The Golfers Elbow Treatments & Exercises That Cured Me

golfers elbow cure medial epicondylitis3 years ago I got Golfer’s Elbow (medial epicondylitis) which is essentially very similar to Tennis Elbow (lateral epicondylitis) except it hurts on the inside of your elbow, not on the outside.

After trying all sorts of treatments, I posted a long blog post discussing my Golfer’s Elbow Treatment and Cure. This post contained lengthy discussion on all the things I’d tried and researched regarding how to treat golfer’s elbow, including:

  1. Complete Rest
  2. Physiotherapy – Ultrasound
  3. Physiotherapy – Interferon
  4. Physiotherapy – 10 min Massage
  5. Golfer’s Elbow Exercises and Stretching
  6. CT Cream off the internet
  7. Band-It forearm Band
  8. Acupuncture
  9. Physiotherapy – Remedial Massage
  10. Golfers Elbow Exercises
  11. The Zone Diet
  12. Fish Oil Supplements

To be honest I didn’t expect anyone on the internet to notice, the post was for my own benefit really. I was extremely surprised then to discover that it became one of the most popular pages on my blog and has attracted over 100 comments and literally thousands of visitors. But most importantly, there has been a wealth of information added to the page in the form of the experiences of others who have suffered elbow pain.

At the time I said I was 95% cured of my golfer’s elbow, but things have changed in the last 3 years and I’m older and wiser at treating golfer’s elbow, so I thought it would be useful to post an update and also to summarise the extra advice given by all the commentators on my original post.

Have My Golfer’s Elbow Treatments Cured Me?

I would say the answer to this question is yes… mostly! That is to say I’d call myself at least 99% better. Almost all of the time I have no more pain. I continue to workout down the gym, can do all CrossFit exercises, including all the Olympic lifts. It certainly didn’t stop me becoming British Master’s Weightlifting Champion in 2010 so I guess from the point of view of functional fitness, I am cured.

That said, there are just 2 exercises that always give me a little niggle: front squats and shoulder press. Either one of these I can do to max effort and come away with a bit of pain that lasts 24-48 hours and then goes. The only time I have a problem is if I try to do both these exercises in the same workout. If that’s all I have to avoid, then I’m happy happy happy!

Of all the things I tried, and all the advice given on the other post, there is one simple thing that I credit with my recovery.

But before I get onto that, I thought it would be a good idea to summarise some of the advice given by other golfer’s and tennis elbow suffers from the other posts comments, which should be considered in addition to the list of things above:

13. Active Release Technique (ART)

ART works on the principle that over time, adhesions or scar tissue on your muscles build up (and I guess possibly tendons) and prevent normal movement of your squidgy bits. Through hands on manipulation, these adhesions etc are broken (I’m guessing that hurts!) resorting full and normal movement.

Several commentators mentioned this but only one reported any success with it (though she wasn’t using it in isolation, so you can’t be sure this was what helped). I would say that if that’s your problem, it sounds like it might work. However I am very sure that muscle adhesions weren’t the cause of my elbow pain, so I didn’t use this as a treatment for golfers elbow.

14. Cortisone Shot for Golfer’s or Tennis Elbow

Cortisone shots (not Cortizone but sometimes called Corticosteroid Injections) are the injection of anti-inflammatory steroids into the elbow. (Cortisone is a type Corticosteroid and the 2 words are often used interchangeably.) Usually people report good results are reducing pain with Cortisone Injections, but the benefits are temporary (typically only 3 weeks!) and this is treating the symptom (pain), not the cause of your elbow injury.

Personally, unless you are a competitive athlete and need to be pain free for a competition, I think they are a bad idea and here’s why: pain is your body’s feedback mechanism to tell you something is wrong and what you’re doing could be doing yourself more damage. If you use the magic of modern medicine to hide your pain, you could easily be injuring yourself more and not knowing it. At best this will just prolong your elbow recovery time, at worse… who knows what additional injury you may cause?

Further more, inflammation is your body’s natural defence mechanism against further injury. We have evolved that mechanism over millions of years of evolution (or God gave it to us, if you prefer, either way we have it) so to mask your body’s normal mechanism for resolving an injury, doesn’t seem like the right thing to do. To be clear here, I’m all for medicine helping the body out (casts for making broken bones heal straight etc) but we’re not fixing golfer’s elbow with a cortisone shot, just masking the symptoms. So for me, cortisone injections for elbow pain are just not worth it.

15. Icing and Heating the Injured Elbow

Icing any injury is typically a way to reduce swelling and inflammation, and reduce pain. (Sometimes extended to RICE: Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation.) Again in my opinion this simply treats the symptoms, not the cause, so I’m not a fan. Having said that, heating does appear to have some use: Tendons (golfer’s elbow is a form of tendinitis) have few blood vessels and so don’t get much in the way of blood circulation. Heating is a way of improving that circulation which gets extra nutrient rich blood flowing to them. This can only be a good thing if the cells are trying to repair themselves.

There’s some thought that icing before heating is better than just heating on its own. That’s a tricky one, as ice is good for reducing pain. A physiotherapist told me that the combination of ice and heat can help to get blood flowing better than just heat, which may be true. Massage is also good for getting new blood into the tendons. On balance, I would suggest that a combination of icing, heating and massage certainly can’t hurt and can only speed your recovery.

16. Laser Treatment

A couple of visitors mentioned this, but mostly as a way to line their therapists pockets! Lasering away at your body isn’t high up on my list of ways to pass the day, though I suspect in order to keep it safe, the power of the laser is so low as to probably not do much anyway. Personally I wouldn’t do this.

17. MRI Scans

These are obviously not a treatment in their own right, but a tool for diagnosing the route cause of your elbow pain. Some people who have had them report that they have shown up tears. This can provide your doctor with the information on whether to refer you for surgery, or whether just some specific golfers elbow exercises would cure you, as I detail below.

18. Prolotherapy

This is the process of injecting a mild irritant into the body, in order to trigger some regenerative reaction. Irritants include things like sugar water, glycerine or cod liver oil. It claims to be useful in a wide variety of common ailments.

To be honest, this gets my spider sense tingling and it just feels like quack remedy, but you never know. A few commentators tried it but only 1 claimed it was the cure they were looking for. Apparently there’s a clinical trial under way at the moment specifically looking at prolotherapy as a treatment for tennis elbow. If I spot the result, I’ll post it here.

19. Thera-band Flexbar

In ascending order of difficulty Yellow, Red, Green, and Blue Theraband Flexbar bars are hand exercisers that claim to be an effective tennis elbow treatment and golfers elbow treatment.

Certainly I’m a proponent of appropriate exercise as a golfers elbow treatment and the Thereband Flexbars can help and several people have reported success with them. It ‘ll cost you $56 for the full set, which I’d recommend in order to start off light and work up. The prescription seems to be 3×15 rep 3 times per day. However these bars only really help with rotational exercise which I think is limiting, so see my specific comments on golfers elbow exercises below:

20. Voltaren Gel (also Voltarol Gel)

This is a topical anti-inflammatory cream based on the NSAID (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug) Diclofenac. I think everything I said about cortisone shots apply here too, it’s a symptom treatment, not a cause fixer. I didn’t try it.

21. Remedial Exercises

Combined with the original post that started all this, I’ve now covered 20 different treatments for golfers elbow.

There is good news however, given enough time, everyone gets better!

Our goal of course is to minimise that recovery time, and bring it down from years to months. From all the differing treatments attempting to find a cure for golfer’s elbow that people posted about, there is a common thread amongst those that reported successful recovery, and it’s one that mirrors my own experience. I said above there was a simple golfers elbow cure and this is it: specific exercises! If you read my other post, you’ll note that my conclusion at the time was that eventually your elbow pain will go away, and you will credit the last treatment you had for it’s cure. However in most cases, people who got better stated that they did some form of remedial golfers elbow exercises.

As mundane as it is, I agree with them. Sure we’d all like to buy a that magic cure, but if nothing else I think the myriad of alleged treatments proves that there is no silver bullet here. Cessation of whatever caused it, some rest, and a slow and steady program of remedial golfer’s elbow exercises and stretches, designed specifically to gently work the appropriate area, is the best and most effective cure for golfer’s elbow, and I would say, tennis elbow too.

Having come to this conclusion, I set about to look for the best program of exercises I could find. After all, I didn’t want to be splashing money out for physiotherapists for month after month. There had to be something out there that was quick and easy to do, and cheap too!

It took me a while as there’s a lot of fluff and nonsense out there, but I finally found a program that met my criteria as being low on bull and high on simple, effective stretches and exercises, that’s cheap and you can get your money back if it doesn’t work! There’s no expensive kit either, you start with a hammer and an elastic band, lol! What’s more, because it’s a set of downloadable PDFs, you can be up and running in minutes and the videos make it impossible to get wrong.

It’s by an unassuming guy called Todd Scott, and deals equally with Golfer’s Elbow and Tennis Elbow Exercises and Stretches (click here) That link takes you to a big waffly sales page, a sad reality of internet existence these days, but don’t let that put you off. At the end of the day it’s up to you, but it only costs $4.95 for a 7 day trial and of all the different golfers elbow treatments I tried, these exercises are what I credit my cure and continued pain free existence to.

Should I exercise if I still have pain?

This is a question that I’ve been asked several times, and is something that Todd deals with in his videos better than I can here, it was certainly something I was keen to find out the answer to. I’ll leave it to Todd to answer that then.

I know I was a bit worried the first time I bought something like this online, so I thought I’d put together a quick video of the order process, so you can see exactly how it works (note that this video was taken when I still had my old website theme, not this groovy new one, and also before Todd changed the name of his product to Golfer’s Elbow Solution), take a look:

The link you need is this one: www.ColinMcNulty.com/tips/golfers-elbow Good luck, and do come back and let me know how you’re getting on, I love reading everyone’s comments!

{ 72 comments… add one }
  • Sean Murray 29 March 2011, 10:42 pm

    Hi Colin,
    I had some great success on what had all the hallmarks of tennis elbow. James Jowsey (biomechanics specialist at our gym) found that some issues in and around my right scapula, of the same arm, were causing a dsyfunction and subsequent symptoms of tennis elbow. After some hands on mobilization and breaking up of the tissues, and then a series of mobilizations before and after workouts it cleared up.

  • guy 19 May 2011, 12:40 pm

    I am 95% cured now.The rubber band and hammer exercises were great as was squeezing the ball.All these corrected an imbalance. Of course patience and rest helped!
    But…I can now open doors,shake hands ,do pull ups etc without pain.

    If you have suffered from this for a while the link Colin supplied does work.I know it seems like a too good to be true link but I honestly credit it with 75% of mu cure( the other 25% been good old common sense!)

  • Colin McNulty 23 May 2011, 11:23 am

    Hi Sean, yeah I’ve been to see James re my new shoulder issue. Good to hear you’re doing better.

    Thanks for the comment Guy, it’s always nice to hear other people corroborate my advice!

  • Colin McNulty 22 June 2011, 9:57 pm

    Todd has just sent me this awesome testimonial. Larry, if you’re out there, I hope you don’t mind me posting it here, I’m just thrilled that Todd’s system helped you so much:

    ============

    Hi Todd,

    Just in case you were serious about wanting to hear about progress with my elbow using your method, I thought I’d write…

    First some background… I’m a swimmer… and a rower… I have MEDIAL epicondylitis in both elbows… I’ve had it in the left elbow the worst (although the right elbow is the worst right now) and that started sometime in the summer of 1990… I remember pulling myself out of the pool August 2nd of 1990… stayed out of the water for about six months and then when I finally got back in, it wasn’t any better… the right elbow has been troubling (but much less so) for a long time but about a year ago it completely went wild … and so I’ve been out of the water again since then…

    In the course of trying to fix both elbows, over time I’ve tried:

    – Rest
    – Ice
    – Various anti-inflammatories
    – Massage
    – Various forearm bands
    – Physical therapy
    – Stretching

    And most recently… and stupidest… cortisone

    None of these worked… well the cortisone worked but only for a few weeks. The reason I say stupidest was cuz I have no experience with cortisone and didn’t quite understand that it was masking the pain… I thought it was acting as a topical anti-inflammatory.

    After a couple weeks, the pain rushed back on me way worse than before… of course because there wasn’t much pain I had been way over using the arm… so that made it much worse… so cross cortisone off my list of things to try.

    Out of desperation I consulted the internet one last time… recognized the postings of a blogger from another swimmer’s (golfer’s) elbow sufferer who has tried more stuff than I have… read his updates since the last time at colinmcnulty.com… and there was a link to your site… so what the Hell, I followed the link… read through your material… and ended up buying your package… then began to diligently apply your methods…

    OH MY GAWD!!!

    After less than a week… What a difference!…

    it’s been almost a week that I’ve been doing the exercises and while I’m notsaying the pain is gone… it is really reduced. I still don’t dare get back in the water… or back out in a rowing shell… but I am daring to think that I might again someday… I really do miss both of these activities.

    I’ve been doing the exercises three times a day… and the stretches about two times… I know that the improvement will be gradual… but now I’m getting all excited that maybe I can get things back to normal so it’s getting hard to wait… feeling very impatient… gotta work on that… been a medial epicondylitis sufferer for over 20 years…

    it’s not just gonna go away over night… but still… I want it to.

    Not sure why I’m writing… I guess cuz you asked how I was doing…

    and also to express my gratitude to you for discovering this … and I’m further grateful to you for not keeping it to yourself.

    All for now… I’ll let you know how I’m progressing…

    Very warm and grateful regards,

    Larry
    =======

    Cool huh? 🙂

  • Derik Brian 27 September 2011, 5:07 am

    I’m a 45-year old swimmer. Amazingly, I have never had any serious or chronic injury, related to swimming. However, over the course of the past few years, I’ve been supplementing my swimming with a ‘military’ workout (significant number and reps of push-ups, pull-ups, sit ups), every other day, between heavy swim days . As far as I can self-diagnose, I must have injured my medial elbow muscles/tendon on a particular day when I over did the push-ups, which has proven paralyzing. The pain is severe to the point that I now cannot do any form of pull-up, rows, push-ups, etc. I’ve tried rest, ice, heat, massage, elbow bands . . . and, depressingly, the pain remains as acute as ever, 60 days after the injury. I’m extremely optimistic and interested in trying these exercizes – I’ll report on progress, presently.

  • None Believer 7 October 2011, 12:24 am

    I find the whole writeup rather sounding like a sales pitch for the book.
    Could it be that this is one of those sites that are written by a person selling a product – the book?
    You will note that the author does not “reveal the secret” of the wonder book, just tells you that $4.95 is nothing. Come-on, this stinks of a sales pitch and in some con tries is illegal.

  • Colin McNulty 7 October 2011, 10:59 am

    I’m sorry you feel that way “None Believer”. This is my personal blog which has over 800 pages (according to Google, I haven’t counted personally!) and I have just 2 main pages devoted to how I investigated and tried to cope with suffering Golfer’s Elbow and the year or so it took me to get back to a reasonable level of functional fitness.

    I spent literally scores of hours researching different alleged Golfer’s Elbow “cures”, and hundreds of pounds trying many of them out, and posted my findings on this blog along with my personal feelings on them. At the time, I had no idea that golfer’s elbow injuries were so prevalent! However when you’ve suffered it as I did, for so long and it has such an affect on your life, when you finally decide you’ve found a treatment that actually works as advertised, than I think it’s pretty natural to want to tell others about it.

    If that comes across salesy, that was not my intention. You’re sadly misunderstanding my enthusiasm. I am not Todd Scott, he’s from the US and I’m from the UK. You can see videos of him on his website, and you can see videos of me on mine (this site), just look for the How to cook a Blue Steak link on the right, which incidentally is another thing I’ve blogged about.

    However Todd (who suffered golfer’s and tennis elbow at the same time!) went to the trouble of putting together an eBook and selection of videos and accompanying pdfs and packaged it up as a product, which he sells (pretty cheaply I think, considering that it’s less than the cost of a single phsyio session), so it would be pretty underhand of me to copy his material here. That might even be illegal, which you are obviously concerned about. But most of all, it just wouldn’t be right to rip him off like that. Besides, he offers a complete guarantee and you can always claim a refund if you’re that cheap.

    The nature of blogs is you write about stuff you find interesting. You’ll see for example that my more recent posts have been about shoulder injuries, specifically my SLAP and PASTA tears that I got from doing pull ups in the gym! I’m currently having to decide whether I get some possibly life changing surgery for that, but you can bet your boots that I’m searching this wonderful internet of ours to see if I can find something that will help rehabilitate my shoulder. And if I find a gadget, product, guide or service that I think is worthwhile telling people about, I’ll do that too, and be happy that I think I’ve done people a good turn for it.

  • guy 7 October 2011, 12:25 pm

    Well its not a sales pitch. It is a sad fact that we are so conditioned to be skeptical that we lose sight of what may be valid.

    Alot of the internet is about selling I agree but not all.This does work.I used a hammer,a tennis ball and a rubber band to cure my elbow as per his instructions and thats that!!!

  • Allen 6 November 2011, 2:16 pm

    Hi Colin,
    I appreciate your blog. I have had GE for over a year. I sustained the injury playing tennis. It has been tough to not play for nearly a year. I nearly tried all the treatments you have suggested. I purchased Todd’s exercise regime and cannot say it actually helped. I was familiar with all the exercises he suggested and in fact asked for a refund but frankly never heard back from him. I long let it go and and do not want to use this blog to get a refund. Just wanted to be frank.
    More importantly I recently started playing again and despite technique & equipment change
    Reaggravated the elbow. It seemed 90% better when I returned to play but dropped down to perhaps 85 after playing for a few weeks of playing. I will now stop playing for a couple of weeks and reevaluate. I continue to have art treatments and curiously got worse when I stopped the treatments. The question I have did you resume your lifting and experience some set backs until you were pain free. My hope is to find a way to still play but maintain a 90-95% recovery. I was able to do that when I had TE some years ago but GE seems like a different animal. Thanks for all your input and extremely useful blog.

  • Colin McNulty 7 November 2011, 7:15 am

    Thanks Guy, it’s always nice to hear other people’s success stories. I’m glad you’ve sorted out your elbow.

    Hi Allen, I’m sorry to hear you’re still struggling mate. First off, I’ve emailed Scott as he’s normally pretty up front about the occasional refunds. Either way, if it’s within 60 days of ordering, you can get a refund directly from the company who take the payments. Find your order email, click the Customer Services link, then I think click Customer Support and request a refund online there. In my research, the severest of cases seemed to take up to 18 months to heal, so it may be that it’s just a time thing. The other potentially more serious issue is that you might not have tendonitis (inflammation of the tendon) but rather you may have tendonosis (degeneration of the tendon) which are 2 different beasts. As it’s been a year, I would definitely seek the advice of your Doctor.

    Oh and to answer your question, whilst there were bad days after I’d pushed it too far at the gym, once it started to get better, it was generally a smooth recovery process over several months.

  • Wayne 11 December 2011, 8:28 pm

    I’ve had golfer’s elbow with a low grade pain for fifteen years or so. Things seemed to be getting worse so I began looking for options and wanted to try them one at a time. I decided to start with with trigger point therapy in my forearm. I started self massaging the painful area around the tendon and discovered that the pain extended through all the muscles in the forearm. I also found small knots in those muscles that I worked on. What was interesting is that the forearm muscles became very sore after the first time I massaged them. Most of that is gone after a few weeks. After the first day I could feel a shift in the tension in my forearm. Within a couple of days I noticed a diminished pain in on the knot inside my elbow. Over the past three weeks my overall pain is diminished by 80% in both elbows. All pain can be temporarily eliminated by massaging the muscles in my forearm. Strenuous use causes some measure of pain to return. I was skeptical that tension in the muscles of the forearm was the root of the pain. I was wrong. I plan to add some exercises after I am satisfied the tendons have healed.

  • Linda Szmyt 2 January 2012, 5:45 pm

    Thanks for all this useful information. I’ve had golfer’s elbow in both elbows off and on for about 15 years or so. The pain has definitely increased over the past couple of years since I’m started weight training with a personal trainer three times a week. We simply bypass the exercises that aggrevate the elbows. About a couple of months ago though, and at the advice of my family doctor, I tried physio therapy – all the treatments you listed – and the pain only got worse. So I’ve stopped going. Hot/cold compresses and massage helps but there are still certain exercises (pull-ups) that inflict pain again. I’m able to cope (I still enjoy a good workout) and for now, I just going to give it time.
    I really appreciate learning more about treatments.
    Linda

  • mrT 11 February 2012, 6:41 pm

    I too am suffering from golfers elbow for about a month now. I have had scores of experts tell me to strengthen my lower forearm with this and that exercise… I politely agree, but nobody realizes I am a sports and alpine climber. I can literally do several dozens of pull-ups, I can hold incredible weights with my fingers, I juggle 15 kg plates and regularly pull 30% higher weights then “walking chemical industry” body builders and weight lifters.
    How much more strength does one need to combat the elbow pain?
    I suspect a climbing injutry of the ulnar nerve might have something to do with this. Maybe there’s nothing wrong with the muscle and tendon. Maybe the nerve is sending wrong messages to brain?

  • John 24 February 2012, 1:23 am

    I’ve been trying to link to parts of Todd’s system inbedded in your post but the links do not seem to be working. Can you check and see if there is some problem? Thanks.

  • Owen 28 March 2012, 7:27 pm

    Hi Colin

    Great reading your blog on this topic, been the blight of my workouts for years. I am 3 weeks now into the program of rubber band and hammer exercises etc. It seems to be improving, fingers crossed. How long is it recommended to stay doing these exercises, a few months? I find that any pulling exercises at all flare up my golfers elbow. Worst of all are any bicep exercises. I am left with now with some chest and shoulder exercises. I am not sure its wise to even attempt any pulling exercises again from now on. I was reading on another blog last night that dumbell exercises put more stress on the elbow so its best to stick with barbell exercises, can you verify is that true?

    Thanks
    Owen

  • glen beesley 30 March 2012, 7:29 pm

    hi my wife is in terrible pain with a combination of tennis and golfers elbow. the doctor will not refer her to the hospital and say she will have to live with it. was wondering if this book of exercises was a gimmick and you will understand there is a lot on the internet and what difference is the exercises from this guy and the program she gets from the doctor that is not working.

  • Colin McNulty 31 March 2012, 8:58 am

    Owen: I’m glad it’s starting to work for you. There’s no magic quick fix for Golfer’s elbow in my experience, but if you’re doing something that’s showing an improvement, I’d keep doing it. It certainly can take months, but thats often a short amount of time compared to what’s often years of pain that people suffer.

    Glen: I can’t tell you what’s the difference between Scott’s exercises and your wife’s doctor’s. I make no promises that his exercises will work for your wife or anyone, but they worked for me and I’ve had emails from many people saying they’d tried them after my recommendation and their pain has reduced and/or gone completely.

  • glen 31 March 2012, 3:39 pm

    colin, thank you for your honest opinion will get the book and give it a try, nothing to lose really.

  • Guy 6 April 2012, 9:57 pm

    The KEY exercise is putting a rubber band around the outside of your fingers and thumb and then opening them against the resistance .About 3 x 25 reps per hand .I was cured in about 2 weeks.Note: this was after thinking I would have this condition for life.

  • Dave 16 April 2012, 3:22 pm

    I tried the treatment from the link you on site. So far two weeks in, I think I am worse, not better at all.

    I have done most of what you have and mine still will not get better. MRI, PT, Ibuprofen, Rest etc. etc.

    Life sux.

  • MG 4 May 2012, 10:12 am

    So, this is actually a sales ploy. Nicely done, though.

  • Colin McNulty 4 May 2012, 10:35 am

    Guy, I’m glad things worked out for you.

    Dave, you can be lucky and get a cure in 2 weeks like others have done (Guy above for example), but that wasn’t my experience. It took some months for me to see significant improvement and probably a year for full recovery. Keep the faith my friend.

    Sadly not MG. I may well wish that I’d come up with Todd’s system, but I didn’t. I am happy however to promote something that has been shown time and again to work, and for a tiny fraction of the price of conventional medical treatment. Showing people what works to recover from what can be a very painful and debilitating illness, and saving them $hundreds or $thousands in the process… my conscience is clear.

  • Sandy 29 May 2012, 10:39 pm

    I have been suffering with TE for about 6 months now – and I mean suffering in every sense of the word as my work demands aggrivates my injury, I am a single parent of two busy teenagers and for weeks now I have not been able to drive my manual car forcing me to purchase am automatic. This condition has literally crippled me with chronic intense pain that has pushed me into dispare of having to accept that no treatment so far has helped. I have done everything that you have tried including last Thursday a cortisone injection that has not improved it at all. My final bid to avoid driving my car into a tree was to reach out to the world via google and my search came up with your blog. Thank you so much for posting your story as it made me feel that I am not so alone with this struggle to get my life back. Yesterday I watched Todds clips ( after reading your entire commentary) and picked up my broom stick and had a crack at the exercises. Unbelievably, whilst they were a bit a struggle as I can’t even hold my arm out straight, afterwards my elbow felt ‘different’. Still in agony ( but only when I attempt to do anything like pick up a cup!) I managed to do the exercises 3 times and I have woken this morning with new found optimism!! My pain seems to be much less and dare I say it the joint feels stronger and slightly more stable after just one day!! Needless to say my recovery plan now includes getting Todd’s theory cos it just may work for me. I don’t feel that this is a sales thing as I you have or are currently suffering with this crippling condition you would know how genuine your story is in your quest to find a cure that works for you. I want my life back and not just the fishing, golf and softball either, I mostly want to turn a door knob, pick up a cup (or anything else for that matter), drive my kids to their activities and generally live a normal life again not being afraid of what the future might hold for me if in don’t recover. Thank you for posting your story cos now I know that I am not some faulty freak as this horrible condition affects literally millions of people around the world every day and anything that can improve your quality of life is a positive step. I will check back in and give you an update but I feel I am already recovering my health and wellbeing as my psychological state has lifted as I believe a positive attitude helps when approaching anything new and whilst this system does sound too good to be true the only thing I am scared of is that it won’t work for me cos I am desperate to find something that will improve my current state. Sorry for the lengthy blurb – this is my first ever post on the Internet as normally I just enjoy reading the debate but this topic is affecting me so much that I just had to get it down – part of the wholistic healing I suppose!!

  • Colin McNulty 30 May 2012, 10:30 am

    Wow Sandy, that’s some paragraph! 😉 I’m honoured that this is your first ever post, feel free to post more.

    I’m sorry to hear your story, but rest assured, you are not alone nor “some faulty freak”. At the worst of my golfer’s elbow, I too could neither lift a cup nor hold a tooth brush without severe pain. It does get better, but it will take time.

    For Todd’s exercises to be helping you from day 1 is, well, surprising, as it took weeks and months of steady recovery for me. But we are all different and I guess it works differently for some people, depending on the exact cause / injury. There have been some people who it hasn’t helped, but many who it has, and some have reported rapid turnarounds, I would just caution you not to think this is a quick fix. It took a year for me to get back to 99% recovered from the lowest point.

  • Gwen 4 June 2012, 7:54 pm

    I’m a little confused, if I down load the 7 day trail and then don’t cancel it then bills you the $57.00 for the exercises, correct?? So why do you keep saying its only 4.95?

  • Dave 4 June 2012, 8:01 pm

    Just to update everyone, I quite doing the excersies as it was not getting any better. I emailed for some support, but never got any reply. I wouldn’t recommend spending the money on this. You can find all the exercises on youtube anyway.

    I am nearly at the point of surgery. 🙁

  • John 6 June 2012, 6:18 am

    So I just came across this website and read your entire blog, both the long version and short, and I find it inspiring that there is some sort of “cure” for this. I am in the beginning stage of GE. I had no idea what was going on last week when I noticed my right arm hurting and then one day I woke up and my arm literally felt like it wasn’t there. I couldn’t move it without the assistance of my other arm. Finally after I was able to move it on my own, I went to the ER because like I said I have never experienced, nor knew anyone that has either, this kind of excruciating pain. The doc saw me for about 2 minutes and pressed, well squeezed, on the muscles and tendons around my elbow and I screamed in pain. She immediately said that it was either GE or TE, this lady said she couldn’t remember which one was which. I told her that I did some research the night before and that I believed it was GE. I am looking forward to doing the exercises listed because I cannot do simple tasks, ie. turning a doorknob, shaking hands, and even putting my truck in drive. I’ll keep you updated on the progress.

  • Colin McNulty 11 June 2012, 10:13 am

    Gwen, unless Todd’s changed it, yes the $4.95 is a trial price. You can try it for a week and cancel if you don’t think it’s worth it. Seems a bargain to me, but I guess other people’s views may be different.

    Dave, sorry it didn’t work for you. I didn’t know that Todd offered personal home support for the few dozen bucks he charges! He’s a busy semi-pro athlete so I’m not surprised he didn’t get back to you. There are many causes of elbow pain, it may be that you have an injury that can’t be cured by Todd’s golfer’s elbow exercises: if you’ve fractured your elbow for example; or torn the tendon off. And yes, there’s a lot of info on the net, you can spend hours trying all sorts of disjointed exercises in a random order, or you can follow a coherent program of treatment for your elbow pain, that’s the beauty of choice.

    John, good luck, but to be honest, I think you should get another Doctor if they can’t tell Golfer’s elbow from Tennis elbow!

  • Denis 14 June 2012, 5:24 pm

    I have bein suffering from Golfer’s Elbow since 3 years now,i laid off for 2 years from heavy Gym lifting with no result. I did physio therapy, corticosteroid injections, megadozed various supplements and now Todd’s Golfer’s Elbow solution.

    To be honest Todd’s exersices actualy worsend the condition in my elbow so i consider surgery as the last option 🙁

  • Dave 14 June 2012, 6:04 pm

    Hey Denis,

    Same for me. My elbow got worse with Todd’s stuff. I think the reason being is that you are supposed to start doing the strengthening exercises once the inflammtion is gone. In my case, I was still way inflammed and doing this stuff made it worse. After 2 weeks I quit.

    So here is my recomendation. There is no magic book or majic exercise that will heal this condition. Go see a professional vs. some silly book on the internet that doesnt work.

  • Denis 14 June 2012, 7:58 pm

    Dave, thanks for the advice but where i live here in Bulgaria there arent realy any good specialist that deal with Golfer’s elbow specifically. All physiotherapists do the same stuff, the standart physio therapy with ultrasound guided injections/creams , corticosteroids for inflammations and in chronic cases like mine where there is some scar tissue and micro tears they perform surgery .

    I think that Todd’s book is usefull for people who have Tenditis in the elbows which is besically inflammation and weakening of the tendon.
    The real problem is when excess scar tissue make the tendons and muscles surounding them shorter and therefor exposed to further injury.
    When i read Todd’s Golfer’s elbow solution method i am wondering how could these type of exercises break the extra scar tissue and deal with the micro tears in the tendons or did i miss something ?

  • Colin McNulty 15 June 2012, 8:06 am

    If you read the many comments on my blog here, you’ll find people that have responded well to a range of treatments, and equally those that have had no luck with the very same treatments. If you see a professional, you’re likely to get a corticosteroid shot in the first instance. Some people report that they are cured of their golfer’s elbow after a single shot, and that’s great news, but for many more, Denis included, a corticosteroid shot makes no difference, and IMO can exacerbate the injury.

    Similarly there are those that swear by acupuncture, but in my experience, it was not only worthless (and costly) but extremely painful.

    I believe you are right Dave that Todd’s exercises are best for when you’re past the worse of the inflammation, although despite several people reporting to me that his exercises have made a massive difference to their elbow pain in a matter of days, I think that 2 weeks isn’t nearly enough to see a significant improvement in most people. It’s not a quick fix magic snake oil solution. If the exercises are making it worse however, then you should be dialling it back to a level that doesn’t make your elbow worse.

    As I’ve said right from the start, let pain be your guide and don’t do anything that causes more pain. Pain is your friend, it’s there to tell you that you’re doing too much of something.

  • Event venue 20 June 2012, 12:42 am

    Very valuable, thanks.

  • Casey Basil 20 July 2012, 2:40 am

    Colin,
    Wow. I have been dealing with this exact issue with my left elbow for nearly a year. I have stumbled through nearly every remedy you listed except for acupuncture. I am glad there are people out there that can relate to the issues I’ve been dealing with. I have fairly experienced orthopedic doctors dumbfounded at my lack of progress, so it’s eye-opening and comforting that others have dealt with this and have eventually recovered.

    Two quick things:
    -One: one other remedy I tried was PRP (plasma-rich platelet) shots. Didn’t do anything, but I am seeing a new pain management guy that I like who wants to try it again (previously it was with another doctor). I am going to wait to try Todd’s exercises first.
    -Two: what in the world is Todd’s system? If there are just several exercises for the elbow, why does it look like there are enough DVD’s for three copies of P-90x (plus a book)? Seems very odd. Can you briefly address this? How much time does it take to get into the routine?

    Thanks. And thank God for your elbow post!

    -Casey
    Cincinnati, OH, USA

  • Bob 1 August 2012, 11:38 am

    Colin , I posted a mesage some time in 2011 reporting that I had elbow pain. This is the post:
    Bob 19 March 2011 at 12:28 pm

    Just discoveres this morn. that I have Med. Epic… Have had it for approx. 2 months now.still not sure how to treat though other than avoid clinching my fist and pulling inward. Being deliberate not to make certain motions that involve flexing that inside forearm muscle group. The Ice/heat thing also has me confused. I do know that immediately after an injury of any type that Ice first then heat rest elevation compression etc. etc… but since this is been going on for 2 mon. Is heat the best now, of course allong w/ rest and wearing a forearm brace..Really confused about which course of action to take…Help :-/ >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

    Well that was then. Still suffering now. 17 months after the original injury and I’m dissappointed w/ the health care, or lack there of, that I,ve recieved. Doctors seem to just want to give me their 10 minute slot and stick me w/ a needle. Last time, October 2011, I got an X-ray and a quick diagnosis and an attitude of arrogance. His last words to me were “if this doesnt work, then come back and we’ll start a round of physical therapy”. I feel his attitude was saying “next”…..No care… I knew at that time that I needed an MRI to properly diagnose what is wrong, but he didnt feel in neccassary to “order” that. The cortisone shot did nothing….Using Pennsaid solution, prescribed by my general practicioner has helped more than anything , although I am concerned about long term effects of that drug as I feel as if it depletes my elbow of moiture , making it feel very boney. Since the visit with the sportsmed guy ,though, I’ve gotten to points where I feel like the pain is getting less. then some stupid motion like closing my tool box at work either reinjures or re aggrivates it.
    Cant live like this…Im seeing the same doc again (is that dopey) Im sick of all the back and forth….This time I’ll insist on an MRI( am I correct in thinking this will at least diagnose properly what I have…?…because right now Im thinking it might…I say might be my ulnar collateral ligament….

  • Dave 1 August 2012, 2:34 pm

    I have finally started getting better. I have been going to see a Doctor (chiropractor) who specializes in soft tissue using ART & acupuncture. So far the results have been very promissing. The ART hurts like hell, but he has managed to stop the pain I had pushing against the elbow. I still have pain pushing with the hands, so we are working on that now, but I would suggest looking for an ART guy. If anyone is in Jacksonville, FL I woudl highly recommend Dr. Lipp.

  • Bob 2 August 2012, 11:39 am

    im just curious to the average age of all of those on this page. I myself am 50. Was 48+ when this elbo stuff all started. Kind of scares me though to read about the ones suffering with this for “18” years. That post definitely does not give any hope, but it might be a reality I might have to learn to accept. I appreciate the honesty though.
    I definitely can relate to all these posts, especially the one that states about wishing that simple tasks such as turnjng a doorknob or picking up a pencil or a cup would not produce pain. To that I would also add: tying my shoe, pulling keys or change out of my left pocket. Also it seems that simple pronations of the wrist and elbow with NO resistance at all will sometimes produce pain.
    Has anybody considered that their pain might be from a torn or inflamed ulnar collateral ligament ? That may be a stretch for some of you but the reason I say this is because of the pain location for me was at first felt at the tendon insertion point on the left inside point where the medial epicondyle is located. Now it seems that it wraps around the epicondyle. If this is true then “Tommy John surgery” might be my only hope. Yes I did have X-rays back in October 2011 that showed no arthritis.
    Im not a doctor and Im not trying to diagnose anything for anybody including myself. Just investigating and doing the research that a specialist wont do. Instead they throw out their blanket diagnosis for all elbo pain and stick you with a needle. Sorry for my pesimism but I dont think there is a doctor out there who really cares to dig into this as much as we have on this blog. If there is any “doctor” out there who wishes to rebuke me with their pompousness go ahead. I just dont think that any doctor is qualified to make a diagnosis based on 10 minutes of a rushed consultation, an “exam” and NO MRI. I know my body. I have done some research on this as we all have.
    Im also faced with this possibility: This just might be my cross to bear for the rest of my life…………

  • Paul 4 September 2012, 12:43 pm

    I appreciated these blog post to such an extent that I thought I would add my own comments. I have suffered both tennis and golfer elbow for extended period. To be a little more precise both the inside and outside of my elbows became rock solid with extensive areas of hard lumpy material. Everything about these areas was just a mess. Not only was there hard lumpy material (easily found by probing with my thumb) I also found rough feeling ‘gravely’ areas and other areas that felt like rusty wires.

    I found a lot of what has been written above as very helpful. I generally go in for self treatment and what I read confirms that I am doing many of the ‘right’ things. Of particular help is the knowledge that these treatments take a long time. This is my own experience. At the time of writing I am not yet healed from trying to treat golfer’s elbow, and to be honest I was getting a little despondent at the lack of progress. So reading the comments has given me a little encouragement.

    Just to add something to the subject I will say that from my treatment I would say that it has to be incessant and prolonged. In the past I have been successful with treating tennis elbow. My own regime for treatment was far more intensive that anything I have read here so for. I was literally massaging the areas constantly and applying considerable force. Eventually the scar tissue broke up and I can say that the muscle became normal. I am having less success with my current golfer’s elbow. But reading this article has given me some encouragement.

    Some people have commented that with treatment the condition got worst. Meaning more painful I think. If the treatment was massage then I don’t think this was necessarily a bad thing. To a certain extent what is being attempted is to get the body to heal properly. This may involve aggravating the injury so that it can then heal properly. So it could be that initially the condition appear to be more sensitive. Well that’s my take on it anyway. I don’t claim to be authoritative, I am just communicating my experience and observations.

  • Bob 22 September 2012, 11:41 am

    Now finally after an MRI the finding has been that I have a 30% tear at the flexor pronator origin in the myotendinous area. The three options given to me: 1. cortisone injection at the injury site and complete rest. 2. PRP therapy (platelet rich plasma therapy) 3.Surgery (cutting tendon and reattaching to epicondyle)
    I chose the most conservative treatment. The first one…I am hopeful this one works..The complete rest is now a reality and will probably help tremendously. Never have truely rested it. The bad news is I can rest now because I’ve been asked by my employer to not come back to work until I’m 100%. So, out on short term disability now. More later.

  • Bob 24 September 2012, 2:40 pm

    seems this is a slow moving blog I have noticed. I guess all those on this site have gotten better. Ha ha. Just kidding. But seriously I do hope we all can heal. This is most definitely a nagging, dehabilitating condition that I would’nt wish on anybody….
    Have you, Colin, or anyone heard of PRP therapy (platelet rich plasma therapy) and have had any success with it.

  • Paul 30 September 2012, 10:23 am

    Bob your condition sounds pretty severe. But I think a tear should heal. I don’t expect this will be quick. I don’t think this condition is quite the same in every sufferer. This is something I have learn from this site. My condition is outlined above and I am now six months into intensive treatment. I had it for a long time before this and had treated it but only got partial improvement, and the condition always reoccurred . Indeed it came back worse. This time I intend to completely clear out the scar tissue if possible. I am not there yet. If this happens I expect to have a much reduced forearm.

  • ben 17 October 2012, 4:54 pm

    hi all

    very interesting, but on a slightly topical note, have none of you gone down the naughty road of growth hormone or steroids? hgh and about 4 anabolics increase collagen synthesis 10 fold, meaning you heal and are left with incredibly strong tendons.

    i am using glucosamine with condritine supps, cod liver oil, and stretching and so on. something appears to actually be twanging inside my arm when at its worst, so stretching may save the day for me. i am a bodybuilder, been so for over 20 yrs.

    if i cannot fix myself via this method of Todds, or via a new injectable natural remedy known as alflutop*which the olympic community are swearing by*i shall have to resort to topical methods. as some posters have said, it is no joke to find yourself disabled, and be left thinking you cannot fix it.

    I shall report my progress, firstly using gluc n condr. mixed with cod liver oil and this stretching, then alflutop, then whatever is necessary. probably anavar.

  • Said 12 January 2013, 11:11 am

    Hi Colin,

    Just to let know you that I decided to start your solution today (and this is my final trail before i go for surgery)

    One year ago i developed a golfer elbow and since then I tried everything and nothing worked permanently. My Doctor says, you better go for the surgery.

    Anyway, to cut the story short, I’ll try this method and see if it really works.

    I just have a small question… should I stop working out completely ?!?! I normally go to the gym around 4-5times a week, so should I stop that!?!? If yes, for how long?!

    Thanks and I’ll let you know my progress in a month time

    Cheers, Said

  • Eddie 20 January 2013, 2:23 pm

    Hi all !!!
    since my last post i thought I would share my most recent experiences in getting better

    1. I have been getting deep tissue massage’s that really help. The therapist worked my elbow area for a good 15 to 20 min.

    2. The therapist taught
    me a great way to help make the pain go away. Lay on the floor with arm extended out with elbow pointed down. This is the fun part. I have my wife 110 lbs take the heel of her foot with the ball of her foot on the floor and rest it on my arm right before the bend in it. I have her apply pressure by adding more weight and as she is doing so I move my fingers and wrist. This has helped me tremendously. I do this procedure 5 to six times a week.

    I have also found that adding ice for 15 min at a time has really helped out.
    Hope this helps u
    Eddie

  • Sarah 21 January 2013, 2:42 pm

    With golfer’s elbow do you lose range of motion and flexibility? I have had the pain and 2 cortisone shots in the past year and a half. The second shot wore off after 3 months and this time the pain was sharper and I lost mobility to where I could not hold a phone, scratch my back, brush my hair. PT made it worse. CT scan did not show anything. Used to do a workout that probably started this whole thing but quit a year ago when the pain started and have been doing nothing but normal daily activities to aggravate. I have the same frustrations with doctors. They finally gave me a third cortisone shot because I was in so much pain but don’t know if that is safe. It has helped mobility but still hurting with a bruise the size of a golf ball, but has only been three days , so hopfully woll continue to improve.Wondering if I should consider these exercises?

  • Guy 25 January 2013, 11:23 am

    I just thought that I would check in and report that I have had no problems with my right elbow again.
    I would urge those who are trying the techniques listed( rubber band) to be patient especially if you have had it a long time.

    It is common to think that because you cannot do a particular exercise or sport that you have always done that you are going to decay physically.
    However whilst healing your elbow take up hiking or do as I did and do Loads of kettlebell swing( if it does not hurt!)I used to really like pull ups but could not them for months but in the scheme of things it did not matter.I am better now and not doing pull ups for 6 months is a very small cross to bear.

  • Ben 11 February 2013, 1:15 am

    I am a 31 year old man I have had some sort of elbow problem for the last 5 months since Oct 2012 I assume its from golfing since thats when it started (use to golf 3 times a week). first it was shooting pain down my arm (like when you bump your funny bone). Then my ring and pinky finger started having pins and needles feeling. I went and saw doctor he said it was golfers elbow so gave me a shot of cortisone. Didnt help at all I still felt pain the next day. I then went back to the doctor and he suggested I do physical therapy. I started doing PT and some days I felt like it would be working then I would go play golf and next day I would have the pins and needles feeling in my ring and pinky finger again. I’ve been icing, masaging, exercises and taking long breaks from golf and I will feel good then I go play golf again and the pain is right back along with significate swelling on my elbow. I’m at the point now where i feel like I have a tear or something in my UCL. the Ortho guy I have seen hasnt xrayed or sent me to get a MRI yet. I think I am going to demand one. I’m starting to think this is something I’m going to have to live with for the rest of my life. Can some of you guys tell me what your symptons are like tingling in your fingers or pain in your tricep area (I have that sometimes) or pain in the forearm.

  • vinay 16 February 2013, 12:26 pm

    Squeezing the smiley ball and rest and hammer exercise cured my Golfers elbow.
    I m 90% ok now.From a time when I used to scream of pain at midnight even if hand would shake a bit to now shaking hands doing mild push ups.
    Thanks.
    Vinay

  • Bob 23 February 2013, 11:24 am

    Ever been hit in the “funny bone”? Thats actually the ulnar nerve. Thought I had medial epicondylitis but actually I now think that I have had and still have some form of nerve entrapment of “ulnar neuropathy”. The tingling Ben describes sounds so familiar. With me it was tingling of the pinky and the inside of the ring finger. Ulnar neuropathy can be mistaken for med. epicon. Before you get any more cortisone shots I would first have determined which condition you have. I had to rest my arm and have it in a cast for three months. Give the nerve a chance to heal . You are thirty one and have the better ability to heal more quickly than say a 50 yr, old. Seems as if intense activity always agitates mine too. Also keep an eye out for weather conditions. that could have something to do with it as well.

  • Prags 25 February 2013, 9:39 pm

    Hi Colin,
    I posted my message few days back, but it still does not show up here. Do you know why ?

    Thanks
    Prags

  • Rose 26 February 2013, 8:01 am

    I had a serious case of tennis elbow a few years ago, and I cured it by going to PT and getting ASTYM (scraping the sore area with plastic tools to smooth out the scar tissue) followed by arm stretches and exercise. It worked great. Now I have a milder case of golf elbow, and hope I can cure it by just doing the arm stretches and exercises.

  • Prags 26 February 2013, 5:19 pm

    Has anyone used TenDLite ? I am suffering from sever tennis elbow pain in my both arms and I have tried almost every thing in last eight months. Pretty frustrating 🙁

  • Jamie 14 March 2013, 7:31 pm

    I have golfer’s elbow in my right arm from lifting too heavy too soon, and compensating by curling my wrists. I purchased Todd Scott’s solution today and it seems like common sense and less expensive than a physical therapy session, so I’ll give it a try. However, anyone considering it should know that while Todd’s site does state that it is satisfaction guaranteed within the first 60 days, there is really nothing like a “trial period”. You will be billed the $4.95 the day you order it and then $52.83 seven days later, and there is no way to cancel on the website. The word “trial” does not even appear on the tenniselbowsolution.com website. This may have changed since you gave your original endorsement, Colin, but it smacks of cheesy internet sales techniques. If you still stand by the solution, your endorsement would appear less like you were colluding with Todd if you update your blog to eliminate any reference to the trial.

  • Colin McNulty 21 March 2013, 8:36 am

    Jamie, thanks for your comment and raising your concerns. I’ve held off releasing your comment until I investigated and could answer your points (and edited it to remove the shouting, tsk). I’m guessing that you decided to go directly to TennisElbowSolution.com rather than click the link I provided:

    http://www.colinmcnulty.com/tips/golfers-elbow2

    The reason I put that link on is because it redirects to Todd separate page for Golfer’s Elbow (as opposed to Tennis Elbow although the exercises are effectively the same), and on that golfer’s elbow page it does reference the Trial exactly 13 times.

    I’ve checked with Todd, as it has obviously been a while since I bought his guide, and while there is no “cancel” or “refund” button on the website, cancel and refund instructions are emailed with the invoice after purchase.

    Note that Todd uses a third party website to managed all the payments and distribution, and you can contact their support directly to cancel the rebill and/or get a refund for both the trial fee and the rebill fee. Note that Todd has no control over this process, it’s completely managed by the third party website.

    Or you can contact Todd directly and ask him to do that for you. I do know he goes away on Tennis tournaments though, so you’ll have to be patient if you follow that route.

    To answer your last point, can I say for sure that Todd’s exercises cured my golfer’s elbow? No. But everything else I tried either had no effect or made it worse, and it was only once I started Todd’s exercises that it started to get better, slowly but surely.

    I’m now golfer’s elbow pain free and have been for several years. Given how desperate I was to find relief, I do still stand by my recommendation, and if I was back in that situation again, I’d pay that 50 bucks many times over (and did on other treatments)!

  • Bobby Taylor 17 April 2013, 7:07 pm

    I have had golfer’s elbow for over 20 years and I have tried just about everything(rest, pyhsical therapy, art doctor, mri scan, stretching, cortisone shot and creams. Time off from the gym does me absoulely no good, because as soon as I come back to working out, the inflammation comes back just as strong as ever. I have taken time off even for 5 years at a time. I’m always at the cusp of inflammation. It has destroyed my chance of lifting on a regular basis for my whole life. Luckily, I do not have a job that requires heavy labor because I would not be able to work. I’m at the end of my rope and am ready to give up lifting weights once and for all, since majority of the excercises causes the inflammation to get worse.

  • Clint 4 August 2013, 10:48 am

    Hi all.

    I have had Golfers elbow for just over a year now on my left arm, I am right handed.
    I have had 2 cortisone injections which as you all know do nothing except mask the problem and really make it worse.
    I have had on going Physio treatments and streghthening the muscles ect around area, which has not helped. The best thing to come out of it which is bad to say but my Physio moved and I got another Physio.
    She found the problem straight away, it’s in my back!! She checked my neck and spine for tightness and between my shoulder blades (T6 vertebrae I think she called it).
    I had a grip strength gadget which I gripped to show my strength obviously, my right arm was 60kgs, left arm 40kgs until pain was to bad I had to stop.
    After she spent time working on my T6 vertebrae my grip pressure increased to 52kgs. Amazing result.
    So I now have stretches for my upper back. A solid ball which i roll either side of my spine, up and down a wall, i also have a solid tube to lay on my back which i roll over the length of my spine. I have relief from pain after each session of exercises I do. The pain comes back but I am hoping in time I will be free from pain.
    So I would suggest a couple of things, get your spine checked for tightness, because for some crazy reason it’s linked to the elbow, and change your Physio for a different point of view.
    I hope this helps.

  • chitown 18 September 2013, 12:55 am

    Hi all,

    I wanted to share my story of how I mostly cured my own golfer’s elbow. I don’t know anything about the product being pushed on this blog I just want to help others with this issue. I am 28 and have been lifting for 10 years for 3-5 days per week. I got a bad case of golfer’s elbow about 2 years ago which completely prevented me from doing pullups for about 9 months! I basically could not grip anything strongly without pain in my forearm/inner elbow. I could still do bicep curls but not with palms up (supinated) or anything requiring a strong grip and causing strain on my inner forearm, pinky side especially (ie I could do hammer curls).

    I self-diagnosed golfers elbow. Rest did not work. I rested for months and did some stretching of the forearm via the wrist. I still could not grip without extreme pain. Since rest didn’t work, online research suggested I try strengthening exercises. THIS WORKED (and is what this blog is generally suggesting).

    I alleviated 90% of the symptoms by simply using a grip strengthener. I used “Gripmaster Pro Hand Strengthening System, Extra-Heavy Tension (11 Pounds per Finger)” which costs $12. I just did a couple sets of 50 or so reps almost every day. I could not believe how quickly I recovered and was pissed I wasted so much time “resting.” I was back doing pullups in no time. While it will still flare up here and there after a grip-intensive workout (and when I get lazy with the grip strengtheners), I am not prevented from any activity and could live with it as is. I have not yet found a cure for the final 5-10%.

    Best of luck to all!

  • Ian 2 October 2013, 12:47 pm

    Hello Guys,

    For the past six months I had a moderate case of golfer elbow triggered by Pull ups (I’m just too heavy and shouldn’t have done them I knew it but…..dumbass….)So anyway I searched the web for a cure and found this very helpful webpage and felt I owe it you guys to reveal what INSTANTLY relieved 50% of the pain/discomfort.

    http://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/2012/11/23/golfers-elbow-a-possible-solution/

    After three weeks (twice daily)of this stretching routine I’m 85% pain free back in the gym training at full strength except for the back exercices and biceps curls where I’m still a bit cautious.

    I’ve also been progressively strenghtening my forearms 3 times per week with the usual eccentric exercices and it seems to help a great deal. I also found that deadlifts with moderate weight is beneficial probably because the weight is pulling the elbows down giving them a nice stretch.

    My two cents…

  • Thomas 8 November 2013, 9:52 pm

    Chitown and Ian – THANK YOU very much for sharing your recommendations. I’ve put them both to use and I’ve noticed a DRAMATIC decrease in pain and symptoms in only 4 days. And man, mine was BAD!

    Totally jacked up my elbow doing underhand pullups in July. I felt it ‘pop’, get very sore. I would have been fine if I would have stopped then, but I pushed through another set. Bad, bad move.

    Anyway, I tried resting, icing, all of it. None helped a lot. Yours did.

    So, thanks!

    PS – Ian – on the gripmaster, did you use fingertips or more like a power grip/compression on a barbell? And, did do slow reps like 3-4 seconds and hold. Or just a straight 1-2, 1-2 approach? Thanks a lot.

  • steve 13 July 2014, 2:12 pm

    Nothing in life is free. What works for some is a complete and utter waste of time an money for others. Go see your doctor is better advice.

  • Dick Bourne 14 August 2015, 6:02 pm

    Suffering from GE for several months, 72 years old, swimmer but injured using a plumber’s crimping tool.

    Surprised at no recent activity on this site- would love to see updates from past participants.

  • Bev Stevens 23 May 2016, 7:59 am

    I’m searching the internet today for anything I’ve not yet read on golfer’s elbow and I came across your blog. I read your 2008 post first then clicked the link to this one. A few paragraphs in and I read this:

    “That said, there are just 2 exercises that always give me a little niggle: front squats and shoulder press. Either one of these I can do to max effort and come away with a bit of pain that lasts 24-48 hours and then goes. The only time I have a problem is if I try to do both these exercises in the same workout. If that’s all I have to avoid, then I’m happy happy happy!”

    and couldn’t help but laugh. My golfer’s elbow is very minor. I started lifting weights a year and a half ago and as my weights got heavier I noticed this little bit of aggravation occasionally. Well, today it hurts more than usual (which is why I’m here) and my routine today included front squats and shoulder presses!

    I do 12 exercises, 4 per workout on a 3 day split routine, lifting every second day. So this particular routine comes round every 6 days. The first thing I’m going to attempt for my cure is to rearrange my exercises so that front squats and shoulder presses do not occur on the same day. Thank you for that information. If that’s all I have to do then I’ll be happy happy happy too!

  • Colin McNulty 24 May 2016, 9:43 am

    Haha, nice one Bev. I’m really pleased that piece of information helped you. Isn’t the internet wonderful, something I wrote years ago is still helping people today. Love it. Good luck with your training. 🙂 Colin

  • Nancy 6 August 2016, 2:39 am

    Has anyone had any kind if improvement with surgery when suffering from both medial and lateral epycondolitis? When you do the exercises for one part doesn’t it aggravate the other side?

  • Chris 23 September 2016, 4:41 pm

    I’m currently suffering from GE (from playing tennis…). It’s been about 9 months and I’m finally seeing the doctor on Monday. From friends’ experiences with doctors, I’m going in with these recommendations:

    1) get referred to a sports doctor. General practitioners don’t specialize in athletic injuries and, after basic X-rays to make sure your bones aren’t the problem, they should shift you off to a sports person for further analysis, MRI, etc.

    2) don’t let them tell you “you’ll just have to deal with it”. Not playing tennis for these past months has been terrible — I like running around, the competition, the camaraderie. Tell them you’re an athlete and that you need to be 100% again. Push them to send you to a sports medicine expert. If they won’t, find a doctor who will. Let me repeat: don’t let them put you off. Get referred to a sports medicine specialist. Don’t give up.

    Great write up on exercises, pain relief, etc. 100% agree that cortisone is for making it through a tournament — it’s not a fix. Keeping swelling down (800 mg ibuprofen, etc) combined with massage is a good idea. If you need to use/abuse the elbow, ice it up. But if you’re having problems after a few months of rest and care, see a doctor as your tendons might not be reparable without surgery.

    A friend on the court had her sports medicine doctor do an MRI and her tendon was basically shredded. Surgery, a few months rehab, and she’s back out playing.

    Good luck everyone.

  • Vincent Reade 28 March 2017, 11:15 pm

    Hi Colin,
    With regards to the book you mention here are there two versions, one for tennis elbow and one for golfers elbow or are they the same?
    Also as a non swimmer I have always thought that swimming is good for injuries but reading some comments here that appears not to be thye case with GE, is this what you think?
    Has anyone had succesful surgery on GE (if it exists in the UK? )
    Thanks for your help.
    Regards
    Vince

  • tom 2 August 2017, 5:33 am

    All I can say is that I tried numerous treatments, remedies, braces what have you and so far the only thing that seems to be working consistently is……..DOING NOTHING!!!!!!! The thing will heal when it is good and ready. All this other stuff sure looks and sounds nice but lets be real most of it is a waste of time , money and effort. Just leave it alone and don’t abuse it and eventually it will start to come around. Yeah a little stretching and light movements and all that is ok but the thing just takes a lllllooooonnnnnggggg time to heal. So bite the bullet and just forget about it for a while and be patient. Rely more on your own feeling and take all other info. with a grain of salt. It is a shame that there are charlatans out there still feeding off of people’s afflictions without a blink of an eye. Hey my elbow is going to heal but their lack of a moral compass is going to lead them down a dark unhealthy place. Hey no disrespect here. I mean if stuff worked for all you all out there more power to you. I can only speak from my point of view and experience.

  • Bev Stevens 15 September 2017, 5:55 am

    Hi, me again. I commented on May 24, 2016 and was going to come back in a year to post progress. How time flies! It’s been 16 months and I would just like to say I’m happy, happy, happy! Since rearranging my exercises I have had zero, literally no pain from my previous golfer’s elbow agony. Still lifting every second day, still making gains. Thank you so much for posting your experience. 🙂

  • Naresh kumar 13 October 2017, 3:34 pm

    Sir I have golfer elbow pain from almost 1 year what I do to remove pain

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