Don't strain yourself in the wrong way...

I managed to do the stupid failure - after too strenuous handstand training session, I got tendon pain in my right arm, quite distinctly only affecting the exact area that is put under stress in handstanding. Now it's been three months and it's still not completely healed. 

Not sure if there are any good methods of speeding up the healing, so far I've just let it rest, doing some really easy antagonist work with rubberbands around my fingers that offers resistance for "opening the fingers". I guess rice bucket would be another possibility. I've also taken a short anti-inflammatory medication tablet run, which really helped and advanced the healing.

Just wanted to mention that take it easy, don't push yourself too much and remember especially in something as strenous as handstanding that you really have to take the time to progress slowly. 

I really do hope I don't need another one of these to learn my lesson... *sigh* Oh well, luckily it doesn't affect my normal life in any way, but still feels stupid

Maugister said:

Not sure if there are any good methods of speeding up the healing, 

There are no miracle cures. Welcome to the long haul 

The things you're doing can help speed up recovery, but nothing is going to make it go away overnight.

Although I heard boiling bones is good for your tendons... 

Maugister said:

I've also taken a short anti-inflammatory medication tablet run, which really helped and advanced the healing.

 

You sure about that? I'm willing to bet that the tablets dealt with your symptoms, not the actual injury. When dealing with tendonitis you'd want a certain amount of inflammation going on, since inflammation IS a recovery process.

Sounds like your injury has become chronic. In that case, my rule of thumb is: Rest long enough that the pain goes almost entirely away in daily, non-athletic use. Then re-introduce loading of the area very gradually; When doing so, it is allowed to feel a pain response of maximum 1 or 2 on a scale of 10. It is ok to have a very slight soreness post-workout, because it means that inflammation sets in to repair your injury. This process will almost certainly take many months. As Coach says, the metabolic rate of connective tissue is only 1/10 of that of muscle, so where a muscle injury may take one month to heal, a similarly grave tendon injury would take ten months.

There are no short cuts to healing, but wearing hot pads and massaging the area may increase the local blood flow. I doubt that it will accelerate healing to any significant degree, though, but it doesn't hurt. 

Ravn said:

There are no short cuts to healing, but wearing hot pads and massaging the area may increase the local blood flow. I doubt that it will accelerate healing to any significant degree, though, but it doesn't hurt. 

Extra heat = more energy for chemical reactions to take place.

Should speed up healing.

I am not a doctor....

Bipocni said:

Extra heat = more energy for chemical reactions to take place.

 

Should speed up healing.

 

I am not a doctor....

We have no way of knowing for sure, and applying heat doesn't magically create blood vessels where there were previously none - There's a difference between applying heat to muscles or to tendons. I use heat and self-massage sometimes, but it may be a false comfort, especially when we talk about tendons. Injury prevention should be everyone's first priority. And second, and third.