Pain in your bow-hand elbow is a common sign of tennis elbow. People usually tend to ignore it, because they believe that if they're going to have any problems, it should be in their drawing arm or shoulder. However, it can occur commonly on either side. On the bow-hand side, it results from hand shock transmitting itself through the elbow, which results in micro-tears in muscles and connective tissue around the elbow, which results in inflamation. You can fight the inflamation with ibuprofin, but you're just masking the cause and probably making the underlying condition worse. If you're not feeling any handshock, it's probably because you're just used to your bow.
Whether it's tennis elbow or not, it will probably get worse if you keep doing what you're doing. Eventually, it could develop into a chronic condition like arthritis. On the other hand, if the pain hasn't been around that long, you may just be stressed from too much shooting and it could go away if you lay off for a week or so.
You can search the internet and find out a lot more about tennis elbow, including exercises to rehab it. If it's tennis elbow rather than just muscle fatigue, then laying off shooting without any rehab is not a good idea, as that leads to muscle atrophy, which makes reinjury more likely when you resume shooting. Assuming it is the handshock that's causing the problem, you might be able to continue to draw the bow with a slightly bent bow arm and hold at anchor during the rehab process, without firing an arrow, which can maintain and even improve your archery strength. Switching to a lower draw-weight, higher mass bow during the rehab process would be a good idea.
I've found that one of the best ways to rehab tennis elbow is to switch sides and shoot left-handed for a while. This was confirmed by an orthopedic surgeon and a physical therapist, both of whom said they couldn't prescribe any better rehab than that. It actually feels good on my tennis elbow when it flares up to shoot left-handed; you're using totally different muscles when you're pulling rather than pushing. For a long while, I alternated days of shooting left and right handed, but then the tennis elbow seemed to go away and I switched back to just shooting right-handed, because I seem to gain accuracy when I don't switch back and forth. Now I'm beginning to notice it creep back in and maybe I'll have to spend more time shooting left-handed again.
Tennis elbow can usually be cured, or at least managed, but it is a long-term process, taking up to a year, during which time you need to do things to make it better and avoid things that make it worse. It doesn't mean you need to totally give up shooting the bow on your dominant side, but you do need to control your shooting so as not to make the condition worse.
Topic: Ouch?? (Read 1074 times)
