Customer Reviews

Thera-band Flexbar Hand Exerciser - Tennis Elbow Relief Bar Green Medium

5 star:		(91)
4 star:		(29)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Most people probably haven't ever heard of eccentric exercise, which is the type of exercise these bars provide. Eccentric, or "negatives" as bodybuilders call them, are basically the lowering portion of an exercise. For instance, if you lift a weight over your head and lower it, the lifting is the "concentric" part, and the lowering of the weight is the "eccentric" part.

Without a doubt, this is one interesting tool you can use that will provide eccentric exercise for your wrist muscles. So what's the big deal with eccentrics? Well, there have been studies showing that when people with tendonitis conditions do just the eccentric part of an exercise, they get better. Problem is, there are tennis elbow studies specifically showing that if you do just the concentric (or lifting part) only, you get better too (Martinez-Silvestrini 2005). Therefore, eccentric exercise, as this tool most surely provides, will help tendonitis, but its far from a "magic" cure, and you can achieve the same results as doing "concentrics" with a light dumbbell.

Perhaps more importantly though, people with tennis elbow need to know that resistance exercise is just ONE part of what you need to be doing to totally get rid of your tennis elbow.

Studies on tennis elbow and eccentric exercise, such as the one I quoted above, had patients ALSO do stretching exercises and I know of no studies that have had people with tennis elbow do just eccentric exercise alone and they've gotten better. Therefore, suggest people with tennis elbow check out this tool, as well as books like Treat Your Own Tennis Elbow for a well-rounded program. Good luck.

Good product. I'm using it to heal tennis elbow and it is a big help. Make sure, however, you select the right tension for your intended use. For tennis elbow therapy you pre-twist the bar and then release the twist with your hurt arm. The blue bar is very stiff and challenging to twist. It would likely be painful for a moderate to severe case of tennis elbow. I suggest the red or green bar for tennis elbow. For strength building by bending the bar, the blue is challenging but fine. For reference I am a 48 year old male, 6'3", in good shape, who plays competitive tennis 5 times a week. I hope this is helpful.

I got Tennis Elbow from golfing in 2003. (pain on the outside elbow joint) I had cortisone shots 2 years in a row to at the suggestions of several people. Each time the pain came back. Then I tried acupuncture. That helped for a while as well, but the pain came back again. I wore the strap on my forearm to lower the pain while golfing. This was tolerable, but not the long term solution.

I heard about the flex bar and googled it on the internet. This was over a year ago. This is the only thing that has worked for me. I have been pain free for over a year. I continue to use it occasionally as preventive medicine.

I have both golf elbow and tennis elbow in both arms, which is pretty funny considering I don't play and rarely do anything with repetitive motion. I was treated with ultrasound, localized steroids, and given the standard exercises. Only the exercises helped, but I had to do them a couple of times a day, they only provided partial relief, and if I stopped the pain came right back and it would take a week or two of exercising to get them to calm down again.

I saw the article about the Tyler Twist with Flexbar in the NY Times, ordered the red one and consider it the best money I ever spent on a health care product.

If you go to YouTube you can see better videos of the exercises than were available in 2009 when the Times article appeared. Just search for Theraband Flexbar. The Tyler Twist and Reverse Tyler Twist are really simple exercises - quick and very effective. And I never needed to go up to the next resistance (green). Every couple of months the elbows start to get sore, I whip out the red bar, do the exercises and two days later the pain is gone.

If you have either tennis elbow or golf elbow you can't do any better than to use this product. Quick, cheap and easy - can't beat that. Thank you Theraband and Tim Tyler!

Theraband FlexBar - Blue - A18225 03

I feel like this is truly worthy of review. I have been an active, competitive tennis player since the 80's (I am in mid 40's) and have had some degree of elbow pain the entire time.
While I could usually work through it with aspirin/Advil/ice and resting the arm, recently it became so bad that I had to quit playing for over a month.
The elbow felt like it was on fire, very sharp and burning pain was almost non stop, even after not playing for couple weeks. Everyone told me it was either my strings or my racquet. Someone I play with had just come back from elbow problems and told me about this product and had also used the blue one.
I could tell within couple days that the pain was almost gone. Doing the tyler twist exercise daily has made my elbow pain almost completely go away.
If your elbow pain is limiting your activity, you really owe it to yourself to check this out. The price is low and the results will come. No need for surgery, or roids, etc...
If your elbow hurts, buy this now, and end the frustration of sitting out while your buds all play!!

The blue flexbar is listed for heavier resistance to twisting.
I am strong and athletic with only minor tennis elbow issues,
and the blue has ample resistance but not too much. Strong guys... buy the blue!

If you'd like to try the exercises, before buying a Flexbar,
you can use a simple pool toy. I mean the long brightly colored foam tubes that are
three inches in diameter and about five feet long and cost only a couple of bucks.
Cut off about a foot and give it a twist!

The real Flexbar has much greater range of twist and is very heavy and appears durable.

After reading an article in the NY Times and watching a You Tube video, I ordered the red (weakest) Flexbar for my longstanding, chronic tendonitis. The exercise is different than any of those outlined in the instruction manual -- be sure to read Dr. Timothy Tyler's method! There was immediate improvement, and by two weeks my pain was gone! I highly recommend the Flexbar!

Use the Thera-Band flexbar as directed for "tennis elbow" and you should get relief as did I. Had to dig deep to find out the recommended regimen is 15 reps, three times a day. I bought both the red and the green bars, and found that either would work just fine--don't need both.

I purchased this brand and model to compare against the Cando twist-n-bend, which is a very similar product. The Thera-Band Company makes quality products and some of them are designed for very fit individuals. However, the Flexbar heavy model is not a product for a person of even moderate strength. It is far to easy to twist and bend this model to get a decent workout. The Flexbar heavy, medium, and light models are better suited for people going through rehabilitation, those that lack upper body strength, and teenagers whose muscles have not fully developed. Although the material ingredients are a little bit better quality than the Cando twist-n-bend, the Cando extra heavy model, which Thera-band does not have a similar model, is designed for strong athletes, martial artists, boxer, wrestlers, bouncers and many others. The Cando model is also cheaper.
I should have spent my money on another Cando twist-n-bend instead of the Flexbar.

I concur with the other reviewers who saw the video on the New York Times web site which demonstated how exercises with the FlexBar Exerciser can help relieve tennis elbow. I have not used the exerciser that much but it still has helped a lot. One caution, the green medium tension still requires a lot of strength to perform the twists so you may want to start with the red tension bar.