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Health
  Preventive Maintenance
Keep in the swing of things
Tightly gripping your steering wheel over years and many miles can take a toll on your elbows and cause golfer’s elbow, even if you’ve never swung a golf club.
Golfer’s elbow is a painful condi- tion that affects the elbow where your forearm muscles attach to the bony bump on the inside of your elbow, causing pain that sometimes radiates into your wrist and forearm.
Although this condition is com- mon for golfers, rock climbers, and baseball pitchers, it also affects truck drivers, plumbers, construc- tion workers, and others who exces- sively or repeatedly use their wrists, clench their fists and/or engage in frequent, grip-intensive activities.
For truckers, it’s the tight grip exerted by your fingers, along
with wrist torsion while steering over long distances, that stresses the tendon that attaches the fore- arm muscle to your elbow, causing pain, tenderness, stiffness, weak- ness, numbness and/or tingling in your fingers.
Golfer’s elbow can be caused by any activity in which you repeatedly bend and straighten your elbow for more than an hour a day over many days, especially if you are 40 or older, overweight and smoke.
Although the symptoms of golfer’s elbow may appear gradually or sud- denly, the following activities may exacerbate the condition: tighten- ing or loosening a fuel cap, shift- ing gears, shaking hands, turning a door knob, flexing your wrist, lift- ing weights, squeezing or pitching a
ball, and/or swinging a golf club or a racquet.
If left untreated, golfer’s elbow can lead to chronic elbow pain, a reduced range of elbow motion and even a lasting, fixed bend in your elbow. Fortunately, there are many effective options for self-treatment. Since you still need to work, tak- ing time off for complete rest is probably not an option. However, even when driving, you can take the strain off your affected elbow by wearing a counter-force brace or an elastic bandage.
To reduce pain, consider using over-the-counter pain relief like ibu- profen (Advil, Motrin IB and others), naproxen sodium (Aleve and oth- ers) or acetaminophen (Tylenol and others) and/or a topical, deep pen-
Karen Bowen is a professional health and nutrition consultant, and she can be reached at karen_bowen@yahoo.com.
etrating hot/cold cream (Medistik and others).
Between loads, ice your inner elbow for 15 to 20 minutes, three or four times per day. (To protect your skin, be sure to wrap the ice pack in thin cloth).
To keep your elbow limber, try the following stretching exercises: Extend your affected arm in front of you, palms up. Bend your elbow to a 90-degree angle and turn your hand towards you. Move your fingers and thumb towards each other to make a ‘quacking duck’ movement. Repeat this ‘quacking duck’ exercise 20 times, three to five times a day.
Another stretch that works well is called the wrist flexor stretch. For this stretch, extend your affected arm straight in front of you with your fingers pointing up and your palm facing outward. With your other hand, pull your fingers gen- tly back toward you and hold for 30 seconds. Repeat five times at least three times per day.
If left untreated, golfer’s elbow can lead to chronic elbow pain, a reduced range of elbow motion and even a lasting, fixed bend
in your elbow.
You could also try an exercise for forearm pronation and supination. With your affected elbow at your side, bend that elbow 90 degrees, and keeping your elbow at your side, turn your palm up and hold for five sec- onds. Then, slowly turn your palm down and hold for five seconds. Be sure that your elbow stays at your side, bent at 90 degrees for this exer- cise. Do two sets of 15 repetitions.
For persistent golfer’s elbow, sur- gery is occasionally recommended. Take steps to avoid it. Before pull- ing out with your first load, warm up your elbow joint by doing a few ‘quacking duck’ stretches. Regu- larly exercise to strengthen your forearm muscles – carry a tennis ball in your rig and squeeze it 50 to 100 times over each day. If you are prone to elbow pain, keep an elbow brace/elastic bandage handy and support your elbow at the first twinge of pain.
Get a grip on your future elbow strength by taking these measures today. TN
   HIRING AZ COMPANY DRIVERS
& OWNER OPERATORS
Mid‐west U.S. and western Canada steady lanes, team and single driver positions available.
 BASED ON DRIVER’S EXPERIENCE AND SAFETY RECORD, ITL OFFERS:
INTERESTED DRIVERS AND OWNER OPERATORS PLEASE CALL: 1-519-632-8881 or forward your brief resume with drivers abstract and CVOR by email to: safety@internationaltrucklines.com or Fax: 1-888-886-7067
• $0.42 to $0.50 per mile for single company drivers
• $0.24 to $0.30 per mile for team company drivers
• $1.44 to $1.53 per mile owner operator’s compensation package
and additional Fuel discount of $0.05 to $0.10 per litre
North America wide program
• All paid miles, loaded and empty
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equipment No forced dispatch
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• Professional and dedicated AZ company drivers and
owner operators with at least one year of proven related experience
• Good driving record
• FAST Card or Police Clearance
• Positive attitude
• Well maintained truck (owner operators)
        BRANTFORD ONTARIO
Company Drivers
US LONG/SHORT HAUL
Contact Anthony Garkut
800-784-5774 I agarkut@btcexpress.ca
9:00am-5:00pm ET
After 5 pm please call Jacob: (519) 755-2331
BASED ON DRIVER EXPERIENCE AND SAFETY RECORD, COMPANY DRIVERS CAN EARN BETWEEN $0.42-$0.50/mile
• All New Model Equipment
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WE KEEP THINGS
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OR
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               52 Truck News • June 2017
NEW CONTRACT AWARDED Steady Runs to Georgia & Wisconsin






















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