Nearly everyone with even a semi-active lifestyle has experienced some level of tendonitis somewhere in their body. It all begins with a joint that is swollen, painful and tender to the touch and then the impact on the rest of your life from being limited in using that joint only makes it worse.

For me, it is usually my right elbow. I will overuse it doing CryoSlimming treatments, local cryotherapy or Cryofacials™ on clients and be left feeling less than amazing the next day. While the exact recipe of what works best may be slightly different from person to person., here’s what I have found to work the best*:

Rest.

Sounds simple, but in today’s society of always pushing ourselves forward,. time for rest can be difficult to find. If you can, try to reduce the use of that particular joint. In most cases, we can’t just stop using our appendages but reducing the frequency can be beneficial.

Reduce Inflammation.

There are a few different ways you can do this, and they work better the more you do them (i.e. it’s a cumulative process) so repetition is the key, so plan to keep up your efforts for multiple days. For true, long-lasting benefits, these practices should be a regular part of your routine. .

First you need to confirm you are truly experiencing tendonitis inflammation and not something more serious. Using a temporal scanner, scan the temperature of the area that you are having pain and compare it to the one on the opposite side of your body. It is likely that the painful joint is going to be 3 to 5 degrees warmer. Inflammation creates heat!

Now for how to treat inflammation:

• Whole body cryotherapy and localized cryotherapy are two of my favorites (and fastest.) Generally, I will try to use these in conjunction to gain the quickest benefit. The whole body cryotherapy is going to give you that overall reduction of inflammation in just three minutes and with local cryotherapy the area will be cooled down to 50 degrees in about 6 to 8 minutes – far faster than the traditional 10-15 for an ice pack right?
• You can also use ice packs and apply cold directly to the area. This can work, but it can get a little messy (melting ice or sweating ice packs) and it can be difficult to get the area cold enough to have lasting benefit. Be sure to always add a towel between you body and the pack to avoid burning your skin.
• Did you know that you can also use the Celluma LED panel to help reduce inflammation? The pain management setting uses a combination of near infrared and red light to create a response similar to when photosynthesis occurs in plants. Using the Celluma boosts cellular energy to encourage and enhance the body’s natural healing abilities. So, you are not just reducing the inflammation, but also stimulating healing.

Change your routine.

If possible, try to change your activities up a bit. If you play a lot of tennis, but notice how sore your elbow is, try taking a day or two off and trying a new exercise routine.

For me, when the tendonitis is flaring in my elbow, I have to think about the other things I do that may be irritating it as well. It may be as simple as using two hands to get the big cooking pot out of the cupboard instead of just one to reduce an additional strain I may be putting on my elbow. Or, instead of holding a book while reading, rest it against a pillow.

Physical Therapy.

The last time that I had some tendonitis in my elbow I enlisted the assistance of Meagan with Resilience Physical Therapy. She worked her magic using a combination of muscle scraping and dry needling, along with some exercises and stretching we did together, but that I also worked on myself.

That was the first time that I had dry needling done. At first I was a little scared about how it would feel, but it was painless and gave me near-instantaneous relief. I will still go back to the exercises and stretching if I feel a twinge and worry that perhaps I have irritated my elbow yet again.

While there is no exact recipe that is going to work the same for everyone, trying different therapy combinations until you find what works for you is the way to go. Just remember that your pain didn’t happen overnight, so be patient and stay the course on doing the activities to make it feel better.

*Please keep in mind, I am not a doctor and this should not be construed as medical advice. Always use your best judgement on when to seek medical attention.