Elbows aren't; anything to worry about?

Take a sledgehammer and wrap an old sweater around it. This is your "shovelglove." Every week day morning, set a timer for 14 minutes. Use the shovelglove to perform shoveling, butter churning, and wood chopping motions until the timer goes off. Stop. Rest on weekends and holidays. Baffled? Intrigued? Charmed? Discuss here.
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Lollingsgrad
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Joined: Wed Jun 27, 2012 9:00 am
Location: United Kingdom

Elbows aren't; anything to worry about?

Post by Lollingsgrad » Sun Jul 01, 2012 1:33 pm

I've given myself a case of golfer's elbow with this. I figured a rest day would see me right but it's been two days and it still hurts. I'm sure it'll just clear up on its own but as I am a lazy bum that doesn't know the first thing about exercise-related injuries, how long should I wait before I see a doctor?

JayEll
Posts: 79
Joined: Tue May 22, 2012 10:54 am

Post by JayEll » Mon Jul 02, 2012 12:40 am

I am not a doctor, but I have experienced exercise injuries. This is my non-medical opinion, and I encourage you to consult your doctor. People on websites can't give you actual medical advice.

It sounds as though you have started using too heavy a weight, and/or doing the movements too strenuously, and/or not doing the movements according to directions. You've now got inflamed tendons/ligaments. You must STOP trying to do the exercises completely until this heals, and it's not going to clear up in a few days.

Use ice packs on the injured areas--20 minutes on, an hour off. You can repeat this as much as you like. Take anti-inflammatory medications (aspirin, ibuprofen) assuming you do not have adverse reactions to them--follow the directions on the medication. After about three days, you can stop the ice pack treatment and use warm packs if they feel better. This is just standard "red cross" first aid.

If you don't find that the pain is gone after 7 days (and NOT by trying the exercises!!) then consult a doctor, preferably one who knows about sports injuries.

Sorry you are hurting!

Lollingsgrad
Posts: 7
Joined: Wed Jun 27, 2012 9:00 am
Location: United Kingdom

Post by Lollingsgrad » Wed Jul 04, 2012 12:10 pm

Hi Jay, thanks for the advice; the pain's since gone and according to my hardcore gym going friend what I was experiencing was actually just a kind of muscle soreness that gets worse the next day. The reason he thought this was because the pain was absent except when I was trying to straighten my arm, which is a pretty common symptom of it. He reckons that you just have to ignore it and train anyway. I think I agree with him because actually icing it made it more painful and tight, but lightly exercising alleviated the pain.

I think just in this case the answer was man-up and keep swinging.

mastermesh
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Post by mastermesh » Wed Sep 12, 2012 12:56 pm

ah, the joys lactic acid... If that's all it is, working through it is sometimes the way to go since the cardio type movements will get blood flowing and maybe the blood can help move the acid to other areas instead of keeping it congested in one area causing pain.

As far as inflammation goes... something I've started doing is using ginger, tumeric, and curry spices on just about everything I eat... not always at the same time although the tumeric does sort of mix well with any other spices - hot curry, not so much... These and a few other spices are really suppossed to help reduce inflammation, which lets you be free to go a little further since the pain won't hit you so hard.

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