Sick Drummer Magazine

Okay, I've been a drummer for over a decade now; and at age 25 i am now experiencing my first REAL bout with tendonitis (this shit is a curse).

This thread is for people to share their experiences with tendonitis and other arm injuries.

Everyone please share information about Doctor's advice, prevention, and anything else helpful

What is tendonitis?
Sometimes the tendons become inflamed for a variety of reasons, and the action of pulling the muscle becomes irritating. If the normal smooth gliding motion of your tendon is impaired, the tendon will become inflamed and movement will become painful. This is called tendonitis, and literally means inflammation of the tendon.

What causes tendonitis?
The most common cause of tendonitis is overuse. Commonly, individuals begin an exercise program, or increase their level of exercise, and begin to experience symptoms of tendonitis. The tendon is unaccustomed to the new level of demand, and this overuse will cause an inflammation and tendonitis.

Another common cause of symptoms of tendonitis is due to age-related changes of the tendon. As people age, the tendons loose their elasticity and ability to glide as smoothly as they used to. With increasing age, individuals are more prone to developing symptoms of tendonitis. The cause of these age-related changes is not entirely understood, but may be due to changes in the blood vessels that supply nutrition to the tendons.

Sometimes, there is an anatomical cause for tendonitis. If the tendon does not have a smooth path to glide along, it will be more likely to become irritated and inflamed. In these unusual situations, surgical treatment may be necessary to realign the tendon.





Right now the tendon directly above my right elbow is really inflammed and almost sticks out. It's really painful and depressing... i havent been able to drum in over two weeks, let alone draw, paint, play videogames, etc.. this shit is really making me sad.

Share your experience on what helps and what does not help!

This might sound strange at first, but have you done any exercises at all with the intention of "counter acting" the effects drumming has on your arms/wrists? Simple stretches, talking to a physical therapist or even "chair yoga"? Yes, there is such a thing as chair yoga...

My wife is a certified yoga teacher and I'm sure she would be happy to suggest some stretches/exercises that will help your case...

I am super busy right now and don't get into the forums as often as I should, so if you would like more info on this, just email me and I'll have her send you something back.

Ian - email ( ian [at] sickdrummer.com )

I also had pain in my right elbow and middle finger. A week ago I played alot of blastbeats at speeds that were just above my limit. Not much, but enough to have me really work for it.
After four days of hard practising I woke up with my right arm and hand totally 'asleep' You know, that ennoying tinkly feeling. I could't move my arm for a few seconds, because it was just numb. I had to get out of bed to shake my arm, so that blood would flow into it again. I do sleep alot with my arms under my pillow, so I also must have been sleeping on that arm, but it never took that long for the numb feeling in my hand to go away. after a while it did went away, but I kept a sort of tinkly feeling in my hand all day, plus at some points during the day, my hand felt a bit colder than the left one.

I didn't drum for two days, and the feeling in my arm got back to normal, but I did see it as a warning for having pushed too much.

I also heard, that if one of your limbs is 'a sleep' and feel numb, you should be very carefull with it. Do NOT panic over the fact that you have no feeling in your limb, but just relax it, and let the blood flow back naturally.

If the limb is numb, you also don't feel pain, so you literally would have no indication on where the breakingpoint of your limb is.

I don't know if all this has something to do with tendonitis, but I guess it had to come from drumming.

Good luck with it, and since I don't have any medical knowledge what so ever, my only advice to you is to take some time away from drumming. And if after two weeks, your arm still hasn't cured, take some more time off, but I can imagine it must be a bitch!