I know from personal experience coming back from my trip to Brazil.
Towards the end of 4th day of fishing, I was aggressively casting from the boat to shore when I felt a pop and pain in my right forearm. I was casting probably 50% more than my friend in the boat because he was relaxed having met his two goals on the trip: Catching a Wolf Fish and seeing a Black Jaguar while I on the other hand, had not yet caught a Matrinxa and was casting as much as I could to get one.
My arm hurt enough that each decent sized fish I caught caused pain as I brought it in. My fishing partner noticed it right away.
We had Tylenol on the boat but that didn’t help, and a cold-water bottle only stays cold for about 20 minutes in the jungle. It would have been nice to wrap it in ice at the time.
I didn’t really notice it or know what it was at the time because I tend to get a lot of bumps/scraps on a trip because I am somewhat clumsy, and it really wasn’t painful/painful. Just an annoyance.
I forgot about it until the trip home when I realized I couldn’t really hold a cup of coffee without some pain, so I called an orthopedic specialist in town.
I was surprised at the main test for tennis elbow, which is just the Doctor pushing hard on the lower, outside part of your elbow. If you scream, that’s what it is. I screamed.
Fortunately, the therapy and healing aren’t that bad. It just takes some time and work each day. Here are the main exercises that I pulled down from the web.
I’ll write a later blog post about what you need in a medical kit on a remote trip but the one thing I learned from this experience is to stay hydrated and have a routine of stretching. I don’t think I did either on the trip and I believe it contributed to the issue. It is hard to make yourself get up 15 minutes early to stretch or stretch 15 minutes before dinner, but it is worth it.
Some Exercises:
Wrist Stretch
- Extend your arm in front of your body with your elbow straight and your palm down.
- Lightly push your hand downwards with your unaffected hand until a stretch is felt in the wrist or forearm area.
- Hold this position for 30 seconds before releasing it and complete two to three repetitions. Do this at least five times each day.
Wrist Isometrics
- Sit upright with your arm resting on a table and your palm hanging off the edge.
- With your palm facing downwards, extend it fully towards the arm.
- Use your other hand to apply pressure on the back of the palm without allowing the wrist to move. Apply enough pressure to feel a strong muscle contraction, but not so much that you experience pain.
- Hold this for 45 to 60 seconds before relaxing and completing two to three reps. This can be done one to two times per day.3
Extension Eccentrics
- Begin with your arm comfortably resting on a table and your downward-facing palm hanging off the edge.
- Move your wrist upwards towards you.
- Use a light weight (1 lb. can of soup or beans) in the hand with palm facing down, extend the wrist, then focus on slowly lowering the wrist with the weight in it.
- Perform three sets of 10 repetitions of the eccentrics each day.1
Supination Eccentrics
- Start with your arm and palm resting comfortably on a table.
- Rotate your forearm so that your palm is facing upward and make a fist with your hand.
- Using your unaffected hand, apply force to the affected fist as you attempt to turn the palm downward.
- Over a duration of about three seconds, slowly let the unaffected side to “win” as the forearm rotates inwards.
- Try three sets of 10 repetitions of the supination eccentrics daily.1
Palm Slides
- Sit with your arm resting on a table and your palm facing downward.
- Keeping the pads of your fingers and your palm in contact with the surface, slide your fingertips backward as your knuckles rise in the air. Do not allow your fingers to bend as you do this.
- Complete the exercise 10 times and try three sets each day.