Better than Personal Training

Last week I had intense elbow pain. The pain was so bad that I found myself cradling my elbow in my other hand. I was afraid that my tennis elbow was coming back – the pain in the same spot on the outside of my elbow just above the “funny bone”. Not funny. And yes, even exercise trainers get injured. I immediately reverted into my old protective behaviors. I stopped picking up heavy dumbbells, I started opening doors with the other hand. I even began grabbing my half gallon of soymilk with two hands. I was determined not to let this injury get worse. My tennis elbow had lasted for nearly a year and a half. I did what most people do, I went to my doctor and got a cortisone shot. It was amazing. It completely took the pain away for 3 months. Then the pain came rearing back. I knew it was time to figure to figure it out myself.

I always tell my staff, a good personal trainer can avoid injuring a client and avoid making injuries worse. As exercise physiologists, we hold ourselves to a higher standard. We not only fix the injury but figure out why it happened and prevent it from occurring again. When my elbow pain flared up last week, I knew exactly why it was happening again for me.

We’ve learned a lot at Better Living since I suffered from tennis elbow, known as lateral epicondylitis.

Lateral epicondylitis pain comes at a point where a bunch of tiny muscles attach to the elbow bone. That’s important to know. Once you’ve identified the muscles, you figure out how to make them stronger. However, before you pick up your first dumbbell, you’ve got to look at two other things. 1. Where are those muscles controlled from? In the case of tennis elbow, it’s from nerves that come off the lower part of the neck. I had a couple twists in those vertebrae that needed gentle realigning. 2. Has the injury caused another part of your body to misbehave as a compensation? For me, the top of my forearm had become a rock of tight muscle. It definitely needed some tennis ball rolling.

How does the story end?

This time it took only 2 days to get rid of my tennis elbow. Is it truly gone? Yes! This weekend I completed the famous “Murph Workout” – 1 mile run, 100 pullups, 100 pushups, 300 squats, and another 1 mile run. Zero elbow pain!

Don’t let your injuries persist. Work one-on-one with Better Living’s exercise physiologists to get a solution customized to you.