I have finally come to the conclusion (after 15 months) that perhaps I should actually stay out of the water for a while to allow my poor elbows to heal. I have had "golfers elbow" ever since Nov 4, 2009, when I very stupidly tried to race a highschooler during a sculling set. Not a day goes by that I am not in pain, despite two cortisone shots in each elbow (man, those hurt!) lots of stretching, and countless number of celebrex pills down the throat. I've tried Icy Hot, Bio Freeze, Accupuncture, etc. So for the question: if I take 3-4 weeks off to heal (assuming I actually do heal) and only do kicking during that time, how long do you think it will take me to be back to "normal" (or where I am now) again? Today, despite pain, I went 4200 LCM in about 75-80 minutes (check my flog if you want the workout) and I sincerely intend to compete at the LC nationals in August.
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Last week I have got a strong elbow pain in one arm after fast butterfly set to the point that I had to skip the next day swim (I try to swim every day around 3500 yards or so) and did mostly kick-board swimming next-next day as the pain would gradually return after even slow swimming.
After googling and reading up on it I found this article that talks about healing elbow pain by doing “eccentric” (where muscle lengthens as it tenses) exercises with a special bar
well.blogs.nytimes.com/.../phys-ed-an-easy-fix-for-tennis-elbow
I haven't purchased the bar but I have tried very similar exercise with a regular piece of rubber band pictured here
YouTube - Tennis Elbow Strengthening Exercises Total Tendon.com
I am happy to see huge improvement in elbow pain – yesterday I was able to do my regular swim routine (without butterfly) after doing the exercises 2 days ago.
After the regular swim yesterday the pain came back a bit (I think I get the idea what part of move is causing it and will learn a bit more today), but I did another set of these exercises yesterday and today and I can definitely see the improvement.
If you try to do these exercises, note that they are for “tennis elbow pain” where the pain comes from externally facing part of the arm. For “golfer elbow pain” you need to do exercises in reverse.
(i.e. as pictured here YouTube - Thera-Band FlexBar "Reverse Tyler Twist" for Golfers Elbow)
Your injury sounds more extensive, but hope these exercises help!
– Andrey
Last week I have got a strong elbow pain in one arm after fast butterfly set to the point that I had to skip the next day swim (I try to swim every day around 3500 yards or so) and did mostly kick-board swimming next-next day as the pain would gradually return after even slow swimming.
After googling and reading up on it I found this article that talks about healing elbow pain by doing “eccentric” (where muscle lengthens as it tenses) exercises with a special bar
well.blogs.nytimes.com/.../phys-ed-an-easy-fix-for-tennis-elbow
I haven't purchased the bar but I have tried very similar exercise with a regular piece of rubber band pictured here
YouTube - Tennis Elbow Strengthening Exercises Total Tendon.com
I am happy to see huge improvement in elbow pain – yesterday I was able to do my regular swim routine (without butterfly) after doing the exercises 2 days ago.
After the regular swim yesterday the pain came back a bit (I think I get the idea what part of move is causing it and will learn a bit more today), but I did another set of these exercises yesterday and today and I can definitely see the improvement.
If you try to do these exercises, note that they are for “tennis elbow pain” where the pain comes from externally facing part of the arm. For “golfer elbow pain” you need to do exercises in reverse.
(i.e. as pictured here YouTube - Thera-Band FlexBar "Reverse Tyler Twist" for Golfers Elbow)
Your injury sounds more extensive, but hope these exercises help!
– Andrey
