1st World Old Man Problem - Tendonitis

M_D

M_D

Bringin' the Skunk
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To set the stage, I'm 64 and evidently my body can't handle a solid week of fishing anymore. I know......call the Wambulance....but I can't be the only one dealing with this...so whaddaya do?

At the end of this years annual May trip to eastern WA with a shrinking group of work friends I developed Tennis Elbow in my casting arm. Of course I stubbornly pushed through the pain to the point I didn't wanna use that arm to steer on the drive home.

Two weeks later I have a stretching, ice, and Tylenol plan from my chiropractor but it doesn't seem to be getting much better. It's killing my fishing plans cuz it hurts to even throw tiny poppers on my 3wt for 6 inch blueys. I have a one of those 2 inch wide forearm compression straps which helps a bit but not all that much.

Anybody use a full elbow compression sleeve? Or have some other magic pill?

I'm contemplating learning to cast with my left arm...which ought to be hilarious to watch....but until then, what has worked for others?
 
Being of similar vintage this is our life. We need to increase our healthspan and be smarter animals using better and different tools. Somethings I have found helpful are compression sleeves for when doing sports or when I get a flare but have no time to actively deal with it. Second thing from crossfit is using a mobility band. The stupid mobility band works! It's a weird thing with a weird theory of operation but they work for me. Train your healthspan meaning a combination of endurance training, improving v02max, strength training,stability training and proper nutrition to support all this. By the way the FDA has about doubled the daily protein requirement as of the beginning of 2026 and it isn't enough for people on a healthspan program. It is near a full time job after you retire but it is the key to maxing your healthspan. Learning to use a 2 hand rod has changed my life and rekindled my love of flyfishing. I have been looked at funny by flats guides in florida until I start slaying fish. Today for all my fishing I think about picking up a 2 hander 1st before I think of reverting back to a single. But learning to speycast a 2 hander really speeds your ability to singlehand spey. Singlehand with a singlehand rod spey not only opens up more fishing opportunity but also takes pressure off the body in general. IF you don't want to invest in a 2 hand rod at least invest in a singlehand spey line and learn those tricks.
 
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Get a theraband flex bar and do Tyler Twist exercises as part of your daily routine. You probably want a few flex bars in different resistance levels. My issue has been that once I’m over a flare up I stop the exercise till the next time. Preventing the next flare would be better.

A NEW EXERCISE FOR TENNIS ELBOW THAT WORKS! - PMC

Eccentric exercise has been effectively used in the management of tendinopathies in multiple regions of the body. Lateral epicondylosis (“tennis elbow”) is a common tendinopathy that has shown improvement following treatment utilizing isokinetic ...
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
 
Tennis elbow takes time. Straps, Nsaids, rest, see an athletic specialists, start on nasids at beginning of trip, whine online.

I've has it and got past it a number of times.
 
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I had it in my 40's (1998). Cortisone shot and rest eventually did the trick; I wouldn't go that route today. There are better & safer treatments available today. Go to a doctor.
 
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Ran into this for many years because I climbed a lot. It's usually muscle imbalance, look at some of the strengthening and rotation exercises for top side forearm muscles, including ones you can do with a heavy cast iron pan or a single weight on the end of a dumbbell bar.

Till then, rest, ice, compression, elevation.
 
I had this a few years back and think it was due to a combination of poorly matched reel/rod and kayaking with a crappy paddle and gripping the paddle way too hard and rod grip that was also too tight. Often it also coincided with a lot of spring garden work and pruning. It's a big bummer MD and I hope you feel better soon.

Maybe it's bad form but I cast with my index finger running on top of the cork, it works for me and I rarely try and bomb casts. I also fish a variety of rod speeds and reel/line weights. Using a different but similar tool I'd like to think is keeping the tendon happy.

(Everybody knows that fish that want to be caught are always 50 feet or less from shore at all times, so why bomb casts further? Alternatively the spots that reliably have fish within 50 feet are that way for a reason. Either your boat is in the right place or you are standing on the correct rock...)

Time, rest, and a slow resolution and implementation of push-ups in varied wrist positions also helped. I'd like to believe it's off season- January to April- work that makes the injury risk on casting arm less likely...
 
I've had elbow tendonitis for decades. Dealing with it again right now. First, ditch the Tylenol. Tylenol treats pain but not inflammation. When treating, I take 800 mg of ibuprofen (twice the usual recommended dose) and dunk my elbow in an ice water bath for 10 minutes. About one tray of ice cubes in a quart or so of cold water. The ice hurts like hell and takes me a couple minutes to get my elbow dunked, but then it starts to hurt so good, as they say. Ice water treatment after an exercise session seems to help.
 
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Wadin' Boot said:
I had this a few years back and think it was due to a combination of poorly matched reel/rod and...
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I wrote about "swing weight" AKA "rotational moment" in another "Tennis Elbow" thread

Brian Miller

Post in thread 'Tennis Elbow?'

jasmillo said:
I get it on occasion during coho season. Not sure why some seasons I get it and some not. One or two outings with bad mechanics?
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I follow a retired MD's (gastro surgeon, not ortho) Tenkara fishing and gear review blog who has said casting 400cm+ tip heavy T-rods make his tennis elbow tendinitis flare up even though the overall weight is low. 400cm T-rods can easily have more swing weight than a 9' fly rod. As a result he has put a lot of emphasis on "rotational moment" aka "swing weight" in his rod reviews. Maybe y'all know this but casting mechanics aside, western rods have an...
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It's been quite awhile but when purchasing a (single hand) western rod & reel I have tried to balance them so that with ~30' of line out (the weight of the rod, reel, backing, and line, minus the taper and what I might carry in the air) I rest the rod horizontally on a single finger to see if it will balance directly beneath the grip right at my index finger when my hand is in its natural casting position or perhaps ~1 inch in front of the handle. Maybe it's because I have only purchased one top of the line (lightest) rod in my 50 yrs of fly fishing I can find a reel one size larger than than the line weight recommendation for the reel works better. Ex. for a 6 weight 9 1/2 beach rod and a 456 reel that has backing and line with 30' of line (the taper) out through the guides, the tip might drop to the floor because the reel and line weight is too light. And stopping that tip heavy rod along with the weight and momentum of the taper in the air to change between forward <---> back casts can put a real strain on the wrist. A 789 reel might be a better choice, but may feel a bit awkward. Hope that makes sense.

The lack of mass-weight when casting is just one reason I now would rather use Tenkara rods for pretty much all small (to medium) sized stream fishing.

Salmo_g said:
I've had elbow tendonitis for decades. Dealing with it again right now. First, ditch the Tylenol. Tylenol treats pain but not inflammation. When treating, I take 800 mg (twice the usual recommended dose) and dunk my elbow in an ice water bath for 10 minutes. About one tray of ice cubes in a quart or so of cold water. The ice hurts like hell and takes me a couple minutes to get my elbow dunked, but then it starts to hurt so good, as they say. Ice water treatment after an exercise session seems to help.
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Ice=cool ;) Maybe I misread the intent but Don't do this with NSAIDs (specifically Ibuprofin) though. Exceeding recommended amounts can be dangerous.

CRO said:
An anti inflammatory drug like ibuprofen (800mg) works for me.
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Former Seattle Seahawks Hall of Famer Kenny Easley suffered severe kidney failure. He attributed his condition to taking excessive amounts of over-the-counter NSAIDs (Nonsteroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs), specifically ibuprofen for several months to manage a severe ankle injury. Easley sued the Seahawks, team doctors, and Whitehall Laboratories (makers of Advil) in 1989 claiming the medical staff provided the drug without adequate warning of the risks. The lawsuit was eventually settled out of court.

If you insist on exceeding the recommended NSAID dosage; especially as we age, at a minimum have regular checkups with Basic Metabolic or Comprehensive Metabolic Panels (CMP) done to show how well your kidneys are functioning. Speaking for a friend.
 
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Hey All....thanks for the responses....really 👍 Lots of good stuff to digest.

Not sure how I missed the Tennis Elbow thread in February but glad I'm seeing it now.

Mike d
 
@M_D , good luck. Sounds like orthoped time.

Guys, remember, WebMD is a great resource for drug interactions and dosage / long term use warnings. I've used it several times to combat excessive over prescription of drugs from VA docs. For some reason, they love ibuprofen and gabapentin in high high doses.
 
I get it every few years during salmon season. It can be pretty painful at times but I tend to just fish through it and rest in winter when casting smaller stuff seems to give it enough rest to heal. If it’s really bad I use the forearm strap which if worn appropriately will help.

I always say I’m going to do exercises in the spring to get ready for 5 months of double hauling heavier rods every cast multiple times per week, but have yet to do it. One day I’ll learn my lesson.
 
See a well qualified sports med doc, since this has been going on so long they may recommend an injection in to the joint. I had this same issue and eventually after months I got the injection (steroid, I think). My elbow and whole body felt great for a few months. Not that everyone can do steroids, just saying it worked for me. It has not recurred for me, thankfully.
 
One other thing stability training is obviously done on both sides of the body. We don't think of that in sports but we should. Casting isn't all arm and anyone who can do a good double haul can tell you how important the hips are and that speaks to stability training. As an example, Tennis players use the dominant side. In the old days of tennis there was this guy roscoe tanner. Tanner had a big serve and a giant right arm. He had a twig for a left arm and just looked like a freak. From age 14 I started in the Bruce Lee martial arts systems and we trained everything both left and right sided. I'm near ambi and credit decades early ambi training for my skill level today. Spey casting is such that, wind direction and river right or river left force you to cast dominant hand or cack handed or you learn to spey cast on the non-dominat side. I cast on both sides. So discounting wind, if one side of my body hurts I might just fish the other side of the river...problem solved.
 
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