The Innings and Outings of Bicipital Tendinitis

Make From Scratch - Going Hardcore

Part of my passion about cooking from scratch and gardening includes a desire to source things as locally as possible. This is for several reasons which include supporting local farmers and reducing the environmental impact of transporting goods a long distance. Not to mention the packaging that is required for all this transportation. There is also the ethical considerations of the working conditions of the third world plantations that produce a lot of our exotic fare. I’m not fanatical about it, but I try to be mindful. I support the farmer’s market and get eggs, honey, chicken and beef from local farmers. My coffee comes from fair trade producers, that is roasted in Canada by a smaller company.

I have been making homemade soap for over a decade now. Although you can use any type of oil to make soap, the ones make with some hard oils (solid at room temperature) made a very consistent, long lasting and sudsy bar. Most modern recipes that you find have coconut oil as a base. I wanted to find a substitute that didn’t have a tropical source. With some research, I discovered that tallow was the solution.

Tallow is rendered suet. Suet (like in the bird feeders) is a different fat that what you trim off your roast. It’s the abdominal fat that protects the organs. It has a completely different consistency. The pioneers used it to make candles and soap. Unlike lard, which on a hot day would melt if it sat out on the counter, tallow will keep it’s shape. Rendering is a complicated sounding process that just means to melt it. By straining out all the impurities, you end up with a lovely, clean, white product.

Tallow in various stages of rendering

I got my suet from a local bison rancher. They send their animals to the butcher once a year, and were not using the suet. So the butcher packed it up separately in a bag for me, I don’t know how many animals it was from, but it was a lot of suet, enough to last me for years. I use my large turkey roaster to melt it down, and wait for a nice day to do it on the deck. I won’t lie, it smells bad, like a deep fryer in a fast food restaurant. If you got suet from your own butchered animal, you could use your crock pot. Once it’s melted and strained, it’s called tallow. Remember, this is not lard. Lard is the fat that is trimmed off meat. They are a completely different consistency and have different properties.

Over the years I have learned a few handy tips:

Use very low temperatures and be patient. It’s not nice if it scorches.

Start early, it can take a long time and ladling hot fat in the dark is not fun!

Use a metal sieve to strain the bits out, then filter it though a few layers of cheese cloth in a sieve.

Use metal, it gets hot enough to melt plastic.

Put the hot tallow in a pyrex bowl with some water in it. Any impurities will sink in the water and the tallow will float. Wait for it to harden, it will be like wax.  If there are any impurities on the bottom scrap them off.

If you are going to freeze it, you don’t have to do anything else. Due to the amount I make, I remelt it and seal it in jars.

The cleaner you get the tallow, the less likely it will go rancid or have a meat smell. I have read that tallow candles smoke and smell bad, but mine never have. I’m a stickler for filtering.

Any tallow that gets over cooked, I use for bird feeders. Pour it in a pyrex baking pan lined with foil and fill it with bird seed. Cut it into blocks as soon as it starts to get firm. It’s hard to cut if its really solid.

Use tallow just like melted paraffin or beeswax to make candles.

 Take Me Out To The Ball Game

Hopefully, before the summer is over, we will be able to participate in some team sports again. Baseball is one of those games that appeals to people of all ages. When I was in school, as soon as the ball diamonds were dry, we would be out there. We would have a running ball game going, and at each recess we would pick up right where we left off, runners on bases and all. You don’t need a full team and a league to play baseball. As a kid, my brother, parents and I would play in the yard. Bases were probably made out of pail lids. There were no teams, we took turns at bat and tried to get around the bases without being tagged out, then switched.

Baseball has a huge variety of body mechanics involved, throwing, running, and swinging the bat. Not to mention the potential for injury; collisions, abrupt stops and sliding into base. When I lived in Edmonton, I was part of a ball league that took us to diamonds all over town and the outskirts, like Sherwood Park. My job was at least a 20 minute drive from where I was living. One night, I had forgotten to bring my ball clothes to work and the only shoes I had in the car were the ratty runners that I used if I had to cut grass at work. They had absolutely no tread left. When I ran, I couldn’t stop, I ended up on my backside every time that night. Embarrassing and painful! Fortunately, I didn’t get injuries to anything but my ego, but it was my first lesson on the importance of proper shoes. (Now, where have we heard that before!)

Just like with any other sport, when the season is starting it’s a great idea to do a couple of weeks of warm up before you dive in. Go to the batting cages, play some catch, and do a little running. There are two types of injury in sports, repetitive strain and those sustained in an accident. The practice of swinging a heavier bat or multiple bats to warm up should be used with caution. The momentum of that increased weight could result in torn shoulder muscles, especially to cold muscles. You should go through a thorough warm up before subjecting them to that kind of force.

The most common repetitive strain in baseball is to the rotator cuff and the bicep tendon. Bicipital tendinitis is referred to as pitcher’s shoulder. Feel your shoulder, just up from the crease of your armpit, still in the front, not on top.  That’s where the bicep tendon sits and rubs on the bone. It’s not only caused by throwing; pushups, weightlifting, racquet sports and tools can also aggravate it. The bicep is a difficult muscle to stretch, your elbow stops your arm from going backwards before you can actually lengthen the bicep enough to stretch it. This is a case for resisted stretches.

Bicep Stretches

Wall / Doorway Stretch We have done this before for the pectoral muscles. Pect major and the bicep attach at the same spot. So they are affected by the same stretches. Tight pectoral muscles can contribute to bicipital tendinitis.

Stand at end of wall or in doorway facing perpendicular to wall. Position front of straight arm and palm on surface of wall. Situate arm around same height of shoulder with elbow positioned away from wall.

Turn body away from positioned arm. Hold stretch. Repeat with opposite arm.

A stationary bar can also be used instead of wall.

Alternately: stand in a doorway, placing both palms on either side of the door at shoulder height.  Step through the door with one foot to stretch and hold.  Step back and repeat with other foot.

Floor Stretch

Sit on floor or mat. Lean back and place hands flat on floor close together behind body with fingers positioned away from body. Scoot hips forward away from hands. Hold stretch.

Or instead of scooting hips forward, hands can be eased backwards.

Arms Behind Back

Clasp hands behind back with palms together. Straighten arms and rotate arms (inside down) so palms turn downward.

Raise arms away from body. Hold stretch.

Squat Stretch

Face away from wall. Bend over and place hands close together as high as possible on wall with fingers positioned upward. Bring rear end and back toward wall and squat down. Hold stretch for 20 seconds. A stationary bar can also be used instead of wall.

Strengthening Exercises

These exercises are good for rehab after an injury, but they are also good for a warm up throughout the season to prevent injury.  They also increase your range of motion.

Pendulum

Relax your shoulder muscles.

While standing or sitting, keep your arm vertical and close to your body (bending over too far may pinch the rotator cuff tendons). Use a light weight, which can slowly be increased.

Allow your arm to swing forward to back, then side to side, then in small circles in each direction (no greater than one foot in any direction).

Gradually increasing the diameter of the movements until you feel discomfort (not to exceed 18 to 24 inches or 45 to 60 cm)

Biceps curls

Stand and hold a light weight in your hand. Bend your elbow and bring your hand (palm up) toward your shoulder. Hold 5 seconds. Slowly return to your starting position and straighten your elbow. Do 3 sets of 10 or 15. Remember, slow and controlled is how you target the muscle and prevent injury.

Single-arm shoulder flexion

Stand with one arm hanging down at your side, holding a light weight. Keeping your elbow straight, bring your arm forward and up toward the ceiling. Hold this position for 5 seconds. Do 3 sets. 

Wall walks 

This exercise is key for anyone experiencing tightness or a reduced range of motion in their shoulders. Face a wall, standing close enough that you can touch the wall with your fingertips. Starting with the arms outstretched, parallel to the floor, walk the fingers up and down the wall. Keep your shoulders level (do not shrug the shoulders). You should walk your fingers high enough that you begin to feel mild discomfort or aching, but not sharp or severe pain. Continue for up to five minutes. Perform several times per day. To increase the difficulty, try to walk the fingers higher. Using a piece of masking tape on the wall is a great way to show you the progress you are making.

Hydrotherapy

If you are having some shoulder pain, use heat before playing and ice after. Make sure you stay hydrated, so your muscles and tendons are less likely to be injured.

Sometimes these blog posts take on a life of their own. I had initially intended this to be a more general baseball post, the way I did with golf and hiking. When I was in school, I did my final project in school on bicipital tendinitis, and it kind of ran away with me! I found that I was unable to just mention it in passing!