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Posts: 386
| Hi all,
So, last year I turned 40, and with it suddenly came the pains of living the hard life of the musky hunter. I came down with a terrible case of tennis elbow and trigger finger, seemingly made worse with each boatside figure 8. Now, months have gone by, plenty rest of the joints, but the pains (while better) are certainly not eliminated. I'm afraid that when I try to start up again in a few months, I'm going to be hurtin from the get-go, only to get worse over time.
Do any of you have advice on how to strengthen these joints without making them worse? ANY ADVICE would be greatly appreciate! |
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Posts: 619
| Stretch low resistant Bands, Stretching, weight training, strengthen your muscles, be active, lose body fat, and become good at trolling, probably catch more fish trolling too!!!!!
Edited by Slow Rollin 3/9/2009 12:21 PM
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Posts: 63
Location: Indianapolis, IN | Gopackgo,
Can't tell you how to heal your joints and pains. I too turned 40 last year. I find myself eating excederin or ibuprofen throughout the day!
Todd |
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Posts: 386
| Yeah, I'd do the anti-inflamatory if I could -- I'm allergic and you don't want to know what part of my body swells like a freakin' baloon when I take them. "Is that a rabbit in your pocket?" "Well, no, I took ibuprophen." Nightmare. |
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Posts: 8717
| 1. Instead of palming the reel, try holding the foregrip.
2. Trigger Finger: My dad had that, a simple 15 minute outpatient procedure took care of it
3. Consider buying a lefty reel and learning to fish backwards. Being able to switch hands means you can fish twice as long.
4. As for building strength? Well... The best thing I've found is to fish. Build up gradually -- you are doing something that your body isn't used to.
5. Have you ever watched an old guy fish? They let the equipment do the work for them. Casting, doing figure 8's etc? It's less work than we make out of it. It's all gotten easier and less fatiguing for me over time, so I think (in my case anyway) a LOT of it was poor technique.
6. Instead of fishing hard for 12 hours? Why not pick the times when fish are most likely to be eating and fish then?
7. Ask yourself: Would a smaller lure that's easier to work be just as effective?
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Posts: 462
Location: Antioch, IL | What you are describing are tendon issues. The rubber bands that hold your muscles to you bones. Over time the loose their stretch. Can't heal tendons. The only "fix" is surgery. Glucocamin (Arthritis Meds) and Fish Oil (Omega 3) can help with the joint pain, but it's pretty much a "how much pain can you deal with" situation. My trigger fingers got so bad that I would have to use my opposite hand to open the other one up from a closed fist not to mention the bring me to my knees pain this invlovled. 5 Hand/wrist surgeries over the past 3 years. They work at about 80% of what I figure they should.
Anti-inflamitory meds do little for tendon issues. the tissue around the tendons can become inflammed, but the tendons themselvs do not. The tear and fray. causing them to catch on other tendons and tissues (hence the click you get in the trigger finger)
As far the the outpatient surgery goes, it is a pretty quick procedure, but the recovery is not. We all heal at different rates, but I would give yourself a good 2 months before you can get as much range of motion that you are going to have back and another 2-3 months to get your strength back to where it was. They don't actually fix the bad tendon, they just cut the other tendons out that it is catching on (Trigger "release" )
Do a search on this subject. There are several old posts regarding this. Good luck.
Edited by Fish and Whistle 3/9/2009 12:47 PM
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Posts: 153
| Go see your doctor, he/she can prescribe physical therapy and they can teach you exercises to strengthen muscle thereby relieving joint pain. |
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Posts: 1168
| Join a bowling league. I'm serious. The winters that I have regularly bowled immediately preceed the summers when my arm doesn't give me any issues at all. It helps keeping your casting arm in shape during the offseason and this is an enjoyable way to do it. |
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Posts: 529
Location: Not Where I Want To Be | I second the Glucocamin. I also turned 40 Last year. My Joints killed me from head to toe. 3 knee surgeries/ Broken wrist/ Tennis Elbow/ Torn Cartlidge in my wrist. I'm sure i could name some more. My doctor suggested it to me and said some older patients of his swore by it. It took about 3 months to kick in before i noticed a differance and can now say i swear by it. Probably costs about $20 bucks a month to take but you can't put a price tag on you joints feeling good. My knees use to be so bad i could tell when a weather front was moving in just from the pain in my knees.
Good Luck
When it gets real bad i just make sure i have enough Whiskey in my system (Kinda a cure all)
bridgeman |
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Posts: 13
Location: Cinti. Ohio | Hey you young pups try 60. Being fishing 52 of them years too. LOL. I went to left
hand & it works for me. |
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Posts: 1348
Location: Pewaukee, WI |  Yup, I hear that, but try being 70 with 2 complete knee replacements. I don't stand all day like I used to, but I'm still a musky nut and still in the game. Booyah!!! |
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| My partner is in a similar spot. We are both the same ages but he pops painkillers like there's no tomorrow. My advice - stay active and get in a good stretching routine with some light weight training. Stretching should get your joints loosened up and the weights will help with long days. |
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Posts: 706
Location: Richland Center, WI. | I guess it won't do me any good to complain about being 50! Try some stretching before a day on the water. It will help with the muscles and the tendons. Tore the achilles tendon in 2005 and really have to loosen it up before a day on the water. Still gets sore but a guy has got to fish!!!!!
Ken |
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Posts: 1504
Location: Oregon | Yep, exercise, works for me. If I don't exercise, I hurt. If you already have a really physical job then it could be you are just old, lol.
RM
Edited by RiverMan 3/9/2009 3:45 PM
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Posts: 717
Location: Grand Rapids, MI | I always got a sharp pain in my middle finger from palming the reel when I did 8's. When I stopped to think about it, I realized I was using my reel hand to do all the work because I was thumbing the reel. I've stopped thumbing, and Voila! The pain ceased. I think thumbing is too overated. The modern equipment we have nowadays have enough give so as not to wrench the lure out of the fish's mouth. I think some who started fishing back when the standard equipment was a 5' pool cue rod are set in their ways that if you don't thumb it and a fish hits, you'll tear the lure out of it's mouth. Try it for a few weeks or months. I think you'll be surprised how much different your arms\fingers feel if you distribute the weight on both. |
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Posts: 4343
Location: Smith Creek | R.I.C.E. Rest, Ice, Compress and Elevate. I've found compression is key when I'm on the water and can't rest or ice my muskie elbow. |
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Posts: 619
| 3 minutes of jumping jacks at the landing, get your blood pumping and a little T Pain, AC/DC, Guns N Roses on the way to the lake, both will get u pumped and ease the pain!!!!!!! |
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Posts: 4266
| Ice is the best bet for inflamation and pain. Ice takes the inflamation down and numbs the pain to tollerable levels. I used to carry "slush bags" in the boat for my back pain. Mix 2/3 water and 1/3 rubbing alcohol and freeze. It won't freeze, it gets slushy and colder than ice.
I'm not a fan of anti-inflamatories, because they ate a hole in my stomach lining.
I take pain meds every day for inopperable back issues, and they usually only take the edge off and make the pain more bearable. Mine came from my job. I beat up my body for 32 years until I couldn't stand up any more. I can't wait for spring, because taking my dogs for a walk every day helps me to stay loose. This winter has been hell.
Best advice was see a Dr. I'd ask them before I ask a bunch of guys who chase muskies around for fun.
G'luck.
Beav |
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| Had my cortizone shot today for the trigger finger. Next step is the outpatient surgery. |
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Posts: 785
| Ice and ibuprofen. When you are on the water use an arm band for support. When I had it really bad I also wore a wrist brase and it seemed to help the tennis elbow from getting worse. I'm 23 years old and after two years finally got rid of it in my right arm... pain is completely gone. Sad part is last summer I overcompensated w/ my left and so now have it in my left arm lol. Its getting better though and I hope to be good to go in a month. Resting them is the best healer though. Anything work or play that re injures it will just make it take that much longer... that was the mistake I made with my right arm. I'm rooting for you. It really sucks... especially during musky season! |
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Posts: 1169
Location: New Hope MN | learn to troll |
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Posts: 386
| I WILL NOT GIVE UP CASTING. I will take all your advice and see my doc. |
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Posts: 1529
| ibuprofen is mighty hard on the innards gents. might want to try another program.. at my age its trolling for me. |
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| I iced down my elbow 3 or 4 times a nite! Make sure u have a towl between your skin and the ice! I also use a sqeezed ball to strenghten all muscles in my wrist and forearm! I had so bad that I could not even pick up a can of pop, but I never stop fishing with the pain! Also warm up your muscles before you stretch, strecthing cold muscles is never good! hope this helps |
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Posts: 576
Location: nappanee IN | from one muskynut to another this is what i've found to work,and no reactions!! please check these out
this a juice that is 100% natural and been in use in the far east for centuries. mangosteen is a natural inflamtion fighter and replaces all the pain killers that you're taking now. please check out the websites.
http://www.fruitfulincome.com
http://www.simplelifechangers.net
http://simplelifechangers.com
i work in a cabinet factory where we are on piece rate and we do 1700 cabinets a day! so you want to talk about being sore this was the place for it. used to wake up sore and could hardly move to get going. since i started on this i'm able to keep up with the young guys-i'm 53 so believe me it's good. karol p.s.s no excersize either.
Edited by karol 3/11/2009 2:37 PM
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Posts: 91
| Try all the above. Then turn 75 with two knees totally replaced bad back (too old for surgery) both hands have had surgery for carpel tunnell, a cancer survivor and still at this game. Please note, I stand very little when casting. But I still enjoy the #*^@ game, but not as much as when I was much younger.  |
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| for tennis elbow wear an arm band when doing anything.also ice up. another thing thats helped me is a heat pad as hot as you can take it. i also take aleve twice daily and stretch and exercise the wrist and forearm. |
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Posts: 81
Location: NEW | About 10 years ago I went to the Dr. because my elbow hurt. He sais I had "Tennis Elbow". I asked him when I could expect it to stop hurting and he said he'd been living with it for a year or so. He gave me a script for some 400mg naproxen ( ALEVE ) and about 10 months later I notice d it wasn't bothering me any more. Those straps that you wrap around your elbow and can buy at the drug store help a lot when your using your arm a lot. Try a few styles until you find the one that works best and good luck. |
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Posts: 131
| Adjustable arm strap that goes around your forearm works the best for me. The doctor told me it kind of gives the inflamed tendon a rest by making the other ones take up the slack. I had it so bad last year I couldn't sleep. Kept fishing though, even though it cost me a few hook sets. |
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Posts: 1449
Location: Kronenwetter, WI | I turned 40 last year and get the Trigger Finger on my left pinky each season...THAT'S SOME WEIRD STUFF...not as bad as the guy above, but each morning I cannot straighten it out for the first hour of the day or so....I press and press with the muscles and then it 'pops' open as if overcoming some unseen barrier....WEIRD STUFF! |
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