Tennis elbow

[jollyone]

Am I the only one who hunted so much the last two weeks that I now have a severe case if tennis elbow and can't bend my arm?

Am I swinging it wrong ?

 

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[WHADIFIND]

Probably. Work on getting the detector balanced in your hand. So that the weight is minimized. If it's balanced correctly it won't feel so heavy. Try changing the length of the shaft and/or your swing. You shouldn't have to use a death grip to just hold onto the machine.

Hope that helps!
HH!

 

[G.A.P.metal]

Elbow should be straight when swinging, detector just hanging.... try what WHADIFIND said.
Gary

 

[SkyPirate]

I got it last year. Very painful but I kept detecting. Doc told me to take 2 Alieve, Alternate Ice pack and heat pad. Took a while but finally went away.

 

[Nirros]

I have to slide the hand pad toward the control box or I over grip it and get tennis elbow.

 

[mmelugin]

I too had tennis elbow. My first doc told me to do the same, alive and ice/heat at night. But as it kept kept persisting I went and got it looked at again. Did 6 months of physical therapy but still wouldn't go away. My daily work required me to keep using it as well as detecting. Just thought i could ignore it, I couldn't. Finally had surgery in October and believe me it's not one you want. Minimum 4 months without using the arm at all. Then slowly it gets stronger. It's finally better but it was long and frustrating, had to learn to do everything with my opposite hand. Just saying don't ignore it. It can go from a strained tendon to a torn off the bone tendon and surgery is necessary. Good luck and HH

 

[JohnT]

You're not the only one! I also do large lego projects which I think aggravate the issue further. I found that simple exercises/stretching really helps.

Here are some basic stretches (click on the photo links):
Summit Medical Group - Tennis Elbow Exercises

Here is a kindle book I intended to buy... but the free stuff I found online seemed to do the trick:
How to Cure Your Tennis Elbow: The Best, Up-to-Date Treatments and Most Effective Exercises to Eliminate Your Painful Symptoms; The Brace and Exercise Band to Use; Your Prognosis and Prevention: Richard Bennett, Tiffany Serth: Amazon.com: Kindle Stor

I basically did 1 to 3 sets of exercises/stretches per day and after the 2nd week my symptoms really started to clear... prior to this I refrained from nearly all activity for about 3 months and was popping alleve and joint supplements and the relief was negligible. I've found the exercises and joint supplements to be the quickest path to long-term relief.

Hope this helps!

 

[Back-of-the-boat]

You should look into one of the straps that are like suspenders that take the weight off your arm and distribute it to your shoulders and back . I have seen them in some magazines they look like they should work.

 

[mercury1]

It can indead go from bad to worse. Don't try to work through the pain. Ibuprofen to reduce the inflammation. It's basically an over use injury and you need to refrain from those activities that aggravate it. I would suspect your work could be more of a factor than detecting but once it's inflamed most any activity can keep the pain going. Try and use it as little as possible till it gets better. My wife had surgery over a year ago and it's still a problem. Good luck with it.

 

[BuckleBoy]

Elbow should be straight when swinging, detector just hanging.... try what WHADIFIND said.
Gary

I agree. Detector hanging, not tightly gripped if possible. I liked the old 1260-X series Fisher detectors for this reason. They could be hung from the fingers due to the straight vertical grip under the control box. The new Fisher models, and all of the Tesoro models use an angled grip (which is supposed to be less fatiguing!). I don't like that. It's never felt right.

Do a lot of experimentation to find the posture/grip/swing that is the best. PM detectorists that use the same model as you and ask.

Cheers

Buck

 

[Sir Gala Clad]

Am I the only one who hunted so much the last two weeks that I now have a severe case if tennis elbow and can't bend my arm?

Am I swinging it wrong ?

Jollyone:
I fear that you are one of many so afflicted, which is caused when your elbow is locked/overextended. If you just use your arms with elbows (unlocked) to hold the coil over the ground, you can easily sweep your detector by slightly twisting your body (sort of a hula). You can also keep the weight off your arm by scuffing the detector over cut grass or on the sand at the beach on its skid plate (protective coil cover). Or you can use a harness/bungee cord for support.
I got a less severe case of tennis elbow, trying to lift a full scoop of wet sand (which is very heavy) in my large basket stand up water scoop. Further I bruised / crushed my little finger by the load two weeks ago and I still have difficulty closing my fist.

It takes a long time to heal, as you continuously aggravate through repetitive actions, unless you change your style.
For instance, I now use a harness, so that I can use two hands to retrieve with the standup water scoop and I now drag my foot rather than the scoop when gridding.

 

[rich f]

dont feel bad jolly i went to a old village from 1800 on top of a mountain so i packed my detector in my back pack hike 5 miles up and put my detector together to realize i didnt put my arm cup in the back pack lol my arm felt like it was going to fall off after a couple hours,but found some cool stuff...