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Years of lifting heavy weights, throwing/hitting sports and of course typing on a keyboard have rendered my left elbow a hot mess. Burning/numbing pain in my inner elbow whenever I lift anything heavier than 5lbs now. I try and tough it out at the gym but it gets progressively worse each day.
I've had a few cortisone shots that temporarily helped the pain; however, the underlying issue of a likely torn tendon remains and I have read up on cortisone and know the risks involved, would like to forego those going forward. Ice barely helps any more and from everything I've read it may actually slow the healing process.
My doc recommended PRP therapy, wondering if anyone here has gone through it and had success? At this point I'm simply waiting for my softball season to end in another month so that I can begin this process, which is going to mean at least 6 to 8 weeks of no weightlifting (ugh, shoot me).
So you KNOW it's torn tendon or you THINK so?
I have same pain. I simply tough it out. I am staying away from doctors unless I am at the gun point.
Use snug sleeve.
And stop that stupidity with ice. All you doing is reducing blood circulation to injured area. I had great success with IceHot type things and capsaicum. Last one is my favorite. Is your body naturally cold or naturally warm? Warm, right? So why would you "treat" it with cold? Red light lamp, UV lamps, galvanic currents. Warmth.
Hey, find a good physiatrist. You may get lucky and actually find a decent one that will care about patients, not profit.
From YEARS of experience, I know that this type of injuries comes from wrong form. I bet bench presses or butterflies did this, if not properly done.
I would try it. The only concern is that you may have to go in for multiple procedures before it fully heals. Unfortunately, this means it could be costly.
I have had success with Prolotherapy in the past, so it does work; however, you still have to work to resolve it. Joint mobility drills and tension and release based stretching seem to help.
The key is not to push yourself too hard anymore. You have to realize that we have limitations, so it's best to train within those limitations, and you'll find that you will be more likely to operate outside of those limitations in the unfortunate event that it happens.
Whatever decision you make, I hope it is the right one and you recover to full health. Good luck and God Bless.
So you KNOW it's torn tendon or you THINK so?
I have same pain. I simply tough it out. I am staying away from doctors unless I am at the gun point.
Use snug sleeve.
And stop that stupidity with ice. All you doing is reducing blood circulation to injured area. I had great success with IceHot type things and capsaicum. Last one is my favorite. Is your body naturally cold or naturally warm? Warm, right? So why would you "treat" it with cold? Red light lamp, UV lamps, galvanic currents. Warmth.
Hey, find a good physiatrist. You may get lucky and actually find a decent one that will care about patients, not profit.
From YEARS of experience, I know that this type of injuries comes from wrong form. I bet bench presses or butterflies did this, if not properly done.
My ortho will let me know for certain; however, it has all the tell-tale signs of tendonitis. He will be a pre and post MRI into the area to determine exactly what is wrong and provide before and after images of the damaged area.
I do use a snug sleeve and while it helps, it simply delays the pain until after I finish working out. I've moved to lower weights, higher reps and that helps but I don't know how long I can keep it up.
Yes, I've read the latest research on ice and how it doesn't help but the pain can get pretty intense and it does alleviate it quite a bit. Hard to pass up because I'm one of those people who *HAS* to stay active, rest is very difficult for me, but after the PRP it will be a requirement for at least 6 weeks.
It could be improper form, hard to really say. But I've been lifting heavy weights for over 20 years and everything has held up well until now so I'm guessing form may not be the real factor.....rather, overuse.
I would try it. The only concern is that you may have to go in for multiple procedures before it fully heals. Unfortunately, this means it could be costly.
I have had success with Prolotherapy in the past, so it does work; however, you still have to work to resolve it. Joint mobility drills and tension and release based stretching seem to help.
The key is not to push yourself too hard anymore. You have to realize that we have limitations, so it's best to train within those limitations, and you'll find that you will be more likely to operate outside of those limitations in the unfortunate event that it happens.
Whatever decision you make, I hope it is the right one and you recover to full health. Good luck and God Bless.
Thanks for your nice post. PRP is only one injection into the area and the cost is pretty minimal ($350, not covered by insurance). The MRIs will likely cost as well but frankly if it fixed my elbow I'd pay 5 times that if I knew it would heal everything.
I have added in a 3rd day of rest into my workout schedules every week and as I mentioned in the post above I've really reduced the weight I lift and go for higher reps/lower weight now. Keeping fingers crossed this all works out.
Well, I am 61, started at 27, you do the math. Heavy lifter.
Every pain I have now I know 100% was a reckless, un-concentrated movement. It takes second and then years to deal with. I busted my R shoulder at29, doing bench presses, and it never went away, I simply work around. Have unique technique to BP.
I busted my L shoulder 2 yrs ago. L elbow just sort of started. Like I said - I live with it. See, thing is, I am an orthotist. I see many with aftereffects of surgeries - when it's unrecoverable damage. That's why I avoid it.
Latest research on ice, huh...
I come from country with thousands of years of medical tradition. From common sense wisdom it stayed into main stream health care. So heat was it. Warming.
I am always for etiological, not symptomatic treatment. As then problem simply keeps coming back, with more treatments (wind into doctors sales).
Hence, from what I can tell, you have tendon-itis, not tendon ruputre. Which is basic inflammation of a tendon attachment, likely to a vibration and friction. So why would you go through a therapy designed to restore RUPTURED tendons?
Hence, from what I can tell, you have tendon-itis, not tendon ruputre. Which is basic inflammation of a tendon attachment, likely to a vibration and friction. So why would you go through a therapy designed to restore RUPTURED tendons?
I think you may be misinformed. A ruptured tendon would require surgery. PRP therapy is simply injecting your own platelets directly into the affected tendon to help promote faster healing/recovery. I've read mixed results about it....some high profile athletes (Tiger, Kobe) have done it and it worked well for them. Just seeing if anyone else out there had direct experience with PRP.
Years of lifting heavy weights, throwing/hitting sports and of course typing on a keyboard have rendered my left elbow a hot mess. Burning/numbing pain in my inner elbow whenever I lift anything heavier than 5lbs now. I try and tough it out at the gym but it gets progressively worse each day.
I've had a few cortisone shots that temporarily helped the pain; however, the underlying issue of a likely torn tendon remains and I have read up on cortisone and know the risks involved, would like to forego those going forward. Ice barely helps any more and from everything I've read it may actually slow the healing process.
My doc recommended PRP therapy, wondering if anyone here has gone through it and had success? At this point I'm simply waiting for my softball season to end in another month so that I can begin this process, which is going to mean at least 6 to 8 weeks of no weightlifting (ugh, shoot me).
A friend did a research thesis about the benefits of ice therapy for injuries. After studying the outcomes for hundreds of athletes, she found that the use of ice packs, or heat packs or doing nothing at all, had the exact same effect as each other.
Thanks for your nice post. PRP is only one injection into the area and the cost is pretty minimal ($350, not covered by insurance). The MRIs will likely cost as well but frankly if it fixed my elbow I'd pay 5 times that if I knew it would heal everything.
I have added in a 3rd day of rest into my workout schedules every week and as I mentioned in the post above I've really reduced the weight I lift and go for higher reps/lower weight now. Keeping fingers crossed this all works out.
Tendonitis is an overuse injury. As long as you are doing repetitive motions that continue to inflame the area, it will not heal. Adding a 3rd rest day and decreasing the resistance is not going to allow it to heal if you are still doing the same motions you were doing to injure it in the first place.
Years of lifting heavy weights, throwing/hitting sports and of course typing on a keyboard have rendered my left elbow a hot mess. Burning/numbing pain in my inner elbow whenever I lift anything heavier than 5lbs now. I try and tough it out at the gym but it gets progressively worse each day.
I've had a few cortisone shots that temporarily helped the pain; however, the underlying issue of a likely torn tendon remains and I have read up on cortisone and know the risks involved, would like to forego those going forward. Ice barely helps any more and from everything I've read it may actually slow the healing process.
My doc recommended PRP therapy, wondering if anyone here has gone through it and had success? At this point I'm simply waiting for my softball season to end in another month so that I can begin this process, which is going to mean at least 6 to 8 weeks of no weightlifting (ugh, shoot me).
I would not do the cortisone injections since they will weaken your tendons in the long run. I would hold off on the PRP as a last resort. The solution is probably something simple. I had similar elbow pain and came across this article in the New York Times. It discussed a small study with a rubber bar that you did exercises with. I bought the thickest of the bars, which cost me less than $25. I would do the exercises while watching YouTube videos to make sure I was doing them correctly. I was amazed that my pain disappeared after doing the exercises for a couple weeks. It works for both inner and outer elbow pain. You simply reverse the way you do the exercise.
I recommenced this to a friend who bought the medium thickness bar and also completely fixed his pain. He has since recommenced it to a friend with similar results.
It appears that the overwhelming majority of people have had positive results based on the reviews.
Both my friend and I seemed to get elbow tendonitis from doing a lot of pull-ups. He was up to about 32 pull-ups when the pain got severe. He bought the green TheraBand FlexBar and it worked for him. I bought the blue one, which is the thickest and a little more expensive.
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