How to improve tennis elbow
It seems as if there are millions of miracle cures for tennis elbow--from creams to gadgets that promise to improve your elbow overnight. I didn't try all of them or even most of them, but I did spend time and money on a few. What I wanted to find was a realistic approach to being able to play tennis again without the major pain I was experiencing.
I've worked on my tennis strokes and found that gripping the racquet with much less tension really helps. (Hold your racquet about as much as you would holding a bird. You would apply just enough pressure to hold it, without hurting it, but also not letting it fly away.)
The following info is from WebTennis.com.com (WebTennis.com/tennis-elbow):
Phase 1: How do you "heal" the tendon...?
If you don't properly heal that injured tendon, you'll continue to have pain, and if you're like most folks, you'll find a way to go back out there with some goofy idea of why you can keep playing your sport or working. And the chances are huge that you'll end up doing major damage to your elbow. You MUST provide a healing environment for that tendon. Injecting stuff into your arm, ingesting copious amounts of ibuprofen, or rubbing "magic" steroid cream on your elbow is NOT setting up a healing environment for your tendon to breathe and start to heal... Setting up the healing environment for your elbow requires a combination of heat, stretching, and ice. And a short time period of not doing the activity that brought you here. Short. Several days, not weeks, not months, but you know, a few days. Be smart.
Phase 2: Strengthening
Once that tendon is healed, you've got to go through a strengthening routine to make those forearm muscles stronger. Not so you can squeeze tighter on your tennis racket or golf club or hammer or whatever, no, so those muscles can do a better job of absorbing impact and any forearm pronation or torque.
Phase 3: Future Tennis Elbow Prevention
And come on, can you give yourself 2 minutes before and 2 minutes after your sport or work activity to prevent another tennis elbow injury...? Of course you can. This is not rocket science. The method for healing, strengthening, and future tennis elbow prevention is tangible and anyone can do this.
My take on improving your tennis elbow:
Take it somewhat easy. Hold your racquet looser and don't keep a death grip on the handle. Take some Ibuprofen before playing. Tennis elbow can really hang around for a while. Must of the people I've run across have had it for a long time. Follow Brent's advice, if you get his CD. It's really the best thing I've come across. The stretching exercises are key for me. I heat my arm in the shower and then stretch out my arm using a series of stretches.
Here is the best stretch that I found (from WebMD):
Gently pull back your hand and you'll feel the stretch in your forearm.
Hold for about 20 seconds and shake your arm out.
Flip your hand so your palm is facing down and pull your hand towards your body and repeat.
Do these throughout the day. It takes just a little time. You won't be instantly fixed, but over time it really helps.
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