Monday, July 13, 2009

Elbow Improvement

So Saturday morning, I was getting pretty tired of how my elbow was feeling so I decided after a thorough warm-up on the west side of Nook's rock, to try That Flakes It, the hardest V4 on the mountain for my money and nailed the dyno first try and without any pain. I went to Cloudshadow and did Hagans, The Consideration, East Inside Corner and the Pedestal Traverse as well. I caught up with Bruce Miller there, one of the great unsung talents in the Boulder scene. Then I went up to Red Wall and did the Standard Red Wall problem and Varney's from the lower start (V7?) and after did a bunch more really easy stuff. The temps were pretty hot and the rock greasy so I definitely had to work for the holds. Sunday my arm felt like somethung had definitely loosened up so that even a fairly hard run up and down Green Mountain felt OK.

I am increasingly convinced that many elbow issues can be traced to excess biceps tension as that seems to be what is at the root of the problem. Stretching the area seems to produce the best results. Brent Apgar's last treatment focused a lot on my left triceps and biceps and while my arm hurt quite a bit the next day, clearly something was beginning to change for the better. I hope this remains the trajectory for the future.

2 comments:

chuffer said...

glad to hear it!

Chris said...

Hello...just read your post and realized I had the same thing...my elbow is pretty fine again after thoroughly stretching everyday and applying blood circulation enhancing creme for a couple of weeks...hope this helps!