Judith Proctor's Journal

I think I'm starting to defeat the tennis elbow, so I'm going to record here what's working, so that I'll be able to look back to it in the future if I get a recurrence.  We're not totally there yet, but there's a significant reduction in pain levels since two weeks ago.  I'm now starting to try and rebuild the muscles that have vanished in the two months I've been unable to use my arm.  The trick is to do that without setting off a fresh bout of tennis elbow...

1.  Do stretches.  In particular the one given me by the physio which basically involves crossing wrists, bending my hands forward, interlacing fingers  and then twisting the hand  of the sore arm round in an outside direction as far as it will go.  Hold for 30 seconds.  Do three sets three times a day.

2.  Do no lifting or twisting motions with bad arm.  Also avoid actions that need you to hold onto something with a strong grip.  Especially avoid opening jam jars, turning door knobs, knitting, washing dishes, concertina playing, weeding and sewing. Minimise computer use.

3.  Find the sore tendons joining the elbow.  Massage them several times a day.  Find the muscles attached to them and massage those too.  They will be sore before you massage them and easy to find with probing fingers.  Follow the sore muscles all the way to wrist/shoulder and massage every bit that is sore.

4.  Do all arm exercises that do not trigger elbow pain (so as not to let the rest of the muscles atrophy)

5.  Once elbow pain subsides, start (with no/minimal weight) doing the arm exercises that trigger the elbow pain.  Especially the one using the wrists to raise and lower weights with the palms down and the elbows at right angles.  Very gradually increase weight over time. Do three sets three times a day. If muscles ache continue.  If elbow pain recurs, immediately reduce weight to a level that does not hurt.  Carry on doing this for three weeks after elbow pain is gone.  Go swimming, but stop if elbow pain (as opposed to muscle ache) starts.