A search through forum history makes it pretty clear I am not the first guy to fall victim to golfers elbow from kiting...some think too high bar pressure, or too much one handed flying, or maybe just too much kiting in general. What I have been unable to find is how long it took kiters to recover and what they did to heal.

Never experienced this before, hurts like a bitch. Even raising a glass of beer or shaking someone's hand hurts. I don't think I have really kited any more this year than the last 6, but this is really the first year I've been much 100% strapless SB. So maybe that's a factor. And it's been real windy around here lately.

Anyone got any wisdom or experience to share??

Had the same thing happen a couple of years ago.Took 6 months of rest to fix in meantime change grip on bar with the affected arm from over hand to underhand and that way you can keep on kiteing still hurts tho

Visit your local physio to be sure, but it's likely you just need an elbow brace like this:




Was a regular part of my kit for about 2 months and eventually the arm got better. Luckily no time off kiting ;).

I wore one of those straps in the pic above, also changed to kites with lowest possible bar pressure + found some elbow stretches on the web that seemed to help.

I remember when I had it in my right, I had to use two hands to turn the key to start my car. Once my right came good, got it in the left.
Good luck mate.

Try this, worked for me.

tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/2012/11/23/golfers-elbow-a-possible-solution/

Once you start getting golfers elbow also check your are sleeping correctly, meaning not stressing the elbow and tendons more with bad arm positions, just google it, heaps of pics. you might be fine sleeping like that normally off season and it does nothing but once you add in a kite + golfers symptoms + bad sleep arm positions, it all stacks up.

You are most likely also gripping the bar harder now that your strapless? which will add to it all ease up on the old grip.

Had it as well a few years back, changed to low bar pressure kites, problem gone, never had it since.

I have had this issue also and found this help and eventually eliminate the pain completely. Flexbar

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KitersElbow said..
A search through forum history makes it pretty clear I am not the first guy to fall victim to golfers elbow from kiting...some think too high bar pressure, or too much one handed flying, or maybe just too much kiting in general. What I have been unable to find is how long it took kiters to recover and what they did to heal.

Never experienced this before, hurts like a bitch. Even raising a glass of beer or shaking someone's hand hurts. I don't think I have really kited any more this year than the last 6, but this is really the first year I've been much 100% strapless SB. So maybe that's a factor. And it's been real windy around here lately.

Anyone got any wisdom or experience to share??

Never had any elbow probs until I flew a new kite which had longer back lines (steering lines) than I would normally use combined with lite winds. Pumped and steered the kite through the power zone for the best part of session. Elbows working over time and more bent than usual. Sore that night. Next day couldn't even wipe
my bum. Shortened up the steering lines and never had the pain again.

Ive had it before. High bar pressure is a killer. get low bar pressure kites

This worked great for me. still use it while kiting if I start to feel any pain at all.
www.betterbraces.com.au/donjoy-condilax-elastic-elbow-support

I get a bit of tennis elbow in one elbow only (left) which gets progressively worse through the season.

+1 for the flexbar, but recommend speaking to a professional for the correct exercises. Poor form can make it worse.

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Plummet said..
Ive had it before. High bar pressure is a killer. get low bar pressure kites

Would love to know a list of low bar pressure kites.
Sold too many kites as they were to heavy.
Anyone?

RPM has ridiculously low bar pressure, until you unhook

hi Guys,

I have an different solution to your issue. I tried a few things including injections without success. Step 1 is to find a really good remedial massage person. Get them to release your entire arm including both sides of your forearm triceps and bicept. My first session this took about 40 mins and i had bruising on my arms. in about 3 sessions it was under control. From there a heap of stretching everyday. PM me if you want more info.

Flexbar all the way. Suffered nearly two years with tenis elbow from kiting used this for 3 months and has been gone ever since.

Worst advice ever is to ice and rest!

With most tendinitis you need to strenghten the area to stop the aggravation. Flexbar strengthens the area under extension not compression so as not to inflame it re-habbing.

Had problem too. Good advice here. All of this is equally important I think. In summary.
1. Adjust kite trim so your arms are over 100 degrees angle.
2. Get kite with low bar pressure
3. Do those exercises / stretches
4. Watch out for arm position while sleeping

Suffered hard last year.

Ride over powered, so you don't have to keep flying that kite.

Park and ride my dear friends.

No jarring, no problem!

I've had it before. Both arms. Tennis and golfers on the right arm (inside and outside) and golfers on the left arm.

Approximately 6 week recovery time each time (plus another 6 weeks or so where I could feel slight discomfort after kiting but that went away within a couple of hours). You need to be fairly committed to your recovery. The brace (above) helps to alleviate the pain but should only be used as a preventative measure, don't wear it all the time. The flexbar looks like it should work. You can do the same exercises with bean cans and theraband straps instead if you don't want to pay for one.

Keep working on the exercises after you can't feel the pain (prehab) or like me you might have it return (I was less well informed with my first injury on my right elbow so I injured it again about 5 years later).

Low bar pressure kites will reduce the symptoms but you can build the strength to keep using your kites if you want instead (just might take a bit longer).

THIS IS HOW YOU FIX IT, PERIOD!

firstly you can fix this in 2 days! I get this once every couple of years from rockclimbing and kiting.

Find a doc that dose glucose injections! This will fix it almost in 1 day,

next step is to strengthen your forearm. as mentioned above, the flex bar is the best for this.

Glucose injections ons is the key tho. It speeds up recovery extremely quick!

edit: don't stretch, and don't take anti inflammatory. Stretching makes the healing process longer, and anti inflammatory takes all the healing blood away from the mussel, if anything rub it until it's red raw to get the blood flow happening.

Any physios out there want to give some input regarding this based on clinical evidence? I know about cortisone injections and for most, they only mask the issue short term and otherwise do bugger all. Glucose. Placebo or really useful? As far as I understand stretching is important but needs to be done gently in case of tendon (partial)tears. So more of a long term treatment. Same as strengthening and deep tissue massages. Dry needling perhaps short term?

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RussKraut said..
Any physios out there want to give some input regarding this based on clinical evidence? I know about cortisone injections and for most, they only mask the issue short term and otherwise do bugger all. Glucose. Placebo or really useful? As far as I understand stretching is important but needs to be done gently in case of tendon (partial)tears. So more of a long term treatment. Same as strengthening and deep tissue massages. Dry needling perhaps short term?

Why would you stretch the mussels and tendons, that were damaged in the first place by being over stretched? That dosnt make sense bro.

How glucose works: you inject glucose, it irritates your muscles so your body sends lots and lots of blood to that spot to flush it out.
your blood is what heals your body. That's why it only takes 6 weeks to heal a broken bone cause of the blood supply.
There for it isn't the glucose that heals your tendon, it's your own blood that the glucose attracts.

Done!

Mmhh. I agree blood supply is important. But may not be sufficient alone. Depending on the specific cause. Often it is inbalances which lead to tendonitis. So stretching may help fixing those. Among other tools. If trauma les to the injury then I agree stretching maybe doing harm rather possibly. Hence I said it may be more like a long term treatment.

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kemp90 said..
THIS IS HOW YOU FIX IT, PERIOD!

firstly you can fix this in 2 days! I get this once every couple of years from rockclimbing and kiting.

Find a doc that dose glucose injections! This will fix it almost in 1 day,

next step is to strengthen your forearm. as mentioned above, the flex bar is the best for this.

Glucose injections ons is the key tho. It speeds up recovery extremely quick!

edit: don't stretch, and don't take anti inflammatory. Stretching makes the healing process longer, and anti inflammatory takes all the healing blood away from the mussel, if anything rub it until it's red raw to get the blood flow happening.

I agree about the anti inflammatories (have personally found heat pads/ice packs more effective at managing the discomfort) but I'm not sure I follow the advice about not stretching.

As I understand it, the injury is a manifestation of micro tears along the tendons caused when the wrist moves whilst the muscles are tensed. The purpose of 'stretching' is to stretch out the tendon and help smooth out any scar tissue that may have formed during healing. The stretching is normally necessary as people will often be advised to rest/Ice/...etc to get rid of the pain by a doctor and after a couple of weeks of reduced motion, the stretching is needed to restore any lost range of motion.

Why the advice not to stretch? Do you mean just in the initial stages of healing or as part of rehab/prehab?

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weebitbreezy said..

kemp90 said..
THIS IS HOW YOU FIX IT, PERIOD!

firstly you can fix this in 2 days! I get this once every couple of years from rockclimbing and kiting.

Find a doc that dose glucose injections! This will fix it almost in 1 day,

next step is to strengthen your forearm. as mentioned above, the flex bar is the best for this.

Glucose injections ons is the key tho. It speeds up recovery extremely quick!

edit: don't stretch, and don't take anti inflammatory. Stretching makes the healing process longer, and anti inflammatory takes all the healing blood away from the mussel, if anything rub it until it's red raw to get the blood flow happening.

I agree about the anti inflammatories (have personally found heat pads/ice packs more effective at managing the discomfort) but I'm not sure I follow the advice about not stretching.

As I understand it, the injury is a manifestation of micro tears along the tendons caused when the wrist moves whilst the muscles are tensed. The purpose of 'stretching' is to stretch out the tendon and help smooth out any scar tissue that may have formed during healing. The stretching is normally necessary as people will often be advised to rest/Ice/...etc to get rid of the pain by a doctor and after a couple of weeks of reduced motion, the stretching is needed to restore any lost range of motion.

Why the advice not to stretch? Do you mean just in the initial stages of healing or as part of rehab/prehab?

So tennis elbow is caused by the repeated swinging action and the mussels not being strong enough to withstand the stretch on the supernaters that the swinging motion causes.

So why would you stretch the muscles, when it was the stretch that caused it in the first place.

It use to be full rest, stretching and a tiny bit of strengthening.
New research has proven that you need lots of strengthening and don't even bother about the stretching.

Anyways, go get your Glucose injection!

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eibwen said..
Once you start getting golfers elbow also check your are sleeping correctly, meaning not stressing the elbow and tendons more with bad arm positions, just google it, heaps of pics. you might be fine sleeping like that normally off season and it does nothing but once you add in a kite + golfers symptoms + bad sleep arm positions, it all stacks up.

This is actually super good advice. I get problems from time to time and often they can be attributed in part to sleeping on my arms/ wrists/ shoulders badly. Make sure you have a good posture while you sleep and do some strengthening exercises during the season if you know it's an ongoing problem for you.


My biggest tips though are to change the way you ride;
1. make sure you have a long chicken loop, at full power your arms should only be slightly bent with kite low in the window (This keeps your arms further extended even when at "max" power. Also especially good when underpowered and working the kite hooked in, not only for unhooking when it's also a big benefit).

2. Use more of your body to turn the kite (rotate your shoulders and your hips whilst pulling each side, in this way you don't have to bend your elbows very much at all. A long enough chicken loop makes this easier.).

3. Try to switch it up (don't just ride toeside and natural everywhere with one hand on the bar, this will give you problems 100%. Don't always leave the same hand on the bar when cruising one handed, try and give a fair share to both arms.)


I hope these help.

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kemp90 said..

weebitbreezy said..

kemp90 said..
THIS IS HOW YOU FIX IT, PERIOD!

firstly you can fix this in 2 days! I get this once every couple of years from rockclimbing and kiting.

Find a doc that dose glucose injections! This will fix it almost in 1 day,

next step is to strengthen your forearm. as mentioned above, the flex bar is the best for this.

Glucose injections ons is the key tho. It speeds up recovery extremely quick!

edit: don't stretch, and don't take anti inflammatory. Stretching makes the healing process longer, and anti inflammatory takes all the healing blood away from the mussel, if anything rub it until it's red raw to get the blood flow happening.

I agree about the anti inflammatories (have personally found heat pads/ice packs more effective at managing the discomfort) but I'm not sure I follow the advice about not stretching.

As I understand it, the injury is a manifestation of micro tears along the tendons caused when the wrist moves whilst the muscles are tensed. The purpose of 'stretching' is to stretch out the tendon and help smooth out any scar tissue that may have formed during healing. The stretching is normally necessary as people will often be advised to rest/Ice/...etc to get rid of the pain by a doctor and after a couple of weeks of reduced motion, the stretching is needed to restore any lost range of motion.

Why the advice not to stretch? Do you mean just in the initial stages of healing or as part of rehab/prehab?

So tennis elbow is caused by the repeated swinging action and the mussels not being strong enough to withstand the stretch on the supernaters that the swinging motion causes.

So why would you stretch the muscles, when it was the stretch that caused it in the first place.

It use to be full rest, stretching and a tiny bit of strengthening.
New research has proven that you need lots of strengthening and don't even bother about the stretching.

Anyways, go get your Glucose injection!

Muscle exercises (contractions) cause blood flow to the muscles. Blood carries oxygen which is an important ingredient (part of) injury repair. Stretching promotes and increases blood flow - hence could be classed as an important part of recovery.
My uneducated mind might suggest it is important because blood flow to tendons and ligaments is much less than muscles and correct stretching should target the affected area better - but I admit I'm guessing on this.

Definitely agree on working on strengthening the muscles.

Don't know much about Prolotherapy (glucose injections). Doesn't seem to be big where I live. How often have you had the treatment?

The stretching was shining light to my recovery, do your research & see what works best for you.
I still do them now, if/when needed.
Every case is individual, there's no single answer (Kemp90).

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toppleover said..
The stretching was shining light to my recovery, do your research & see what works best for you.
I still do them now, if/when needed.
Every case is individual, there's no single answer (Kemp90).

True.

You could rest and stretch for 6 months and it might work.

Or or you could get a shot of sugar in your arm and be pain free in 2 days and have 100% free from the symptoms in a week.

I know now what I would do.

But i I do use my flex bar occasionally just to keep the strength up.

I just grabbed an old epipen from my first aid kit.

Crushed up a sugar cube then added some hot water to dissolve the sugar.

Jabbed myself in the arm.

That's when I realized I used salt, now my mouth is all tingly and I feel light headed.

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sir ROWDY said..

My biggest tips though are to change the way you ride;
1. make sure you have a long chicken loop, at full power your arms should only be slightly bent with kite low in the window (This keeps your arms further extended even when at "max" power. Also especially good when underpowered and working the kite hooked in, not only for unhooking when it's also a big benefit).

Decided to finally change up to the big loop thats been sitting in the box for ages and wow you are not wrong. I have been on the cusp of getting full blown golfers. With the few days off from **** wind and rain it totally went away which is normal but after the first all day session it would be back with a dull ache, today's, nothing. Sweet!!!!