Tennis Elbow

I get this this too, but there’s small variations where the pain seems to come from. Oddly, push ups/pull ups no problem but taking a coffee out of the car cup holder is bloody agony!
Best exercise I’ve found are wrist curls with light weights to start-sitting down, elbow on leg with your wrist/hand dangling over your knee-palm face down. if it’s tennis elbow then tho upwards motion of your hand really works the tendons in the elbow. I’ll add a bit more weight as I feel it strengthening. Warning though, I reckon it’s 2-3 months of being comfortable.

Rest.

I've had this a few times over the years but changing the style you work if you know what it is causing it as it's a repetitive strain injury. My symptoms were more the inner elbow down to the wrist

There is a guy with a claw hammer on you tube will show you how to stretch/ repair, not sure if I ever did what he shows

this Theraband Flexbar is supposedly good for tennis elbow

I got it in both arms when a bicycle mechanic, 3 years for a shop and ten for myself. I had injections that didn’t work, it was really, really painful. I retired, it disappeared.
I think before some king or other got it from playing tennis it was called stonemasons elbow or carpenters elbow? In your case it could be called renovation elbow!

edit - @kramer describes what cured mine - rest!

Thanks All, kind of excited what is found reading elsewhere. Balls, basically. I've got a bathroom to finish and a downstairs toilet to get on with. Will look at the links and stuff suggested, ta.

@kramer iirc you're in the medical profession so I give you a lot of credence. Thanks. However it's not at all what I wanted to hear!

I had the opposite one pretty bad (golfers' elbow / medial epicondylitis) through plyometric, ballistic martial arts training. It took about 18 months to sort out fully.

If it's still tendonitis, you could heal in weeks or months. If it's degraded into tendonosis, it's a bigger hole to get out of as the tendon has stopped repairing itself.

I found eccentric / negative reps of forearm exercises combined with transverse deep friction massage (going across the fibres not with them) worked, but very slowly. I found acupuncture worthless. I needed to cause mild trauma to instigate the tendon to reheal hence hard, brief, direct exercise.

I had it. Forever. Found a website online. Said it was muscle imbalance.  Did some exercises twisting my wrist with a 2kg dumbbell and it cleared in a week.  I was amazed. Still good now and that was 2 years ago.  They’re called supination.

See here https://www.healthline.com/health/fitness-exercise/tennis-elbow-rehab#exercises

I’ve not had tennis elbow, but in an effort to avoid getting it I train opposite muscles to counter any imbalances, as highlighted above

I learnt this from rock climbing and one simple exercise can be using a rubber band with your fingers inside the band opening against the resistance, the idea is to focus on slowly controlling the movement, not how fast or how many reps

This video shows the idea

I have found a lot of benefit from overcoming muscles imbalances, and hope this may help you with your tennis elbow

The other technique I use is my less dominant hand when gardening with secateurs, sawing wood, or any other task were I would usually default to my dominant arm. I figure this will strengthen my weaker side, and create less wear and tear on my dominant side.

Physio works also, but you excluded that in your post. We used to inject them, but now we know that it’s not particularly effective.

It’s frustrating I know, but when I get a soft tissue injury these days it’s always plenty of rest (up to 12 weeks) followed by gentle rehabilitation.

The problem with exercising it unsupervised is that you run the risk of exacerbating it and making it into a chronic problem.

There's some youtubes where you roll a lacrosse ball between your elbows and the wall, and that can release some of the tension.....has worked for me years ago, but difficult to explain

I had tennis elbow for around 12 months.
Tried all sorts of different exercises. Tried a strap thing with a pad on that was supposed to relieve pressure on it. Tried the Flexbar linked to upthread.
Nowt worked.
Then after a few physio sessions the physio guy suggested acupuncture.
I was sceptical but gave it a go.
One session of that and a week later it was gone never to return.

I got it once in my left elbow. It was caused by too much walking swinging my arm!
Started putting my hand in my pocket to stop my arm swinging and it disappeared 🤷

I've had loads of problems with my arm - I think it may actually stem from a problem in my neck.

Don't go to the NHS, you might end up with someone trying to inject you with stuff that doesn't work and might cause other issues, or, unless you are lucky, a mediocre physio.

Probably the most effective for me was a well reviewed massage therapist locally who probed around and found several sore 'trigger' points in other areas, which when released stopped or releved the issue. For instance one was in the pectoralis minor from an old injury where a pizza delivery guy sent me flying off the bike.

So have a probe around and look for any sore muscle points in other areas.

She also used a Guasha tool durng the massage which was very effective, like on this video :

There are also videos on YT where people use spoons or knives to do the same thing, as in this video from a (US) Chiropractor, but he has some excellent self-help videos in many areas

I've also used percussion massage (with a conical tool attached to a jgsaw) at an angle in order to increase blood flow in an area and also cause some bruising.

With the tool or the percussion massage wait for a day or so for the bruising to subside and then do some exercises, and then repeat the process.

Lots of people report good results at killing off RSI effects using rice buckets, although I've not found it helped me that much.

Just resting doesn't do much to rehab the muscle if it is in a bad state...

I had it for about 9months, and although I had minimal pain whilst riding, the aftermath was very painful and at times it would wake me up in the middle of the night.

As already said, those gentle exercises and massage helped.  I did have some Physio sessions that helped (I think), but the exercises were far more beneficial - and free!