Anyone dealt with tennis elbow?

B

BruceW

Senior Member
I'm not 100% certain that the diagnosis that I've been given about my arm being "tennis elbow" is accurate, but given that's what the drs say, I'll work with that for now. Anyone dealt with tennis elbow before, and if so, what did you do to mitigate, if not get over it?

It's been a few months now. Fortunately, it's my left arm, not my right, so that's been easier to work around while playing. Saturday night it gave me more trouble than usual, which I attribute to playing a much longer-than-usual first set (just shy of two hours without a break). I do have a strap to put on my arm which helps a little...just hoping for a little real world experience.

(Yes, I'm going back for more diagnosis in a couple weeks. I simply have little faith in the medical folks, at least the ones I deal with)
 
I had tennis elbow for about a year and a half before it went away for good. I tried a cortisone shot but that did nothing.
Fortunately, it did not affect my drumming.
My understanding is that there is no real treatment and you just have to wait it out until it goes away.
 
Neilage said:
I had tennis elbow for about a year and a half before it went away for good. I tried a cortisone shot but that did nothing.
Fortunately, it did not affect my drumming.
My understanding is that there is no real treatment and you just have to wait it out until it goes away.
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Sigh...well, at least it went away for you, so there is hope for me!
 
I've had some of this problem in the past, the left/snare drum elbow also. Thankfully not for a long while now. I think tennis elbow comes about from playing too hard. Whenever I feel it coming on, I pay attention to the message that I'm playing too hard & for too long. Playing more relaxed and letting the snare mic & PA do it's work has always been the fix.
 
I am more familiar with tennis elbow from my old tennis playing days than my more recent drum playing days. In the tennis world the typical cause is shock going from stiff strings and/or stiff racket up the arm through the elbow. Getting softer strings and/or a more flexible racket reduce the shock and ameliorate the problem. I assume you use wood drumsticks, probably hickory. You might try maple sticks-I think they are less dense and thus absorb a bit more shock than hickory. (And I think hickory is less dense and more shock absorbing than oak, so if you use oak sticks try hickory).

Aside from hitting more gently as others have mentioned, another possibility is holding the stick less tightly. You could possibly try a grip tape of some sort to give yourself confidence that the stick is not going to fly out of your hand and thus you might trick yourself into holding on to it more loosely (but don't let go-Ha!) and transfer less shock up your arm.
 
BGDurham said:
I am more familiar with tennis elbow from my old tennis playing days than my more recent drum playing days. In the tennis world the typical cause is shock going from stiff strings and/or stiff racket up the arm through the elbow. Getting softer strings and/or a more flexible racket reduce the shock and ameliorate the problem. I assume you use wood drumsticks, probably hickory. You might try maple sticks-I think they are less dense and thus absorb a bit more shock than hickory. (And I think hickory is less dense and more shock absorbing than oak, so if you use oak sticks try hickory).

Aside from hitting more gently as others have mentioned, another possibility is holding the stick less tightly. You could possibly try a grip tape of some sort to give yourself confidence that the stick is not going to fly out of your hand and thus you might trick yourself into holding on to it more loosely (but don't let go-Ha!) and transfer less shock up your arm.
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Good info.

I honestly couldn't tell you what the sticks I use are made of. I'm currently using off the shelf Pro Mark 7b equivalents. Occasionally Vic Firth 7b's. Both with nylon tips. I dunno what they're made of.

I do wonder about the tightness on my grip. Sometimes it feels like my hand is cramping, or at least a finger or two.

Good food for thought. Thanks
 
I’m suffering with the same thing on my left Spanish archer…I’ve had it for 6 months or so…hoping it goes away soon! I’ll check in here when it goes away!! Trying not to lift with it as I understand rest is the only cure? Speedy recovery mate! :) (y)
 
Al Strange said:
I’m suffering with the same thing on my left Spanish archer…I’ve had it for 6 months or so…hoping it goes away soon! I’ll check in here when it goes away!! Trying not to lift with it as I understand rest is the only cure? Speedy recovery mate! :) (y)
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And to you as well!
 
Yep. It sucks. About 1.5 years to go away. All the best.

I'm still careful with it even today.
 
Yes.

For me, even though I feel it in my elbow (or wrist), it's actually from a pinched nerve in my neck.

Lots of massages and working with a stretching coach have helped.
 
I have golfer's elbow which is on the inside of the arm vs. tennis elbow which is on the outside. Mine flares up every now and then, but is only really an issue when I'm working out. Amazon has a bunch of cheap, simple braces that help with support if it's bugging you. I have one that I use for working out and it really helps.
 
I had tendonitis twice in my left elbow. All I could do was take Advil or Tylenol. It eventually subsided both times. I did play a couple of gigs practically as a one-armed drummer. All I could do was play simple time, but I got it done.
 
BruceW said:
I'm not 100% certain that the diagnosis that I've been given about my arm being "tennis elbow" is accurate, but given that's what the drs say, I'll work with that for now. Anyone dealt with tennis elbow before, and if so, what did you do to mitigate, if not get over it?

It's been a few months now. Fortunately, it's my left arm, not my right, so that's been easier to work around while playing. Saturday night it gave me more trouble than usual, which I attribute to playing a much longer-than-usual first set (just shy of two hours without a break). I do have a strap to put on my arm which helps a little...just hoping for a little real world experience.

(Yes, I'm going back for more diagnosis in a couple weeks. I simply have little faith in the medical folks, at least the ones I deal with)
Click to expand...
I developed tennis elbow in my right arm about four years ago, and I'm still dealing with it to a certain extent, although it's very minor now compared to how it was. It's been incredibly frustrating, so I feel for you and what you're going through. I have tried to read up on it as much as I could, and I've tried various things, some of which have helped considerably, so I'll try to let you know which things helped me (although I should preface this by saying that I'm not a medical professional, and also I'm somewhat speculating on the extent to which each of these things helped me):

1) First, I feel fairly certain that my condition was caused by gripping my stick(s) too tightly at times when performing, trying to squeeze things out when my technique was just not up to the task (for example, playing a fast jazz ride pattern with sticks or brushes). So focusing on loosening/altering my grip to be more relaxed has been important. That said, even though doing that can help prevent it from happening again (and/or from getting worse), I don't think that was enough to heal/treat the problem by itself, once it had gotten to the point that it interfered with my drumming (in my case, I speculate that I had caused deterioration of my tissues over a period of many years of playing...that takes a lot of time to heal).

2) Soon after being diagnosed, I did see a physical therapist about three times. The therapist did some massage on my arm, but other than that, the main focus of the treatment was on stretching and strengthening exercises for my right arm/hand. I did these diligently about three times a day for several weeks, and they helped, to the point that a good portion of the most annoying pain went away. The therapist also suggested using heat on the elbow before doing the exercises, which I did some of the time (I filled an old sock with rice and would microwave it for a few minutes, then apply that to my arm). You hear a lot about using heat and/or ice on the elbow; my understanding is that ice can be okay to reduce swelling (which may be useful before or after drumming), but that it may not do much to help heal the tissue. Heat, on the other hand, can help stimulate blood flow to the area, which can help accelerate the healing process (or so I've heard).

The type of stretches and strengthening exercises I did (which were recommended by the therapist) are similar to the ones in these videos by Matt Otto (his issue was carpal tunnel, but I think the general theory behind it is the same for tennis elbow):

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3) The stretching and strengthening exercises helped a lot, but I was still having issues, and after a lot of digging around, I found out about the "Tyler Twist" exercise, using a flex bar. I bought both a red and a green Theraband flex bar (the green one has more resistance than the red) and started doing the exercise with three sets of 15 reps 1-2 times a day. That helped A LOT, and I highly recommend it for anyone suffering from tennis elbow. Here are two videos describing it that I found helpful:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="
" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>

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4) Further digging around led me to some videos on self-massage. Here's a video that describes some massage techniques that I found helpful:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_70oOs9dkwE&list=PL9WeCSqsjpZ1m3gP9PW5jcRqnc0OBA4ZC&index=1

5) I also (because I was still having issues and was frustrated) shelled out some money (I think about $50) for the info in this program: https://tenniselbowclassroom.com/ I think the information in his videos are great, and it may be worth your while to check out if some of the other things aren't quite doing the trick. Basically, his videos go into a lot more specific detail about how to do the self-massage than the one immediately above. He also goes over stretching and strengthening exercises.

6) Lastly, here are some exercises that I discovered many years ago (before I developed tennis elbow) that I still occasionally do. They are designed to help with RSI issues, and I'm not really sure how much they might specifically help with tennis elbow, but I did them a lot when I was experiencing some other hand pain issues, and they really helped, so you might want to give them a shot and see if they relieve some of your pain as well. My hands/arms always feel better after I do them, and they don't take that long:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdD7CgN5FGg&list=PL9WeCSqsjpZ1m3gP9PW5jcRqnc0OBA4ZC&index=2

I know this is a long post, but maybe it will help you or anyone else on this forum suffering from this very frustrating condition. My tennis elbow is mostly under control now. I still do the flex bar exercises about every other day, and my right hand still does not feel like it's quite back to 100%, but it's getting there. Good luck with your condition.
 
I've been playing for over 40 years, often long shows in loud situations.
I injured my left (snare arm) on a particularly long gig about five years ago, with a poor onstage sound and a very ambivalent audience, causing me to over play - too many notes and too loud.
I had four more shows to play that week in similar circumstances and it hurt a great deal. But of course I had to play through it.
At the time I tended to play half a dozen shows a month and sometimes there were months with no shows.
I saw a physio who recommended a sports cooling product - you placed a liquid in a sleeve and wrapped the sleeve over the sore arm. The liquid reacted with a cooling effect. Doing that pre and post show mitigated most of the worst pain and allowed me to carry on.
I was aware that continuing to play long and loud shows wasn't allowing my arm to recover.
After a couple of months the arm became more of as sore irritant that bothered me, rather than a physical pain that was killing my enjoyment.
In the end, it took a year before I forgot my arm was sore, and I've never had the pain ever again.
It was down to one show where I was too tense/stiff and played too hard. And the only thing that really fixed it was time and as much rest (away from playing) as possible.
 
Chris Whitten said:
I've been playing for over 40 years, often long shows in loud situations.
I injured my left (snare arm) on a particularly long gig about five years ago, with a poor onstage sound and a very ambivalent audience, causing me to over play - too many notes and too loud.
I had four more shows to play that week in similar circumstances and it hurt a great deal. But of course I had to play through it.
At the time I tended to play half a dozen shows a month and sometimes there were months with no shows.
I saw a physio who recommended a sports cooling product - you placed a liquid in a sleeve and wrapped the sleeve over the sore arm. The liquid reacted with a cooling effect. Doing that pre and post show mitigated most of the worst pain and allowed me to carry on.
I was aware that continuing to play long and loud shows wasn't allowing my arm to recover.
After a couple of months the arm became more of as sore irritant that bothered me, rather than a physical pain that was killing my enjoyment.
In the end, it took a year before I forgot my arm was sore, and I've never had the pain ever again.
It was down to one show where I was too tense/stiff and played too hard. And the only thing that really fixed it was time and as much rest (away from playing) as possible.
Click to expand...
This is my concern, thus my searching for folks with similar experiences. We play every weekend, sometimes both Friday and Saturday. And as we go into the summer we'll have a few three-day weekends of shows, and a couple 4 days in a row with shows. (Good problem to have, certainly, save for looking for "rest") I do have about 10 days off at one point coming up, but that will be our last break for a while.
So rest isn't happening. I'm hopeful that adopting much of what I've found here from all the helpful folks will help. I'm trying to process everything here, and make a plan of action. I don't see my doc again till near the end of next month, and I'm not really confident that I'll get far with him anyway, so this has been great.
 
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