Tendonitis?

[Patrick L]

Not sure if this is the right place to post this or not.

I've shot Bullseye for years, usually casually, but for years. In the last six months or so, I've noticed that my arm aches when I extend it for a one handed Bullseye stance. I feel it midway up my forearm into my elbow. I assume it is the beginnings of tendonitis? I guess at 53 I should be expecting to see more things like this.

Are there excercises or something I should be doing to deal with for this? If I take Motrin a few hours before it helps a lot, but that's not really a long term solution.

Any thoughts or advice?

 

[Zarr]

Tendonitis is inflammation of a tendon. Start using ice on it right away to decrease the inflammation. Think of it this way: If you were walking through the woods and twisted your ankle, you would look for a cold stream to soak your ankle....you would not (or should not) heat up some water to soak it.

Get the inflammation down first, then you can do exercises.

 

[VaTom]

Have had tendenitis. Ibuprofen and ice. Generally it occurs in elbow either one side or other or both. Two tendons run down to hand from each side. Nothing to ignore. It can really get painful where you can't even grip anything or shake hands etc. Really bad cases doctor can inject cortisone into tendon. A series of these shots will fix it. Shots are painful. I have had them. Good luck.

 

[6string]

Hi Patrick,

A common affliction amongst bullseye shooters involves pain in the elbow. If you shoot a lot with a hyperextended elbow, especially if you do a lot of 45 work, the problem becomes more acute.
You should look and search on both the "bullseye L forum" and the "targettalk" forum. The problem comes up fairly often.

One thing you can try is the older European stance with a bent elbow (see my avatar picture). It will feel odd at first, and you may need to rethink your grip and sight picture a bit. However, if you find relief from the pain, you'll know you're on the right path.
Incidentally, the bent elbow approach works very well with revolver grips, even helping with hammer manipulation in timed and rapid fire.

Some of the older shooting books have useful info, too.
Let me know if you need more help.

Best Wishes,
Jim

PS: you may want to look into getting a match grade air pistol, preferably a light weight short barrel junior model like the Steyr LP Compact. It 's good training and, while a little expensive, much cheaper than surgery or even physical therapy.

 

[Patrick L]

Let me add some additional information.

This problem only seems to happen when shooting a handgun. I never experience any pain when doing any other activities, including some that are somewhat physical, like mowing the lawn, etc. Even pulling a reloading press handle doesn't seem to bother it, which surprised me.

Motrin does help, especially if I take it ahead of time. Like if I know I'm going shooting in the morning I'll take some before bed, then again when I wake .

Another thing is, if I do find it a bit sore when I start, it will generally get a bit better (pain gets less) after a string or two. I don't know if I loosen up or what.

 

[H Richard]

Been there at about the same age, mid 50's. I basically gave up bullseye shooting for about 6 months. Shot some smallbore rifle and trap/skeet, but little if any handgun shooting. It took several months to get back up to my shooting level when I restarted, but took it gradual.

 

[arjay]

One thing I found that helped the pain when using that arm was an elastic sleeve.It seems to give it some support

 

[jake1945]

I had it so bad in my right hand I could not hold on to anything. Had simple surgery to correct it. 2 week recovery.

 

[Patrick L]

Thanks for all the replies!

Arjay, that was one thing I tried, didn't really seem to make a difference.

 

[arjay]

The one thing that really help (it happened years ago) was tossing the framing hammer and buying nail guns lol
I hope you find an easy solution for it
Pain gets old quickly

 

[mckenney99]

Patrick L, I also suffered through a bout of tendonitis in my dominate forearm about 3 years ago at age 57. Initially ice to the affected area helped and then gradual SLOW - GENTLE stretching exercises and then things began to improve. Unfortunately it took all of about of a year for the inflamation to subside very slowly. ACE Brand makes a "tennis Elbow" support brace that helped me a great deal by putting direct pressure at the head of the inflamed tendon.
ACE™ Brand Tennis Elbow Support
Good luck. As an older friend says, "getting old ain't for sissys".

 

[Pizza Bob]

I shot IPSC back in the mid-80's and that was when it was pretty much all .45 ACP in 1911's - and regardless of age, quite a few of us developed tendonitis. Most used the tennis elbow support with good success. For relief of symptoms you may find that naproxen sodium (Aleve) works better than ibuprofen. I take two before every match - not for tendonitis, just "old man" pains.

Adios,

Pizza Bob

 

[zzclancy]

Ice it, rest it and see about a cortisone shot.

 

[67tempest]

I have tendonitis in both elbows and have been dealing with it for years. Tried the therapy, ice, exercise route etc. etc. etc. The only thing that gave me any long term relief were the cortisone shots.

 

[Old Arkansawyer]

An old blacksmith told me about this condition, gripping the hammer or
gripping the butt of a pistol is about the same. Forearm tendonitis is due
to the muscles used in gripping overcomes the extensor muscles on the
back of the forearm. To remedy this get you some strong rubber bands
and place them around your closed fingers, open your fingers doing this
several times per day and as many reps as you can. Once you build up
your extensors you will need a stronger rubber band, I get mine with
produce. Don't laugh, this has worked on several people I have told.
Try this for 3-4 weeks, let us know how it works. BTW no charge if it
solves your problem, unlike the medical profession.

 

[Rowlf]

This is a good article and the exercises work, as I lit up my arm shooting Bullseye and International competitions early on and this was the only path that managed it. I also like how the therapist evolved his thinking when a lot of people think they have it all figured out and become experts.

Shooter’s Elbow (aka Tennis Elbow / Golfer’s Elbow) - Spinal Flow Yoga

Adding a gyro ball helps too.

Edit: the rubber band exercise in the post helps too to keep the muscles balanced, as we do more grasping than expanding. I started with a 1/4 inch wide rubber band and now use the molded wristbands that people pass out for charities, advertising and other causes. Some are soft and some are stiffer.

 

[rockquarry]

See a doctor for the best advice. I found it was money well spent in dealing with tendonitis.

 

[Narragansett]

I would suggest changing your brand of whiskey.

 

[smoothshooter]

Let me add some additional information.

This problem only seems to happen when shooting a handgun. I never experience any pain when doing any other activities, including some that are somewhat physical, like mowing the lawn, etc. Even pulling a reloading press handle doesn't seem to bother it, which surprised me.

Motrin does help, especially if I take it ahead of time. Like if I know I'm going shooting in the morning I'll take some before bed, then again when I wake .

Another thing is, if I do find it a bit sore when I start, it will generally get a bit better (pain gets less) after a string or two. I don't know if I loosen up or what.

I got tendonitis in about the same place 25 years ago from repetitive movements operating a machine at a place I worked at. Bad. Took about a year to get over.

 

[78bagger]

Be cautious with the cortisone. Too many shots can fry the tendon at which point it will need to be cut.