Strengthening Activities
Building up arm strength is good for preventing future injury. However, you shouldn't try to do this until inflammation
has been reduced significantly, if not completely, and flexibility
has returned close, if not completely, to normal. The general guideline is that if you can't do something 20 times in a row without it hurting, it's not good for you at the time. Pain is a bad sign. The aphorism, "no pain no gain," is false. You don't want to be doing anything that hurts.
I know of three mild exercises good for strengthening your arms. As mentioned above, don't attempt these until the basic functioning of your arms has been reestablished. You can start off with these exercises using something relatively light, like a coffee mug. As your arms become totally healthy, these exercises can be done with a can of soup, and later on a 5 pound weight for example, to continually maintain arm strength. Increase the weight of the object you are using gradually. At any stage of your recovery, don't do an exercise that you theoretically couldn't do 20 times in a row without pain. Although the exercises don't require this level of repetition, it would be wise to test it out this way to make sure that less repetitions won't be damaging to your arms in the long run.
Activity One: Extend your arm out forward, palm facing up holding the weight. Curl your hand up and down 10 times.
Activity Two: Extend your arm out forward, palm facing down holding the weight. Curl your hand up and down 10 times.
Activity Three: Extend your arm out forward, hand aligned vertically, palm facing inward. Curl your hand back-and-forth 10 times.
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Increasing Endurance
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Regular Breaks
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