Shooting Elbow?

[RogerinTPA]

Not tennis elbow per se, but my right forearm used to ache like hell after shooting 2-300 rounds of 9mm in a 30 min interval. I had to use a tennis ball or one of those jell hand exercisers for 10 to 20 mins, just to not have it ache in the morning. For some reason, after shooting around 700 rounds, mostly at a very fast and timed pace on TD 1 of the VTAC 1.5 Pistol on Friday, my arm felt just fine in the morning and for the rest of the course. It may very well have been the Aleve self medicating prior to each day, that helped out.

[Rob Haught]

As a long time shooter I had the same problems. One of the tricks that helped was to take a rubber band and put around the end of my fingers and open my hand flexing against the band. It strengthens the muscles that open the hand and in short order my pain lessened then went away. We are naturally disporportionately stronger in clenching the fist than in opening it, like a gators mouth. Anytime I start to feel it coming back I do a few days of this exercise and it really helps.

[Robb Jensen]

Thanks RobH I'll try your method myself after getting a .40 Glock I've felt the symptoms return mostly because I have shot much live fire this year. Most of my gun handling has been dryfire and dry practice I need to work on my draw but I'm a lazy bastard. I've been working on my reloads and get them consistently under 1 sec.

[Jay Cunningham]

My elbow feels a lot better now, but I'll keep the suggestions here in mind for the future.

[WillBrink]

Plenty of good advice her worth trying that may fix/delay the issue. Some of the most experienced shooters I know have switched to 9mm as the many years -and tens of thousands of rnds of .45ACP - cause them issues now. I have small hands and very small wrists, and will turn 45 end of this month. Last IDPA match I shot with my 1911, my wrists and hands were sore for a few days due to 230g full loads.

[VMI-MO]

Will,

This is kinda an off shoot, but can a person use joint mobility drills to decrease the soreness?

If a shooter starts a regular regime of joint mobility drills when he is younger can he prevent "shooting elbow" and other potential joint problems?

Thanks
PJ

[WillBrink]

Will,

This is kinda an off shoot, but can a person use joint mobility drills to decrease the soreness?

If a shooter starts a regular regime of joint mobility drills when he is younger can he prevent "shooting elbow" and other potential joint problems?

Thanks
PJ

I have no doubts that a program of stretching, strengthening, etc could help avoid the issue, or greatly prolong 'till it happens, as with any activity that is repetitive in nature. So the answer is "yes" I believe

For me, it's trying to balance off the training in the gym, grip work (a more recent addition), conditioning stuff, typing all day, and shooting. It's causing some over training/repetitive stress in my lower arms/wrists.

[tpd223]

Both of my elbows are angry most of the time now, my right (right handed I am) has almost no cartridge left at all.
Although martial arts and heavy bag work have likely been partially to blame, and likely working at moving crazy amounts of weight at the gym, I'm dead sure that shooting lots and lots of big rounds over the past 30+ years has been a great deal of my problem.

Back when we carried revolvers at work I shot tons of full house .357mag ammo, then later lots of .45 ammo. I also never passed up an opportunity to shoot .44mags, .45 revolvers, .454s, etc, and other stupid stuff like J frame .357s with full house ammo and 37mm pistols with bean bag and gas rounds.

If I had known then what I know now I would have done some things differently and tried to head off my issues.

Fish oil and the glucosimine+whatever type stuff helps, as does doing my rehab exercises, but between the arthritis, carpal tunnel and other issues I have now pain is something that never goes completely away.

Word to the wise, if you haven't gotten old yet it will happen, and you can head off these issues early if you don't do stupid stuff.

[WillBrink]

Word to the wise, if you haven't gotten old yet it will happen, and you can head off these issues early if you don't do stupid stuff.

Young = stupid.

You thought you were indestructible too.

I had some serious health issues fairly young, so that vale of indestructible was removed for me at a young age, which is how I ended up in the health/fitness/longevity/bbing industry.

An advantage to know early one is not indestructible? I'm not sure as I don't have a reference point really. Even knowing what I know/knew, I still got aches and pains, so if you gonna play, you gonna pay, but (and this is an important but...) as you say, not doing stupid stuff and taking measures of prevention can go a long way to reducing rates of injury, improving performance, and reducing long term issues.