Okay, so I’ve been dealing with this annoying pain in my elbow for a while now. It’s gotten to the point where even simple things like picking up a coffee cup hurt. I finally caved and Googled “tennis elbow,” even though I haven’t touched a tennis racket in years. Turns out, you can get it from all sorts of repetitive motions, like, you know, typing all day. Anyway, I went down the rabbit hole of figuring out how to fix it, and the question of a brace came up.
My Brace Experiment for Tennis Elbow
First thing I did was hit up the local drugstore. I grabbed a couple of different types of elbow supports, figuring I’d try a few and see what worked.
- The basic sleeve thing: This was just a stretchy, compression sleeve. I wore it for a day, and, honestly, it didn’t do much. It felt a little supportive, I guess, but the pain was still there.
- The one with the strap: This one was more like a band that wrapped around my forearm, just below the elbow. It had a little pad that pressed on the muscle. This felt a little better. I think the pressure helped take some of the strain off the tendon.
I wore strap thing for most of the work week. It wasn’t a miracle cure, but it did seem to take the edge off the pain. I could actually type for longer periods without feeling like my elbow was going to explode.
After the first few weeks, I read online that I’m actually supposed to do some simple streches too and apply ice after a long day.
So, I started doing some basic wrist stretches a couple of times a day and to use a ice pack in the evenings.
The combination of the brace, ice, and stretches definitely helped. It wasn’t an overnight fix. It took several weeks, but the pain slowly started to go away. I’m still wearing the brace sometimes, especially if I know I’m going to be doing a lot of typing or other repetitive stuff. It’s kind of like a security blanket for my elbow now.
The bottom line? For me, the brace with the strap made a real difference, and it’s worth a try if you’re struggling with this. Just remember that it might not be enough on its own. The whole stretching and icing thing seems to be pretty important too.
