Quote:
Originally Posted by midlife crisis
Thanks everyone for your advice. I am considering every option except taking time off from playing. I have the oportunity to play 3 times a week and need all the work I can get.
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hey midlife, give a little thought to taking a little time off from playing -- depending on where you're at in the healing, a well-timed (even if short) rest might help you turn the corner enough to go back to playing with a less irritable tendon.
I mostly *didn't* stop playing -- playing goal really didn't seem to make things worse for me -- but I would have taken a rest of a game or two if (a) it truly hurt to play and (b) I noticed significant setbacks after games. I should say that I was very aggressive about getting physio early in the game, and the brace was a great help.
This is how I chose to rest:
(1) I opted out of anything else that definitely hurt and seemed to make things worse. So, for a few weeks, I stopped doing grip-centric workouts, let my boyfriend open jars and bottles for me, put off trying to handle the puck, and stopped playing ultimate frisbee (which actually hurt the worst).
(2) I opted out of one or two drop-in sessions near the beginning of my physiotherapy, just at the point where I was seeing rapid improvements. My reasoning: the elbow was getting better really quickly, and I figured if I got it just past a certain point, it would heal much better on its own even if I still chose to play. The drop-in sessions were ones where I knew I would be taking continual shots, as the last couple of sessions were ones where only 1 or 2 people showed up and practiced shooting on me for an hour and a half. The practice was great, but the stress on the tendon was likely to be a lot more than a game.
I think the short investment in a bit of selective rest really paid off. After skipping one session of drop-in following a particularly useful physio session, I felt about 70% better, and my tendon was much less irritable after that. I still played games/shinny during this time (a couple or sometimes 3 times a week). I also think the timing of the rest was important.
So give rest a second thought. You might be able to get away with a lot less than you think. If you want to your tendonitis to get better, you have to be aggressive about getting better. And sometimes getting aggressive means figuring out when and how you can get the most benefit from resting.