dealing with tennis elbow... fixed mine after 10 months
TLDR: find exercises that make it feel good and worked out. stick to a 10-20 min session of these exercises daily and stick to it.
this video from the elbow doc really really gave me the most information and I feel guided me the best. it's long but it was worth it for me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3F712Vwjghc&t=6866s
I just got out of dealing with tennis elbow for past 10 months. Making this post because I found comfort in reading people deal with this annoying injury.
I'm 35 yr old male. never REALLY played tennis until 2 years ago.
So I developed tennis elbow and did what I did with any injury... rest it. Didn't go to the courts for 1 week, 2, 4... okay something was wrong and I hit the internet. watching youtube videos after youtube videos. all of them said all kinds of things but the most common thing... do these exercises. So what did I do?... do the exercises. however I did them randomly, with no plan no real consistency. I still thought rest and random exercises would eventually fix it. one morning I'd wake up and it'd be done... back to 100%. I ended up playing with pain for the rest of the summer because I needed to play - its the brand new sport I'm obsessed with.
Then the winter hit and I didn't do anything. I wasn't going to the courts, just living life... so since I wasn't going to be hitting at all for months... I thought one day I'd wake up and it'd be fine.
Then April hit, winter was over and the tennis season was soon approaching... and I still had pain... some days felt better, some not, but it was always there - all winter.
I needed this pain gone before playing another season. so I finally decided to listen and find some exercises that felt good - it brought the pain to a 4 and made it feel "worked out"... did about a 20min session of these exercises every single day. well I'm at 3 weeks of doing that and my elbow feels amazing. not 100% but 80% and just keeps feeling better and better. I will say... The mornings.... it is stiff AF! but I warm it up(wrist twirls) and once I get moving there's no pain all day. and that morning stiffness is getting better and better.
I'm so annoyed with my stubbornness. Wish I would have done this earlier. the difference is night and day. I will be about 5 weeks into this before I plan on swinging a racquet again. I can only imagine it will feel great if not perfect by then - and then lets see how it holds up after returning to play.