FlexBar Report

Last Friday I wrote about my golf-induced tennis elbow. Also known as tendonitis for those who prefer the more technical name for things.

I also wrote about ordering something called a FlexBar that is supposed to help strengthen the weak areas that lead to tendonitis.

I was pretty happy to have my FlexBars (I ordered a few different ones so that I can increase the resistance as I get stronger) arrive on Friday morning. I've now had three days to use them and can give a FlexBar report for anyone who is interested.

The first thing I learned is that using a FlexBar is all about subtlety. The movements you need to do to address different problem areas are not big broad movements (like the kind that usually cause the problem) but small and precise ones.

I read the instructions and (thought I had) figured it out. The movements seemed to stretch the area that they was supposed to.

Then I went online to read more details about how to do the exercise and I discovered that I was doing it all wrong. Not a little bit wrong but almost completely backwards from what I was supposed to be doing. Once I started to do it correctly, I really really felt the stretch in all the right places.

The instructions say to do the exercise 5 times in a row, three times a day. They say that it will probably hurt afterwards. They say that the discomfort should go away after a little while and, once I can do 5 in a row without pain, I should increase to 10. And then 15.

By Sunday I was doing 10 in a row with the second highest resistance. There is still pain afterwards but less of it. I can also grip my water bottle and lift it without pain which is something I could not do last week. So I'm willing to say that, while it's still early days, things seem to be moving in the right direction.