Mallet Elbow

[oldetoolworkshop]

I am seriously bummed. In an effort to finish my pole lathe before the upcoming Moravian Bench class at Roy's, I injured my right elbow. From what I can tell this is similar to tennis elbow. I'm unofficially calling it "Mallet Elbow".


I had to cancel my bench class because I know my arm could not stand the constant beating of 20 mortise and tennon joints and other strenuous activities for that week. I do not want to cause so much damage as to put my hand-tool work on permanent hold. I have ordered and received my Bench Crafted tail vise. I guess it will have to wait a while before it gets installed.


I will be taking a break from hand-tool work for a while and starting my physical therapy. Once I get the green light from my Dr., I will start back doing easy stuff. I also plan to start working out at the gym to give my joints more support structure.


I will finish that pole lathe that caused all this trouble, but it will be a while.


I still plan on coming to the picnic this Sat.


-Aaron H

 

[Mike Davis]

Sorry to hear about this, seems so many of us are having physical injuries and illness. I hope you get better quickly, sounds like you are on a good path forward.

 

[oldetoolworkshop]

Thanks Mike, I didn't seem to have these kinds of problems until I hit 50 I'm hoping the gym will help correct this and keep me in action a few more years. I'm interested if there are warm up stretches one can do before certain woodworking activities to help reduce these kinds on injures. I will ask the physical therapist and then share with you all.

-Aaron H

 

[Acelectric]

Tennis elbow isn't any fun. It took a couple years for mine to heal. Hope yours will heal quicker.

 

[FlyingRon]

Repetitive Stress Injury can be a real insidious problem. Those of us who are older can certainly spend a lot of time recovering from it and then we have to institute precautions to prevent it from happening again.

Rest and anti-inflamatory (perhaps some ice if severe) is the usual self help.

 

[ScottM]

Earlier this year (March) I had "tennis elbow" of the knee. They some times call it jumpers knee. No clue how I got it. I don't jump, jog, run, play sports, work out in a gym, etc. Hurt so bad wife took me to the ER thinking it might have been a blood clot or something. Basic treatment was to wear a brace from mid calf to mid thigh 12 hours a day. The brace allowed NO movement. After about a week of that and some anti-inflammatory meds I was back to about 85%. Back to normal now. REST REST REST is the fastest way to recover.

 

[stave]

Several years ago I had 2 life size sculptures to carve in hard maple, each took me a year to complete. I was using a 2 lb. mallet for about 5 hours a day. I did fine with the roughout but when I started the detail work my elbow started to hurt and swell. What I realized was that I was clenching up or tensing up trying to control the tool. When I relaxed and let the mallet do the work my elbow relaxed and the pain went away.

Several times since then I have had the same problem but either worked on relaxing the swing and used my wrist more or switched to a lighter mallet. It is the clenching and tightening of the muscles that causes the problem more so than the weight of the mallet. Now that you have the problem, as they say rest is the only solution combined with an anti inflammatory.

Good luck with the recovery!

Stave