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Tennis Elbow anyone ??


stevelee
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I have recently been diagnosed with Tennis Elbow, playing an instrument is making the condition worse apparently, also long periods typing on a keyboard is not helping either. Its getting quite painful now.

I have never played Tennis in My life !!!

I just wondered if other Basschatters have had any thing like this ????

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Yup, had it in both elbows in my time. Not much fun. Rest is the best medicine (along with ibuprofen gel!) but it's not always practical - I've 2 young kids in the house! A sports clasp helps A LOT when you can't rest it. Mine was a Vulkan Epi brace. I lost it somewhere between bouts of the affliction and had to order another so you can learn from my mistake - if you're on the edge between one size and another, even within a few cm, get the smaller one!

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I get it in my left elbow playing cello... one of the causes in my case is gripping the back of the neck with the thumb. Find yourself a sports physio - probably cost you about £30 for an hour. A common cause is muscle fibres 'shortening' which puts tension on the tendon which attaches to the bone. There are some simple exercises which will stretch and lengthen the muscle fibres which reduces the tension, which is causing the inflamation. Anti-inflamatory gels may help - but I have very mixed results with them. The physio treatment does work and in my case gave immediate relief and doing the simple stretches myself fixed it pretty quickly.

Obviously, there may be other causes, but a physio will be able to advise..

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I had tennis elbow in the right arm and golfer's elbow in the left (i.e. inside and outside of elbows respectively).
Which is a shame as I hate both games!
I had physio, which mainly consisted of kneading the tendons between elbow and wrist, with a recommendation to do 3x15 reps/day of downward facing wrist curls using a dyna-band (i.e. fat elastic strip), as well gently stretching the wrist, mainly by pushing the palms together and holding for 30 secs as often as poss.

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Yup. I had tennis elbow several years back. I was playing tennis & Squash at the time
I ended up giving up tennis, and not playing squash for quite some time. It did clear up, but it took a while, and no sport for ages.

The trouble with the condition, is that it is inflammation of the tendons, and /or the joint. And such inflammation can take forever to heal, as you can't help continuing to "use" that limb or joint. Have as much rest as possible. Get other band members to carry heavy speaker cabs.
Try a support bandage, like tennis players wear - these can help, honestly

Also, try an anti-inflammatory agent, like Ibuprophen.
I especially found Voltarol Gel worked wonders when I pulled my calf muscle while playing squash. - Not the supposedly "better" more powerful 12 hour stuff - the ordinary gel - magic in a tube I thought. Be careful not to take Ibuprophen or other anti-inflammatories when you have used the gel though. And most importantly, ask your doctor!

Such inflammations are a bu&&er - they can take ages to get better. All I can say is, good luck, and rest the joint as much as possible Also, try using a wrist support for your PC workstation - using a mouse and keyboard can cause the problem, if you're not using correct support and seating.... perhaps your employers have someone to advise this?

It's a painful condition, I know :(

Edited by Marc S
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Might be worth getting a professional to look at your posture whilst playing (ie how high/low you have the bass) & your technique in terms of how hard you grip the neck - I had a friend with the same issue (though on guitar) & part of his problem was squeezing the neck too hard when fretting.

If you're desk-bound at work your company should pay for a work-place assessment - someone comes in & makes sure your screen/chair arms/desk height etc.. are all correct for your body.

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There was a thread about this a while ago with a link to some great exercises that were done with a really simple aparatus but I can't remember either the site or the exercise! It involved rotating the apararatus either left or right depending on whether you had tennis elbow or the other elbow. This is not not much help I know but hopefully someone will chip in with the link or exercise.

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I had both tennis and golfer's elbow in my right arm at the same time last year. Very painful indeed.

I didn't have any physiotherapy though and it healed itself in 6 months or thereabouts.

It did make bass playing a nightmare but I took painkillers which did virtually FA. :(

Frank.

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I forgot to add that it was pull-starting a petrol hedge trimmer that caused my first bout of tennis elbow. Revenge for all the pull-start tools I've broken over the years (5 at last count, one of those twice!)...

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Yep, had it earlier this year. Sucks the big one. Was prescribed a gel to help, but mostly advised just resting the elbow and not playing at all for a couple of months. Can manage a lesson every two weeks and playing about once a month so far. Just twinges occasionally so not so bad now.

Best of luck!

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I had a slightly worse version of tennis elbow three times! from weight lifting and playing did make it worse unless I played sat down or resting my arm heavily on the bass and adjusting from my normal arm position.

Thankfully with total rest it went within three months. But that was with total rest the first time I didn't rest it and I thought it was ok then the small tear opened again.

I did find those tennis elbow braces worked to an extent.

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http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=3614

Is this the article that was reffered to earlier? I had it in both elbows at once and I found the straps really do help a lot as well, I never actually tried the excercises so cant comment on them but I bookmarked it just in case :)

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  • 6 years later...

Yup, I've got it. Mine came from out of nowhere, I just woke up last week weak, if you see what I mean. My left elbow is very painful and, whilst I can still play (I managed a gig without problems, although it did hurt... I suffered for my art :lol: ), it's damned uncomfortable. I've tried ibuprofen gel and it didn't seem to have too much effect sadly. I might try strapping it and, if I can, resting it.

 

Incidentally, many years ago I had a bout of TE from playing badminton... I went to see my doctor, who diagnosed it, and he told me that in 30+ years of general practice he had never once had a case of TE that was actually caused by tennis :lol: 

 

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A timely thread resurection! I've recently developed tennis elbow in my left elbow, I assume it is from Bass playing - or at least it plays up when I play the Bass. I think as it is from 'overusing your forearm due to a repetitive or strenuous activity' that my high-action heavy guage strings probably don't help.

 

My solution has been to focus on piano playing for a while. (Although I have also also used it as an excuse to start eying up new Basses....for medical reasons!)

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A million years ago, I had a good GP. I went to see him, after playing with a Plectrum for the Band I was currently a member of. He diagnosed it, said "Roll your sleeve up" and stuck a ?Steroid? Injection into it. Perfection within 2 days, and I've never used a Plectrum since. Apparently, (after some research) I was using my elbow too much, instead of my wrist while playing. Anyway, all those years later, and still no more problems. Medical intervention can help sometimes. 😉

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I had it 11 years ago as I turned 40, all the aches and pains hit me like a brick wall. Did physio for the tennis elbow for 3 months, then had a course of accupuncture which solved it outright on the 4th session... like a key in a lock, and everything went back to how it had been before and it has never flared up again since. Now my right knee... that's a different thing entirely and currently trying to get to the bottom of the issue there....

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I had it for a good while, pre covid. I tried all sorts, including a kind of shockwave/vibrating thingy (which helped a bit, I think). Best thing I found was using kinetic tape in the manner prescribed in videos (a T shape IIRC), once I started using that, it cleared right up.

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Hi, I suffered with it for a while. For immediate relief, I found the weird arm straps worked okay. 

 

This book was recommended to me (possibly on here?) and it's really helped:

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1572240393

 

Doesn't work immediately, but give it a few weeks and you'll hopefully notice a difference.

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