anyone got tips on this annoying injury, my wrist/elbow is painful everytime i paddle.
At the risk of being shot down in flames… Relax the muscles in your arms.
I apply my kung fu to paddling. That means minimising muscle use - my tendons and bones do the work. My muscles relax. Even in my back. That’s the ideal I work towards.
And before anyone screams - I still use muscle in my back. Just less than most people I know and trying to reduce it daily. Oh, and years of martial arts and archery helped somewhat 
-doug
As a fellow sufferer, I won’t say ‘get a regular girlfriend’. It’s one of those injuries that will give you hell until it goes away. A few ways to deal with it -
If you got yours the way I got mine, try to avoid using a hammer that’s too light and instead use a heavier hammer and a longer swing. Generally it comes from plain overworking the elbow. Thank the deity of your choice for nail guns, as otherwise I’d be typing this lefty.
NSAIDs, Non-Steroidal AntiInflammatory Drugs, are a beautiful thing. They make the swelling go down in the tendon which in turn does nice things for the pain level. You have your Aleve and others, or good ol’ aspirin. Note the fine print on some of the newer drugs, ‘may cause stomach problems in some people’ - Hi, I’m one of those people. Hence I take aspirin.
Ice, or cold packs, can help a lot, before and especially after. I like a soft-sided cold packs, the foil covered kind full of a gel of some sort, which I freeze over something rounded so that it will fit nicely to whatever I want to chill.
Lastly, they have those silly looking ‘tennis elbow’ things (I have one of these: http://www.cvs.com/CVSApp/cvs/gateway/detail?prodid=182353) do indeed help. Though you may want to have two of 'em, or else rinse it out really well with fresh water after using it in salt water, 'cos they fit tight enough that the salt will rub ya raw.
hope that’s of use
doc…
I have it too. My PT says stretch it by pulling your hand back with your arm extended. Also, if asprin, use coated. Had mine for a year and its mostly due to swimming. There is a lot of this going around.
Hi Mick,
I have tendonitis as well. Got it from many years as a tattooer. The previous remark about the funny looking braces is right on the money. Mine got so bad
about two years ago I thought that I would be forced to retire from tattooing.
It just so happened that a friend of mine showed up at the shop wearing one of those braces and told me it was for tendonitis. It’s been about two years now and my arm gives me very little problems now that I wear it whenever working.
I also was shown a cool stretch recently for the condition. You bend you hand back without using the other hand, and spread your fingers as far as they will go. Once spread, rotate your hand slowly either direction until you feel a slight pulling sensation where it usually hurts and hold it. I was also told to do this with a big rubber band around my fingers but haven’t tried that yet.
landlocked,
Wow! That sounds incredibly similar to something in my kung fu! We call it Heun Sao - said Hoon (like moon) Sow (as in female pig). Basically extend your hand and arm pointing your fingers (hand flat side up). Now bend your wrist so that your palm faces your face. Now rotate your wrist around 180 degrees so that your fingers point to the ground with your palm towards your body. Keep rotating the wrist in this direction, allowing the structures in your wrist to straighten you wrist. Your palm should now be facing the ground and your fingers out (similar to that starting position). In my kung fu we use this to strengthen the wrist and the internal tendons all the way up to the shoulder.
-doug
When I tore ligaments in my knee (bad crash tube) and was rehabilitating the Orthopedic Doc recommended CHONDROITIN / GLOUCASAMINE. I’m not sure if I spelled it exactly right. He said it is proven to reduce imflammation and pain (but not to prevent arthritic ailments). It’s an over the counter remedy. Can’t hurt to try it.
This injury is probably not just paddling related but a mixture of movements can be the cause. Mine is certainly as a result of hand sanding and even holding the grinder for long periods - all this doubled with paddling and excessive compuer use has given me tennis elbow over the last couple of years.
Cortisone injections seems to be the only “temporary” cure !
Steve
Dougirwin13,
thanks for the tip. I have a friend that studies kung fu. I’ll have to see if he can show me the proper way to do that excercise.
3 Ibuprofen twice a day for 2 weeks then lay off the pills. Try to stop or cut back on the activity that causing it, hammer curls, hammering nails, breaking rocks with a sledge etc. Do this and it will be noticeable better in less than a week.
Bextra was and is a great drug, but they were giving it to the old folks for arthritis, and some of the old peeps had heart problems, and KA BLAMO no more old folks. So doctors are gun shy to perscribe it…but Ibuprofen is a good medication of tendonitis, just use it in cycles, 2 weeks on, 2 weeks off. If you stay on it, you’ll burn holes in your stomache lining, and loose white blood cell count…
That will be $150.00 for the medical advice.
Dr. Marcus Resinhead MD.
Hi Mick!
I’m a Chiropractor and here is my twist on tendonitis: some of this is a little redundant… the above posters have given you parts of the whole recovery process.
-
Go see a Chiropractor or a PT - In the mean time…
-
STOP doing what is causing the problem… sanding, polishing, surfing?
If you HAVE to continue then decrease the time using the body part and…
-
For the first two days of recovery… ice the body part (elbow?) 20 min.
every 2 hours and/or after every possible re-injury (after surfing, sanding, polishing). After the first two days the swelling and pain should have decreased significantly now ice only after re-injury for 20 min.*If you freeze water in a styro. cup then you can do ice massage (peal the
top/lip of the cup down 1/2" and hold the insulated bottom part) for 3 min. -
Use a strap around the elbow when stressing it in the future. It’s used as a
'crutch' to minimize further/future injury. Called a CHO PAT for the knee. -
Stretch and strengthen the area AFTER all pain has subsided.
The Chiro or PT may (and I would recommend!) testing with GRASTON. Check it out at www.grastontechnique.com You can look me up there also,
Dr.Lester B. Waddel - Monterey, Ca.
Follow this and you should be good to go in no time!
Les
paavo airola how to get well page 163
tendonitus-manganese supplement
bottles usually 100 tabs
take 3 a day gone in about a month
so is the tendonitus.
…ambrose…
tennis is a terrestrial sport
glucostamine is cool
the new extra added ingredient is
hyaluronic joint complex
featuring Hyaluronic acid
simple manganese and b-6
ease up on the masturbation is my advice
or swap hands for a while 
Is the graston technique similar to putting the nail at the point where it hurts and rub it for about five minutes? Had A PT do that to me on a messed up shoulder, the quickest recovery I’ve had on that injury. Is this Graston similar to in anyway/replacing ultrasound treatment?
regards,
Håvard
I’d add my two cent worth. Go see a doctor. While it may be just a regular tendionitis there might be more to it, like bone growth, scare tissue or something that’s rubbing on your tendons and causing agrevation. If that is the case, whatever you do to make it heal, it will come back sooner or later.
regards,
Håvard
Quote:
anyone got tips on this annoying injury, my wrist/elbow is painful everytime i paddle.
Reduce the hours you put in on the courts. I like to play on clay which is easy on the legs and feet. Have your stringer recommend different strings or change the tension. Is your grip too big? All these things will make it easier to paddle.
Hey Mick, two more things to look into that I just remembered. One is kinesio taping. The other is letha yoga. The first is a tape consisting of an elastic fabric with water-proof adhesive. I tattooed a violin player who suffered the same type of tendonitis as I do and she said it worked great. You do have to see someone
at least once to show you how to apply it properly. The other is a yoga technique using a lenght of rope wrapped once around the affected limb and tightened slightly for a few seconds and moved a bit and done again the length of the limb. This also should be shown to you by someone who practices it so that you don’t do any further damage by improper technique.
thanks for that info guys. i got the injury driving a high reach forklift at work so i get free physio but because i have still been using my arm to do light work its been hangin around a bit too long. going in today to see if i can get myself into some work in the office…