Sore Muscles or Tennis/Golf Elbow?

I am not a doctor or play one on internet forums however I had a very similar problem last year.

My doc said it was tendonitis.  I was hitting a lot of balls off mats that may have started it.

Sorry to say the only "cure" in my case was rest and ice.  I cut down to 9 holes a week and played

thru the pain, wasn't even supposed to do that.  I did get one of those gel wraps for the forearm and that did take some of the stress off the forearm.  No golf over the winter and this year no pain

I had the same thing after a two week marathon at the driving range where I was pounding balls for a couple hours a day. As dean007 stated, rest is the only thing that will cure that.

In your forearm you have many different muscles and not just one and a lot of them have long tendons and short muscle belly's. Those "ropiest" parts of your forearm may just be tendons and its hard to really know without feeling where it hurts. So it could still be tendonitis or could be micro tears in your muscle belly causing the pain.

The good thing is that rest and ice are still what you need to do to heal. Another may be some slight stretching (nothing to extreme) and also during your round of golf or driving range maybe take some time and just stretch your forearm muscles to keep them stretched (may help prevent from injuring again)

Quote:

Originally Posted by dru925 

 

I don't want to stop playing golf though:-(  I am just starting to improve.  

 

I wouldn't quit playing golf.............just revamp your practices by focusing on quality rather than quantity.

Line up every ball you hit on the range as if you're on the course. Take dead aim each time, working on a solid preshot routine so you're hitting less but focusing more.

Also, instead of practicing your swing so much, take some of that time and work on putting. That alone will rest your arm a bit AND lower your score.

When I first started playing I had that problem and I believe it was because I was gripping the hell out of the club because I was trying to muscle all my shots. As I've started to improve I've realized I need to really relax my grip (I've always known this is desired but it's hard for me to do). The lighter the grip the better my shot and my tennis/golf elbow has gone away. I'm sure some of this is developing the "golf muscles" but I think it's mainly my grip. My pain was also in my lead arm.

Nothing has helped my shot more than not trying to hit it hard. As my slice improved I switched from a baseball grip to an interlocking grip and now I'm starting to use an overlapping grip as my major problem with my shot shape currently is pulling my irons. I find the looser my grip the longer my shot goes. Try using an excessively light grip while at the range. Its hard to do mentally on the course cause you're thinking about a dozen things but on the range concentrate on only holding the club loosely. The other day I was at the range practicing my new overlapping grip and I decided I was gonna hold the club so loose I felt like it might come out of my hands (I realized I wasn't holding the club that loose but compared to my typical grip it felt like nothing). When I struck the ball with that grip the ball rocketed off the club straight as an arrow and went I mile. I just stepped back and laughed.