt at the tendons from the forearm (extensor) muscles that attach to part of the elbow-joint. TE is usually associated with the tendon that attaches the extensor carpi radialis brevis muscle to the (humerus) bone at the elbow. Your pain looks like it could be associated with one of the other muscles/tendons of the forearm. Or, as Chas indicates, it could be something else.

Sorry that I do not know enough about anatomy to give you a definitive answer on this other than to say that it is probably not TE. One thing that just occurred to me is that you pain might be associated with a radial or ulnar deviation of the wrist/hand. Refer to the following image. Try the movements shown while pressing the site of painm with the fingers of your opposite hand. This should help you determine if these actions are causing your pain.

r409.jpg
 
Hi OP

Like Chas says, don't use the internet to self diagnose or self treat. See a doctor or a physio who specialises in sports injuries.

For what it is worth a three years ago I developed pain in pretty much the same spot as you indicate. I'm a lefty, I assume you are too. Like the dunderheaded nincompoop that I am, I thought I would just keep playing through the pain. Bad idea. Seriously. Bad. Idea. Things got worse and worse until it got to the point that I could no longer lift a mug of coffee with my left hand. In the end I saw a physio who immediately diagnosed a grade 2 muscle tear in my elbow extensors. I had to take four months off tennis, spend hundreds of dollars on physiotherapy, and had my arm in a sling for three weeks. Not fun, and completely my fault for trying to ignore the problem.

You may or may not have the same problem I had but I strongly suggest that you see a medical professional and in the meantime don't play any more tennis. It may be nothing serious (I sincerely hope it isn't) but better safe than sorry.

EDIT: If you can, find a Dr or Physio who knows about treating athletes. Often physios spend a lot of their time working with old people and tend to want to stop you doing anything, ever! Sports specialists have a different mindset, in that they want you to heal as soon as possible so that you can get back to doing your sport.
 
Last edited:
^ Similar location? Was it related to radial or ulnar deviation as I speculated? That location on the forearm appears to be be very active for those movements. It certainly is useful to know what specific tennis actions might be causing the problem. But, yes, seeking the advice of a qualified expert is the way to go for treatment on this.

However, knowing the actions responsible can be an important clue for prevention.
.
 
Every beginner windsurfer suffers from muscle/tendon/ligament pain on the inside of the elbow, from gripping too hard and holding on too long without easing the load by using a harness.
You need to list the other activity you normally do, and what special activity, like digging or lifting, you did 3 weeks ago.
Could be an overuse injury, one taking time to heal.
Could be anything else, so see a doc.
 
SystemicAnomaly said:
^ Similar location? Was it related to radial or ulnar deviation as I speculated? That location on the forearm appears to be be very active for those movements. It certainly is useful to know what specific tennis actions might be causing the problem. But, yes, seeking the advice of a qualified expert is the way to go for treatment on this.

However, knowing the actions responsible can be an important clue for prevention.
.
Click to expand...

I can't be 100% sure exactly what caused it but in essence it was a combination of poor technique and inappropriate equipment.

Poor technique: I got the injury 1 year after taking up tennis at the age of 46. Basically, I thought I was better at tennis then I actually was! I think the problem came about because I was trying to over-do my groundstrokes. Specifically I got it into my head that I could generate topspin on my FH by violently flexing my elbow on contact. Bad Idea. Also my OHBH was all wrong: I thought I could somehow get more power by extending my elbow at contact rather than swinging through with a straight arm. Another bad idea.

Wrong equipment: At the time of the injury I was using a rather stiff racquet (RA 67) strung at 65. This was not in itself a cause of the injury, but coupled with poor technique it certainly didn't help.

Anyways, that was all 3 years ago. In hindsight the injury was probably the best thing that could happen to me, tennis wise. When I finally started playing again I was forced to re-learn my technique, and the key fundamental I implemented was to keep my arm the same shape throughout the swing and let all the power come from legs, hips and torso. I also got myself a new racquet, a Dunlop Bio 200 (RA 57) which these days I string with full bed poly at 32lbs. The upshot is that I have never had even the slightest twinge in my arm since the injury so all's well that ends well.
 
Guys, I went to the ortho doctor and told me it was nothing like any tendonitis. He told me that I just got muscle strain from muscle overuse and that it's normal for the pain to be there for 2-3 weeks. I am glad it's not tennis elbow. I can't stay away from tennis for months.It will be very sad. Anyway, he just gave me 2 medicines, Myonal for relaxation of tight muscles and Mecobalamin for the restoration of possible injured nerves. Hope I'll get better and i'll probably cut off some hours and reduce the intensity of my game until im fit enough. Thank you for the tennis gurus who gave me replies :)
 
tennismate29 said:
Guys, I went to the ortho doctor and told me it was nothing like any tendonitis. He told me that I just got muscle strain from muscle overuse and that it's normal for the pain to be there for 2-3 weeks. I am glad it's not tennis elbow. I can't stay away from tennis for months.It will be very sad. Anyway, he just gave me 2 medicines, Myonal for relaxation of tight muscles and Mecobalamin for the restoration of possible injured nerves. Hope I'll get better and i'll probably cut off some hours and reduce the intensity of my game until im fit enough. Thank you for the tennis gurus who gave me replies :)
Click to expand...

Good for you for going to see a doctor. Muscle strain is better than tendonitis in that it is a short term thing which you can recover from.

But be careful about continuing to play right now. See my own experience which I recounted upthread (post #6). I too decided to ignore a relatively minor muscle strain and continued playing and because of this I ended up with a grade 2 muscle tear which meant I had to take 4 months off. And not only could I not play tennis, also for about a month I couldn't drive a car (not possible to change gear or lift the handbrake!), I couldn't lift a briefcase, I could only type one handed. So not playing tennis was the least of my problems.

With hindsight it would have been better if I had just rested it for a couple of weeks before it turned into a major problem, and then taken a few lessons afterwards to address the flaws in my technique which caused the problem in the first place.

So you might want to consider sacrificing a week or 2 of play to allow your muscle strain to heal properly. Ultimately it is your call, of course.

Incidentally, how old are you? The younger you are the quicker you recover.
 
I experienced two muscle strains with tennis elbow. A nice mix there.

Don't take the "strains" lightly; I think they're misnamed: they should be called something more fearsome. This kind of stuff is EASY< EASY<EASY to pull again, and again, and again.

So rest up. Play chess for a while.
 
@ tennismate

EXACTLY at this location i had pain because of too much tennis - when i was a kid.

No machine of my doc would help. So she injected there something she called "Normally only for very old people!".

After the injections (only in one session) i had to rest for anhour in her rooms while i was connected to an EKG.

I had never pain again.

KR
 
tennismate29 said:
... He told me that I just got muscle strain from muscle overuse and that it's normal for the pain to be there for 2-3 weeks... Anyway, he just gave me 2 medicines, Myonal for relaxation of tight muscles and Mecobalamin for the restoration of possible injured nerves...
Click to expand...

'tis great that you learned that you sustained an overuse injury. However, did you figure out what specific actions or reasons for the strain/injury? Is it related to the radial/ulnar deviation that I suggested? It could be, in part, due to some of your stroke mechanics. If you do not rectify the root causes for your overuse injury, you may very well see the problem again in the future.

Sir Shankalot provided some great feedback in post #9. Technique and equipment can both be contributing factors. If you are currently using poly strings, you might want to get rid of them and opt for a softer, kinder string. Or you could do as SS has done and string with poly at an ultra-low tension (below 40 or 45 lbs). Your frame may also be a contributing factor if it is delivering too much frame shock to your arm.

BTW, did your doc indicate if Mecobalamin is superior to other forms of vitamin b12?

Sir Shankalot said:
...
Wrong equipment: At the time of the injury I was using a rather stiff racquet (RA 67) strung at 65. This was not in itself a cause of the injury, but coupled with poor technique it certainly didn't help.

Anyways, that was all 3 years ago. In hindsight the injury was probably the best thing that could happen to me, tennis wise. When I finally started playing again I was forced to re-learn my technique, and the key fundamental I implemented was to keep my arm the same shape throughout the swing and let all the power come from legs, hips and torso. I also got myself a new racquet, a Dunlop Bio 200 (RA 57) ...
Click to expand...

Great feedback overall in post #9. However, stiffness ratings (RA numbers) are not really the best metric for determining how friendly a given frame may be to your elbow, shoulder or wrist. Stiffness ratings be one factor in how much shock a frame might generate but it really does not tell you how much shock is actually delivered to the arm (shoulder, elbow, etc). Other factors can contribute to frame shock experienced by the arm. The weight or weigh distribution may be a factor.

Many rackets will often provide some isolation of countermeasure in the throat or the handle that will minimize how much shock is delivered to the arm. Cortex (in Babolat rackets) is one system that has not done a very good job of this in the past. Don't know if the current Cortex version does a better job of this.

OTOH, the dual-dampening system used in the Volkl V1 Classic is one of the best. Note that the V1 Classic has a very high RA (stiffness) rating of 69 (according to TW and other sources) and yet is, possibly, the most arm-friendly frame on the market. In contrast, a number of TW users have indicated that some frames with low RA/stiffness ratings (below 57) have not been arm-friendly at all. I tend to ignore stiffness/flex ratings because of these apparent anomalies.

http://www.volkltennis.com/racquets/classic-v1/
.
 
Last edited:
I must agree to Völkl´s dampening system.

Very effective. I had C9 rackets after my arm injury and they were great and good for the arm indeed.

Their stiffer rackets are playing much more safer for the arm than stiffer rackets by other companies - because of this unique dampening system.

KR
 
^ Not tried the Volkl C9 rackets but it seems to me that the older dampening sytems that Volkl used in these and the V1 Classic are a bit better than that used in the newer Organix series.

Noticed that you have the Prince ExO3 (Tour) 100 listed in your signoff. These are also regarded as very arm-friendly rackets (altho' I prefer the more open 16x18 pattern). I've also found that Prince O3 Hybrid Shark (MP) is also very kind to my shoulder and elbow. Other arm-friendly rackets are availble from ProKennex (Kinetic and Ionic series).

http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/showthread.php?p=6790799#post6790799
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

YonexDude
strange elbow pain. what is it?
Replies
4
Views
1K
nasastevo
N
D
elbow pain
Replies
13
Views
2K
Enkitec
Enkitec
HunterST
Do I have tennis elbow?
Replies
5
Views
1K
HunterST
HunterST
beltsman
Elbow pain...from being a dad
Replies
21
Views
3K
cha cha
cha cha
R
Is this tennis elbow?
Replies
3
Views
2K
RonnieCorny
R
Back
Top