Monday, January 7, 2013

Elbow Pain and Theraband Flexbar

I am going on two years with an elbow injury and now chronic medial epycondylitis (golfer's elbow). I have done a short stint of physical therapy and I have taken off many months from using my left arm - not lifting weights. I have tried a wrist brace as well as a focal compression device at the site of soreness by the medial (inside) elbow. I have gotten used to the discomfort enough that I have given up all types of treatment. I also have avoided lifting with weights and doing the exercises I'd like (such as TRX workouts) to avoid increasing pain.

My next step is to try a well-touted device called the Thera-Band Flexbar . This therapy device is used in physical therapy and hand therapy clinics, but it became more widely known when the New York Times posted an article about how to perform the therapy, with this Flexbar, by yourself. Several individuals gave me personal testimonials that they bought and used the Flexbar and had reduced or no symptoms in a month or so. The article's image of exercises:

Dr. Timothy Tyler’s method for doing the exercise with the rubber bar.

I will report back on my use of the Flexbar for my medial epicondylitis as well as treating a client's lateral epycondylitis (tennis elbow). I have ordered the green, which is medium in strength. After a bit of researching, advice was to switch to green after red became too easy. I will start with a reduced amount of reps on green until I get stronger. I am looking forward to sharing my updates.

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