Turner's elbow

[saepperson]

Last summer I develop tennis elbow I think due to the amount of turning that I was doing, and I don't think my lathe height was quite high enough. After a trip to the doctor for a cortizone shot and raising the height of my lathe, I got it again after turning 50 or so pens. I guess I have a couple of questions, does anybody else get this? And is it due to the height of my lathe or is there something else I can do?

Thanks

 

[dkulze]

I thought problems were supposed to come in the back and neck. Elbow never bothers me. Try holding tools in a variety of positions and switching hands regularly. Also, lots of ice afterwords.

Dietrich

 

[Jim Carroll]

I have a similar problem with tennis elbow, mine was caused by raquetball. Now when I do any work which requires me to be in the same position or I am pushing then I need to use a tennis elbow support. This is like a 2" wide strap that goes just under the elbow on the forearm. When using this I can work all day and have no problems, when I get lazy and do not put it on I suffer the consequences for a couple of days. If I were you I would refrain from the injections because once started then they are an on going thing and only make the problem worse .
One of the hazards of getting older.

 

[William Young]

I just received a 2 hour bowl turning instructional DVD yesterday and at one point the author mentioned about taking the live center out of the tailstock when turning the inside of the bowl because if you jery back fast and your elbow hits the point in the live centre , then you get turners elbow.

Sorry, .. just couldn't resist
W.Y.

 

[Steve Worcester]

I have been dealing with this off and on for about a year now. The first cortizone was good for about 4 months. They don't like to do more, but when he talked about the surgery, I decided to go another one and anti-inflammatory drugs.

One thing that has helped is to do is nightly streching and exercises.
Here is a good sight that shows the stretchs
http://www.nismat.org/ptcor/tennis_elbow/

 

[john lucas]

I had tennis elbow and carpel tunnel about a year or so ago. The doctor who didn't seem to give a s#@t wanted to know when I wanted to be operated on. I told him I didn't and just walked out of the office.
I went back to the weight room and started doing lots of curls, reverse curls and wrist work and both problems are now gone. I couldn't believe he didn't even offer physical therapy as an option.

 

[foot sore]

I haven't had any elbow problems - knock on wood. But, prolonged sessions at the lathe tends to aggravate the bursitis(sp) in my right shoulder.

paul

 

[Ray]

I just did a demo for my church for our Christmas Village that was three hours each night for five days. I had no elbow pain, but I did aggravate my bursitus that I have in both shoulders. I am still paying for it but it was well worth it.

 

[fredkey]

Fred

The site Steve cited has some very good advice to solving the problem of tennis elbow. I have had it many times over the years and recently for about 9 months. Finally a local physical trainer told me it was from an improper golf swing and he gave me some of the same advise that is on the web page. I found the finger stretching with a rubber band to be the most effective.

 

[RonZ]

For me it was a major nightmare. I had decided about a year ago to turn full time. I'm 45 and have left the hi-tech industry. Six months later I wake up with a my right middle finger stuck in a curled position. That was diagnosed as trigger finger. About a month later, tennis elbow. Got shots for both. I'm a midget at 5'5" and realized that my VL300 was too high for me. I made a 'soap box' from which to turn and that helps. Next I'm getting ready for a show and my should has sharp pains. Another shot and physical therapy, soon going to need mental. Is this a sign from God to get out of turning or a test I must pass to make it to the next level.

I think I'm going to take John's advice and go back to weight training. I haven't done it because I have been so busy trying to get started in my new proffesion of turning. Catch 22 anyone?

 

[dkulze]

Wrote earlier and forgot to mention my ongoing saga of debilitating shoulder and arm pain and numbness. Turns out that it's all due to osteophytes in my neck and that, at some point in the distant past, I actually managed to damage two discs (visibly compressed and out of shape in the x-ray) and break my neck without knowing it. I'm scheduled for an MRI and cortizone injections in my neck vertebrea but, in the midst of all this, I've cleaned out the whole basement, moved my shop (lots of heavy lifting) and been turning lots of Christmas presents, and now find myself ALMOST TOTALLY SYMPTOM FREE!!! My doc says that "motion is the lotion" for arthritic/ligament pain and that movement exercises(active and passive stretching and posture building) and resistance exercise (weight training) are requisite. I guess getting active and doing some varried work was the trick. It's working for me so far anyway.

I get the sense that there are two major problems we keep running in to. One is repetative motion and the other is being out of shape. Lots of stretch and exercise breaks and varrying positions for standing and holding tools are two easy solutions that are working for me.

Good luck and Merry Xmas to all,
Dietrich