Golfer's Elbow AKA Epicondylitis

[Doctor Turn]

Anyone suffer from this at any times? For me it's suddenly been hitting the inside of my fretting hand arm, right at the inner elbow, making the tendons right in the inner ditch of my elbow where my bicep-ends/forearm-begins very painful.

Golfers elbow is distinct from Tennis elbow, which affects the outer area of the elbow, on the bottom outer bump of the elbow zone. Mine is inner.

I think it has to do with the fact that I've been doing a lot of chording lately, some of which has some stretching. But still, that's not unusual for me. I'm wondering if anyone else around here deals with this?

Typical thread on this form of tendinitis:
https://www.thegearpage.net/board/index ... g.1200512/

[colossal]

I think I have the Golfer's Edition in my right elbow, but it is from being in the gym. Just to the left of the funny bone, and it's hardly funny. It is quite persistent (and annoying). Oh, and painful! Fortunately, it doesn't seem to be affecting my playing.

[Doctor Turn]

On the guitar end, it's so strange that such severe pain can be caused by fretting on a guitar. I must have been fretting with extra poundage against the board, but still. Sometimes just raising a landline phone to my ear at work is murderous.

[kmd09]

I don't have Golfers Elbow but for the last 6-8 months have been experiencing Tennis Elbow symptoms in my right elbow. I'm right handed so if anything, my picking would be affected. Mine is the result of 30+ years of practicing Dentistry. There is a fair amount of wrist rotation and movement and this has led to the symptoms I have. Luckily, I didn't develop Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. It too is very painful but you also lose a lot of grip strength in your fingers. This is not a good thing when removing enamel with a handpiece spinning a diamond burr at 400,000 RPMs. A diamond burr cuts thru enamel like a warm knife thru butter and if that baby gets loose it can quickly ruin your's, and your patient's day! I have found for me that rest seems to keep things at bay and since I'm quickly approaching retirement age I just went ahead and called it a career. It hasn't affected my guitar playing yet and don't know if my amateurish picking skills will aggravate it but we'll see. I don't normally spend countless hours practicing, thus the skill level, but that may change now that I have a lot of free time on my hands- no pun intended. In the article you linked to it looks like several players use deep massage and icing to treat with some good results but those seem to only treat the symptoms and are not a cure. Hope you find a treatment that works for you and keep us posted.

[arahobob]

I've gotten tennis elbow symptoms and some nasty wrist pain from my day job (electrician).
No fun.

The pain was treated by a Chiro/sports medicine customer of mine who used Active release techniques with great success.
I also do a bunch of stretches to counteract the constant abuse my job puts on my hands / wrists.
It definitely works well for me.

[Doctor Turn]

Could I ask what kind of specific stretches help? And are they the kind that hit the funny bone area on the bump of your outer elbow (tennis elbow) or is it the ditch of your forearm like where an IV would go?

If the latter I'm doubly interested! That's the golfer variant I have been dealing with.

[Doctor Doug]

I've been getting aches in my hands for the last year or so. I switched to lighter strings and I'm working on being a little less heavy handed when I'm fretting......seems to be helping.

[arahobob]

Could I ask what kind of specific stretches help? And are they the kind that hit the funny bone area on the bump of your outer elbow (tennis elbow) or is it the ditch of your forearm like where an IV would go?

If the latter I'm doubly interested! That's the golfer variant I have been dealing with.

I'll have to figure out a way to show you what I do.

Mostly the stretches I do loosen up the muscles in my forearm that get abused from constant screwdriver / pliers use which in turn causes pain in my wrists.
The tennis elbow condition I had got better over time with rest. Using one of those forearm bands helped quite a bit too.

[Doctor Turn]

I don't know why I didn't do this in the first place, but I found some reliable home therapy material on YouTube, this one here has helped already. I've been recording all weekend so far and there's been no increase in the pain. In fact since I iced and did the massage across the grain like these guys say, it's helped and decreased the pain despite all my playing over the past 36 hours:

https://youtu.be/MOw6UFelld0

Thanks much Bob, Doug, et al! I've just been playing so freaking much.. the tips of my fingers are like cement.