Funnily enough my plastering young friend has a major problem in his knee from grovelling to plaster. It blew up and caused him such agony that he’s had to have time off work. (And he's self employed).
Re: the tendinitis. I had this big time many years ago when I was bodybuilding. As with all fanatical men bodybuilders, they like a good pair of arms. Think about it, when someone says “show me your muscles” you don’t pull up your trouser leg and flex your calf. So I ended up doing no less than 12 sets on arms, finishing with one arm press ups and using one of those spring-loaded hand grip things for your forearm. I was close to vomiting many times with the effort I used to put into it.
I got what’s known as golfers elbow or tendinitis of the medial epicondyle. Sounds like nothing but, as Virgil said, it’s affects you in a way you would never have expected! So lifting a cup of tea was painful and I couldn’t even lift my daughter up in my arms, who was only about four at the time.
As with any malady you get, you look into it. I had physiotherapy and all manner of treatments, to no avail. It seems to me if you wreck a muscle you can recover from it. But if it’s a tendon, because of the poor blood supply and nature of the fibres, you are stuck with it for life. I considered a cortisone injection until I read that they don’t actually know how it works and in fact it only masks the pain. Also, if you have more than three it can wreck the joint!
What I’ve never understood is how you hear of a footballer rip the Achilles tendon off the bone and they can somehow suture it back on and tell you “he’ll be out of action for a few weeks”.
WHAT??? A few weeks!
I’m 54 now and had my injury back when I was about 30 and I still have to live with it if I do too much...
