emil3m wrote:
1. "This has been a nagging issue for about a year now, I've seen a PT who said rest it for two weeks. That did not work. My pain is felt around the brachioradialis. Not in the elbow area, but high on the forearm and close to the insertion point. My favorite bicep exercise--hammer curls are causing pain. I get a sharp pain initially even with the lightest of dumbbells and it feels generally weak in the area. After 20 or so reps it seems to get used to the movement and the pain goes away...
Yep, sounds like tennis elbow, technically known as lateral epicondylitis. As the name implies, it's not the elbow joint, but the lateral epicondyle that is involved. This is the ORIGIN, not the INSERTION of the wrist flexors and radial deviators, but that it just picky. Hammer curls would be expected to trigger pain.
emil3m wrote:
2. "Went back to the PT to obtain a referral to an orthopedist. But she pin pointed the problem area and said it's most likely the radial nerve. She showed me some Neural Mobilization techniques and it definitely feels like it's targeting the problem.
3. "Just an update, today I tried out standing cable hammer curl's with the rope and had absolutely no pain! (I have been doing radial nerve stretching exercises so that may be helping as well). It's weird because a week ago I could only use 50% weight on my dumbbell hammers because I was aggravating this problem but now with the cable it seems to be activating the muscles differently so perhaps the constant tension is the best way to approach this...[/i]
My issue is that I'm uninsured and in college. It really does look like I have to raise capital for some ART, doesn't it? I tried googling "Neural Mobilization" and "radial nerve stretching," but there's too much info to pick from.
Neither "neural mobilization nor "radial nerve stretching" are main-line medical concepts. Why would stretching a nerve be a good thing? Nerves aren't mobile structures, other than just riding along when the body moves, so why would you want to mobilize them? I'm sure that any movement that is intended to stretch the radial nerve is stretching a whole lot of other things, which probably accounts for any benefit of the activity.
Tennis elbow often goes away, sometimes as mysteriously as it came. Rest, ice, stretching (of the wrist extensors, radial deviators) decreased activity and time. If while that is happening you are doing some voodoo nerve mobilization technique, I'm sure that's what will get the credit.
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