edgar_rhode

ok - so that's the fancy term for tendonitus / tennis elbow. but i don't play tennis - i bike.

for about the past month the front muscles on my right forearm just below elbow have been very sore ( bordering on painful ) and i cannot lift anything over a pound or so without my elbow letting me know about it. my GP has recommended i wear an elbow brace, consume motrim and rest it as much as possible. which i have followed as religiously as possible.

i do pilates - but they have been very careful to ease off arm and shoulder routines. no weight bearing stuff.

i have a flat bar bike road bike. i did my first century and have a little over 1100 miles on it this year. i honestly probably lean into my arms too much. i had some numbness in my right palm after the century - nothing too major - just the usual ulnar / pinkie and ring finger thing.

this is bugging me because i'm concerned with riding in any form. it's supposed to in the mid 50's today and i'd love to get in a 20 -30 ride but i don't want to aggravate it. likewise with getting on the trainer.

my GP is starting me on a six week (3 times a week ) physical therapy routine and then she'll talk to me about cortizone or surgery so...

- anybody else experience anything like this?

- any recommendations?

- any thoughts on sitting on the trainer and just pedaling without using the handlebars?

appreciate all comments - i might also cross post this on several other forums.

linux_author

https://www.emedicine.com/orthoped/topic510.htm

Bud Bent

Two years ago, I injured my right elbow swinging a hammer, and they told me it was tennis elbow. You could feel a knot in my upper forearm. I was in a bowling league at the time, and just flat had to give that up.

My doctor said to try physical therapy first, and set me up with a therapist. I was skeptical, but just a couple of weeks of physical therapy helped a lot, and after 6 weeks, my arm was just about as good as new. Hopefully, yours will work out this way, too. Good luck.

bobkat

up.
Ah, the dreaded Tennis Elbow. Miserable and annoying at best! Keep up the physiotherapy and sooner or later it gets better.
Bud, were you able to ride your bents while the TE was flaring up?

showme

I lived with it for about 3 months...a couple of years ago....it has never returned.
I wore the elbow brace and tried not to use the arm any more than necessary. I also, and I might recommend, slept on my couch to restrict my arm movement while I slept. Time and rest worked for me. I know how painful that achey, tired muscle feels. We don't bounce back quite as fast as we use to...but I wouldn't be to quick to go the therapy, cortizone or surgery route. I'd say give it some time...but that's me.

stapfam

Thought I had tennis elbow but apparantly it was Golfers Elbow. Exactly the same pain- just a different way in which it comes on. Luckily it did not affect my bike riding.

Bud Bent

My injury was shortly before I started riding. I'm not sure if I could have ridden or not. Some things I could do with my arm, others that would seem no more taxing would nonetheless be impossible. It was a very frustrating injury, to say the least.

head_wind

While I haven't had that problem both of my experiences with physical
therapy were positive. There were, of course, episodes where I am
sure that PT stood for physical torture but it all worked.

edgar_rhode

thanks for the tips and advice. i guess i was wondering if the cause could be bike related. ie has anyone experienced this from just riding?

to rephrase the question :: are straight handlebars more likely to injure a rider than drops?

sch

If the bike has brifters, I think it is quite possible that the epicondylitis could be related, especially if it is the R arm. It is the grip and twist that does it. Before I started splitting my time between DF and the recumbent, I developed first in the R and at the end of a year L elbow symptoms that gradually got worse. This was at the end of the 4th year of riding 8000mi per year on a DF. This cleared up after taking a few months off, (riding 2-300mi/mo instead of 500-1000mi/mo.) You would have to analyze your activities and rule out other causes: anything that involves a firm grip and a twisting motion in the forearm repetitively.

oilman_15106

I am not a fan of them just on how they look but you might try some bar end hand stem things to give you more options of hand position. I can not imagine riding a century without changing hand positions and thus your elbow position.

sch

Straight bars with twist or thumb shifters would probably help the tennis elbow. Part of my recovery was due to riding a recumbent with twist grips which in theory should be just as bad as brifters but weren't, as I wasn't gripping the bar nearly as tightly. You would not get as much improvement from the position change as I did but there would be some. Straight bars have the disadvantage of very few options for changing the hand position compared with drop bars, more of a problem on longer rides than shorter rides.

swan652

In addition to cycling, I golf and play handball. I've been battling golfer and tennis elbow plus a bad shoulder for a number of years. I've received cortisone shots in my elbow and shoulder, usually successfully, but not always. The tendonitis in my elbow got so bad a few years ago that I tried alternative medicine (accupuncture). I was very impressed with the results and recommend it to anyone with the same problem. At the end of my treatments the doctor gave me a pair of Chinese therapy balls that I still use whenever I feel the tendonitis returning. I haven't had to return to the accupuncturist or my regular MD for cortisone since I started using the balls. I still wear an elbow brace when I play handball or ride and also when I'm on the computer a lot (hand on desk on mouse). Also, I've found that the position I sleep at night (I don't know what that position is, I'm asleep) will aggravate elbow pain so when that happens the brace comes to bed with me. Just things to think about that may help you with your own elbow problems. Here is a link for the balls https://www.handhealth.com/ctb_all.asp .
The doc's say if it hurts don't do it. That's not an option.