Living With Tendonitis

chris_girard

Treehouser
Joined
Jul 28, 2007
Messages
1,535
Location
Gilmanton, N.H.
I'm sure that a number of both younger and older climbers here on the TH suffer with chronic tendonitis in different parts of their bodies.

What methods and techniques have you found to deal with living/working with it.

As climbers and riggers (as you all know) sometimes the necessary rest required is just not enough.
 
I wear an elbow wrap made by Rehband on my elbow anytime I go in the tree or do any lifting. I take an old sock and cut out the bottom and wear it over the wrap to make it last longer from getting worn out by rubbing on the tree. I'll probably start wearing one on both elbows shortly.
 
Buy a crane and sit on your ass all day, worked a charm for my elbows��

You could also try turmeric as it is an anti inflammatory among a host of other benefits
 
get on a basic workout schedule that balances out the other underused muscles. self massage the overused muscles. muscles that are too strong dominating muscles that are too weak results in harmful torque on the tendons. I have a little bouncy ball and a lacrosse ball that I use to release tension in the overused and tense forearm muscles. Just like sitting at a computer, working in the trees doing the same motions over and over will cause the body to warp and fray.
 
It seems like when I hit the 40 year to 50 year old range a lot of those kind of problems started cropping up, but eventually went away. It takes a lot of patience, but rushing into surgeries is a mistake IMO. Rest, stretching and exercise over time will solve a lot of issues.
 
I think Kevin and Pat both hit it on the head with their posts.
 
I agree. I used to get a lot of inflammation/injuries from some of the training I do. Learning better stretching and conditioning methods as well as proper technique has reduced overuse injury to almost zero.

It may take a good physical therapist to evaluate what you are doing, help correct misalignments in technique, etc. to get you on the right path.
 
Jim, tendonitis is an irritation or inflammation of the connecting tissue (tendon) between muscle and bone. It can occur at any tendon site. I get it in my knees sometimes from cycling, but the activity provides me with important health benefits otherwise, I can't give it up.
 
"itis" on the end of anything is used medically to indicate inflammation. If you just want to deal with the inflammation a doctor will be at the ready with suggestions for that. Also to get temporarily relief you could use either medical non permanently damaging methods or do as Butch suggests and use a supportive herb temporarily.

If you want it to be gone - deal with the root cause.
I will post a further thought or two after work today.
 
I've had it in my left forearm. Kinda debilitating in this industry. I couldn't left my 200t higher than my chest for awhile. Forearm wrap with an air bubble helped a little. Rest helped allot but was hard to come by. I still feel it years later just hanging out waiting for an excuse to rear it's ugliness. I dig my fingers into my forearm and slowly bend that hand back and forth, feels good and supposedly helps
 
I have had the range of climbing related overuse injuries.

Most recent was about 2.5 years ago I tore the rotator cuff in my left shoulder. It is only just getting better. It has been approx 80-90% for the last 2 years just not recovering completely.

I spoke to a few of the pro MMA fighters I train with down at the gym. They swear by Glucosamine. Specifically GLC2000 http://www.glc2000.co.uk .

I have just finished the first dosage. 3 months and need to reorder another tub. (Although, I do feel a lot better I may give it a miss) Within a week I started feeling the benefit. Maybe I was experiencing a placebo effect but I really don't care... it felt better! I also started to do a lot of rehab exercises whilst I was contracting in Norway, as there wasn't much else to do on an evening.

I also made more of a concerted effort in the last 4 months to climb most large trees SRT. Not sure if it was the pills, exercises or change in technique but I started to feel a lot better overall.

The tennis elbow even went away. ;)
 
Lot of good info. The srt reference, meaning you are using your leg muscles more instead of arms and so it is better on your bod?
 
Lot of good info. The srt reference, meaning you are using your leg muscles more instead of arms and so it is better on your bod?

You got it mate. An overuse injury is just that. You need to change the way you approach a task. I had the same about 10 years ago in my right shoulder. i changed my climbing system then from a blakes to a VT.

Gary, the GLC2000 is or was the only glucosamine supplement the the 4 main Glucosamine variants. Glucosamine Sulphate with MSM is one of the main ingredient. Lots of good information on their FAQ page.

http://www.glc2000.co.uk/faq/
 
First, ice the crap out of it.

Then massage.

I find it pays to have a visit with a very good sports physiotherapist, they can explain EXACTLY what the issue is and how what you do either caused it or is aggravating it. Then they give you a range of specific stretching and strengthening exercises to help you build up and protect the problem, and may even suggest work methods so as not to continue aggravating it.

I have some issues with my right shoulder, turns out my upper arm bone is sitting further back in the shoulder socket than it should, so rotating my arm back hurts. I got a whole range of exercises to do with some weights to re-align it...working well!

Tennis elbow and golfers elbow comes and goes...ice, massage and ARNICA gel!
 
Though not lately , it has been so acute that the pain and reduced range of motion made it impossible to shift / drive my Subaru to get help !! ... Finally diagnosed and treated by a Chiropractic. Two issues were bulking up muscle well into my Thirties (old tendons trying to hold old muscles in their old position) and a Zinc deficiency.
 
Ice, stretching warm muscles, hydration, massage, balanced opposing muscles groups, warm up forearms while driving, push ups as part of warming up.
 
Webmd has a fairly useful description of what tendonitus 'is.'

After that I would look for who has dealt with it but doesn't 'have it.' (If I own something I get to keep it.) There are a lot of kernels of wisdom posted in this thread that point in the right direction.

Books like, Pain Free At Your PC can either give a person all the info they need to deal with it or give enough insight into causes and solutions so that a person can adapt it over to their specific body issue.

I believe that our bodies are capable of working fine up till near the time of our death. People in easy chairs have issues about as redily as people working hard and climbing trees. So then the issue is, what do I need to do to keep my body in good working shape?

If I want to relax the muscles that I use a lot, I can accomplish that. If I want to shift my body structure and how my muscles are holding my joints in alignment I can do that too. But, it all starts from me and a viewpoint of personal responsibility.
 
Chiro got into the Tendons especially at the bone , worked to reposition them for new muscles. Released so much pain and tension I was see Yellow and Red.
 
Merle...that is an excellent post. A lot of wisdom in what you wrote.

The last sentence is the beginning...we have to, ultimately, fix ourselves...part of that is finding the right people to help us do the right things to correct our mistakes (or residuals from accidents).

Everything is not fixable...but much is if we take a disciplined approach.
 
Altimissus...sounds like you got Rolfed. Serious structural re-alignment through deep massage...a painful process but has helped a lot of people.
 
Back
Top