Planer's Elbow?

[Prashun Patel]

I've been nursing a sore elbow (tendonitis, says doctor) for about 3 months now. Been scratching my head as to what it might be.

The length of time roughly coincides with the time I've been purchasing, tuning, rehabbing, and working aggressively with handplanes.

Last night after aggressively planing some tapers on some pieces of cherry, it was pretty bad.

Has anyone else experienced 'planer's elbow'? Please tell me NO, so I can rule this out; I'd much rather give up lifting weights at the gym than this....

[Matt Ranum]

I have been cursed with the tendinitis elbow for a few years now and I always have to watch what I do and yes that includes hand tools. I did find that working height made a difference for me but too low my back hurts and too high the elbows kick in.

(sigh) I can't win. Hell to get old and I'm only 45.

[Prashun Patel]

Ah - table height. My bench is on the high side. Good thought.

Yeah, I know. I'm only 38 and already starting to feel it...

I'll be DAM-ED, though if I'ma gonna give up me handplanes!

[Marco Cecala]

I am 5'10" My bench is 30" high. In his workbench book, Christopher Schwarz said the top should come to the knuckle of your little finger with your hands at your sides. It's a starting point, I played with saw horses and blocks to figure the right height.

The comments from Matt about too high and low are spot on. You can get a sore back or arms depending on height. A bench like that can be too low for other work. My remedy is a cheap HF adjustable stool so I can sit and work and another, higher bench I use for power tools.

[Dominic Greco]

I am 5'10" My bench is 30" high. In his workbench book, Christopher Schwarz said the top should come to the knuckle of your little finger with your hands at your sides. It's a starting point, I played with saw horses and blocks to figure the right height.

The comments from Matt about too high and low are spot on. You can get a sore back or arms depending on height. A bench like that can be too low for other work. My remedy is a cheap HF adjustable stool so I can sit and work and another, higher bench I use for power tools.

Shawn,
I will echo Marco's and Matt's comments about the bench height. After some discomfort of the same kind you are experiencing, I discovered that my bench is too high to work at comfortably (using hand tools). It's perfect for power tools, but not hand tools. Oddly enough, it is fine for workign on dovetails since it positions the work closer to my eyes. I will probably lower the bench soon and just build a couple "bench helpers" to give me a raised surface just for dovetailing. I think I saw someone actually made a small bench that sat on top of the main bench just for this purpose

[Robert Eiffert]

"...starting point, I played with saw horses and blocks to figure the right height.."

+1 My bench now has a trestle bottom legs ~3 1/2 higher than the knuckle or flat of hand rule of thumb.

You can also 'adjust' the height of the benchtop with the use of thicker jigs. And there are examples of 'mini-benches' - clamped to the benchtop for dovetail cutting for example. So building the height for the activity needing the lowest height, then build up the top, so to speak.

Also, weirdly, the elbow thing can be caused by hyper-extension of wrist. I wound up using a wrist brace at night. New pillow and was using hand under pillow to add thickness, bending back at the wrist. So brace to cut the bending and yet another new pillow.

[Rob Young]

Stuff I've learned so far:

Bench height, including your work-holding methods are important.

Good posture for the task. This is harder than it sounds.

Smooth motions - good sharp blades help with this part. And the more muscle groups you can put into motion, the less work each one seems to have to do. But try not to look like a staffer at the Ministry of Silly Walks.

Stop once in a while and switch tasks or motions to give your muscles and joints time to "relax".

You don't need a death-grip on the tool. For example, hold the plane gently but with enough force to keep it on track. Again, a sharp blade helps.

[Matt Ranum]

I know mine is to high too for comfortably planing but I'm just living with it for now. I remember watching one of Frank Klausz's videos where he talks about proper bench height. Put your arms straight down and flatten out your palms, thats the height you want. He's probably right but although I never tried it it seems to low to me. Probably from using power tools for so long.

[Jim Koepke]

Aggressive planing can put a lot of wear and tear on the old body. As others have said, the height, sharpness of blade, the technique and how thick a shaving you are taking can all add up to cause the aches and pains. Some times, slow and steady is better than bursts of energy. Or in plane speak, a bunch of thin shavings is better on the body and the wood than one big thick shaving.

jim

[Harlan Barnhart]

I just finished a double entry door in white oak and now I have tendonitis. The good news is that it goes away fairly quickly if you stop the behavior that caused it. For a while I had trouble sleeping at night since I couldn't find a comfortable position for my arms.

Is this something that can be avoided by "building up slowly" or is all heavy activity destructive?

[Zach Dillinger]

Another important consideration, along with bench height, is the grip with which you hold your planes. If you have a death grip on the tote, you are likely to be over-tensing the muscles around your elbow, leading to problems like you have described. This is similar to a leading cause of tennis elbow in recreational tennis players, gripping the racquet too tightly. Also happens in military pilots, I have been told. Using improperly sized gloves can lead to overgripping and, in turn, tennis elbow.

So, after fixing the bench height issue, take a close look at your grip on the tote. You shouldn't need a death grip on it. If you still can't plane without pain, maybe try making a custom tote? Perhaps a little larger so that you can get a good grip without really holding on.

Just a thought, best of luck.

Zach

[James Owen]

I've been nursing a sore elbow (tendonitis, says doctor) for about 3 months now. Been scratching my head as to what it might be.

The length of time roughly coincides with the time I've been purchasing, tuning, rehabbing, and working aggressively with handplanes.

Last night after aggressively planing some tapers on some pieces of cherry, it was pretty bad.

Has anyone else experienced 'planer's elbow'? Please tell me NO, so I can rule this out; I'd much rather give up lifting weights at the gym than this....

Others have mentioned bench height, etc. All of those play into how hard hand planing is on your body. One thing alluded to in a couple of posts, that I'd like to suggest, is to use your entire body weight to move the plane. Using just arms and shoulders allows me to plane for about 15 or 20 minutes, and then I'm done for "a while." Using firmly-in-place-but-not-death-grip-rigid arms to hold the plane and using my legs and torso to move the plane, allows me to plane essentially all day long, without getting worn out. You might find that (or a similar) technique useful, and it may save you some elbow discomfort.

[harry strasil]

I used to suffer tendonitis(tennis elbow) a lot, till my chiropractor adjusted my elbow, some bones get out of place with the effort needed to do some things, I remember being down to his office for a treatment when a contractor from out of town came in to get his back and neck adjusted and he complained that he hadn't been able to fully use his right arm because of elbow pain. Doc adjusted it and he was so elated he told the Dr that he had spent over $5,000 dollars already with orthapedic surgeons and had no luck, they all wanted to cut, and Doc fixed it in a couple of minutes. FWIW

At the Chiro conventions, my chiro is the one they select to adjust the other chiros while they watch and take notes.

[glenn bradley]

I have had serious tennis elbow 3 times in my life. By serious I mean about 12 months to recover, each time. The first time an extended chainsawing episode was to blame (left elbow). The other two times (one left and one right) there was no specific traumatic occurrence. I am told this is not real unusual but not terribly common either; depends on how you're put together and how you move, etc.

My biggest disappointment a couple years ago during my (hopefully) last case was to find that there have been no advances in treating this problem. Time and non-use are the watchwords (with the exception of required adjustment as Harry mentions). Cortizone and surgery are done in extreme cases but generally end with a less satisfactory recovery than if not used. There are times when surgery cannot be avoided and I have a friend who is permanently impaired from hers, but the pain is gone. See a specialist and do what he says. Avoid the shots and the knife if you can ;-)

[Bob Easton]

I too have had elbow problems, and have noticed them amplified by a lot of planing activity. That changed when I changed the way I move.

All of the bench heiight suggestions are important. But, more important to me is the comment James Owens made. I'll simplify his comment to:
"Plane with your legs, not your arms,"

That's an extreme form, meant to make us think about how we move. Try the following. Stand with your knees slightly bent, not locked straight. Hold your plane comfortably against the workpiece. Try to keep your arms still throughout the following. Now, move along using only your legs. Left leg to the left a foot or so. Shuffle the right leg to the left foot. Repeat until the end of the board. It is very awkward at first, but you can become smooth with practice. In practice, reality is somewhere between planing with your arms and planing with your legs.

Shifting more of the work to the much stronger leg muscles has taken the load off my elbows. They're a lot happier now.

[harry strasil]

I just asked my Chiro to explain it to me, its the radius, the ulna (sp) usually, that's why a tennis elbow strap works sometimes, it holds the radius in the forearm from moving around. The Ulna is in a fixed position, but the radius can rotate around the ulna which allows twisting of the forearm.

[Brian Ashton]

I've been nursing a sore elbow (tendonitis, says doctor) for about 3 months now. Been scratching my head as to what it might be.

The length of time roughly coincides with the time I've been purchasing, tuning, rehabbing, and working aggressively with handplanes.

Last night after aggressively planing some tapers on some pieces of cherry, it was pretty bad.

Has anyone else experienced 'planer's elbow'? Please tell me NO, so I can rule this out; I'd much rather give up lifting weights at the gym than this....

My guess is you are pushing down, not forward, too hard while gripping the tote very tightly. The combination of the two is where the most stress is being exerted on the elbow joint. Another thing that will go along way to alleviating the stress on one arm is to become ambidextrous and share the job between both arms. It can be somewhat awkward for the first month but it does become second nature fairly quickly. Also a relatively dull plane needs to be pushed down a lot more than a sharp one

Only thing I've found to get rid of tendinitis is to give the joint a break for a good long time. And then learn to do what ever it is the right way. Excellent time to learn how to use the other arm...

[william scott]

If the elbow really gets painful, cortisone injections by a doc. can solve the problem. About every three or four years, my right elbow gets to acting up and usually two injections, a few days apart, solves the problem. Talk to your doc. and see what they say.

[Eric Brown]

I have the Noden Adjust-a-bench leg set. I have found that typically when I start to hurt while planing, my bench is too high. I lower it and the pain usually goes away. Also, a different height may be desired for metal or wooden planes (wood ones are usually taller and a shorter bench may be better.

Eric

[Joshua Clark]

Bob's point is spot on- you gain a lot more power when planing with your legs than trying to shove the plane with just your upper body. It's just like batting in baseball or softball- you shift your weight from your rear leg to your front leg and develop a lot of power in that movement. If you want to learn a lot about planing ergonomics, what stance and movements to use, etc. take a look at Ian Kirby's books and videos. He's a stickler for proper stance and ergonomics.

One thing I've learned the hard way is that any sort of repetitive motion under stress is going to eventually cause damage. I wound up with a horrible case of lateral epicondylitis (tennis elbow) last year after firewood season ended. I found out it wasn't the splitting splitting itself, but the picking up the wood with my left hand and putting it on the stump that did it. That repetitive motion, repeated a few thousand times, put a tremendous strain on those ligaments and tendons. I spent a few weeks in rehab, learned some good stretches, and it's almost 100% now. Most importantly I learned to look out for any sort of repetitive motions and change up the way I do things from time to time.

Good luck! Hope it's better soon.

Josh

[Prashun Patel]

Awesome responses! Thanks everyone. I'm going to lower my bench, use my legs, and invest in a new blade for my #6. I think he's the culprit. He's not like my jack or smooth plane; I have to push him really hard. I thought that was just par for the course since my goal is leveling and minor stock removal rather than smoothing.

[Wilbur Pan]

This may be one area where using a plane on the pull stroke has a big advantage over pushing a plane. On the pull stroke, you won't put the same stress on the elbow joint as you do when you are pushing a plane.

[harry strasil]

FWIW, Cortisone will build up cartilage in the joint and it will eventually deteirorate the bone.