I've Been Taking Collagen Peptides for Tennis Elbow for One Week — Here's What's Happening

The Moment I Knew I Had to Do Something

My hand went numb. Not during work — in bed. I was lying there with my wife and I couldn't feel half my hand. I'd shake it, try to flex it back to life, and eventually drift off. Then the next morning, first thing: pick up the impact driver, give my wrist a basic twist to orient the bit, and get a jolt of pain straight through my elbow.

That was the routine for months. I dealt with it, worked around it, and told myself it would go away on its own. It didn't.

This is what I'm doing about it now — and what's happened after one week.

How I Got Here: Desk Job to Trades

I spent years in engineering. Office job, Teams calls, spreadsheets, the whole deal. At some point I looked around and realized I couldn't see myself sending Teams messages forever. So I made the switch to trades work.

The adjustment was real. I now work 45 to 60 hours a week with basically one break — an hour for lunch. The rest is non-stop. I signed up for it, and I don't regret it. But my body has opinions.

A typical day involves hours of repetitive impact driver use — installing bolts, driving fasteners, over and over. And on top of that, carrying awkward loads one-handed. We're talking 60-pound items held at weird angles for extended stretches. Your forearm is constantly working, constantly gripping, constantly torquing.

How the Tennis Elbow Developed

It didn't happen overnight. Tennis elbow — lateral epicondylitis, officially — is an overuse injury. Your extensor tendons run from your forearm up to where they attach on the outside of your elbow. Repetitive gripping and wrist extension, day after day, gradually degrades that tendon.

For me, the impact driver was the main culprit. Hours of repetitive torque, every day. The carrying didn't help either — hauling something heavy one-handed forces your forearm to stay in a death grip for way longer than it's designed to.

The numbness at night was a secondary thing — nerve compression from the inflammation and tightness. The elbow pain was the real issue.

Months of Working Around It

Here's the embarrassing part: I dealt with this for months before doing anything about it. I developed workarounds. Switched hands when I could. Adjusted my grip. After a long day, I'd sit in my car in the parking lot rubbing my hand and forearm, hoping for some miracle that never showed up.

I could still work. That was the thing. The pain was bad but it didn't take me off the job. So I kept going. Classic trades worker move — if you can push through it, you push through it.

The hand going numb in bed was what finally broke me. That one hit different. That's your body saying: we need to have a conversation.

What I'm Actually Doing About It

After some research I landed on a two-pronged approach: collagen peptides and eccentric exercises. Both have actual evidence behind them, which I'll get into below.

The Collagen Protocol

I'm taking Purely Inspired Collagen Peptides — 15 grams, mixed into about 8 ounces of water, right before dinner. The timing is intentional: I work out and do my exercises in the evening, so taking it 30-60 minutes before that fits the research protocol.

My method — and I'm calling this the double-chug method — goes like this: mix the powder in 8oz of water, chug it. There's always some powder stuck to the bottom of the glass. So I add a splash more water, swirl it around, chug that too. Clean glass, nothing wasted.

It mixes pretty easily and doesn't taste like anything much. No excuses not to take it.

The Water Bottle Exercise

Eccentric exercises are the other half of this. Eccentric means you're loading the muscle while it's lengthening — the lowering phase. This is how you actually rebuild a degenerated tendon.

Here's what I'm doing:

• Sit on the couch, forearm resting on the armrest, palm facing down
• Hold a 1500ml water bottle in my hand
• Use the other hand to lift the bottle up (concentric — doesn't matter)
• Slowly lower it using only the injured arm — 3 to 4 seconds on the way down
• 15 reps, once a day

It should feel like a dull, uncomfortable ache — not sharp pain. If it's sharp, you're using too much weight. Start with an empty or half-full bottle and work up.

One Week In: What's Actually Happening

I'm going to be straight with you because there's a lot of miracle-cure garbage on the internet, and I don't want to add to it.

After one week: noticeable improvement. The specific pain and movement limitations I had before — the morning wrist twist that sent a jolt up my arm, the numbness at night — those are gone or dramatically reduced. What's left is general soreness. The kind you'd expect from working 50+ hours a week in a physical job.

I don't know how much is the collagen, how much is the eccentric exercises, and how much is just time. Probably some combination of all three. I didn't run a controlled study on myself.

What I can say: I'm not rubbing my arm in the parking lot anymore. I picked up an impact driver this morning and didn't wince. That's real progress.

Am I fixed? No. I'm being honest about that. The tendon is still healing. I'll keep doing both protocols and update this article as things progress.

The Science — Briefly

I'm not going to turn this into a textbook. Here's what you need to know:

A 2017 study from UC Davis, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, showed that taking 15 grams of collagen peptides with 50mg of Vitamin C, 30 to 60 minutes before exercise, significantly increased collagen synthesis in tendons. The amino acids in collagen — especially glycine, proline, and hydroxyproline — are the literal building blocks of tendon tissue.

The key insight: you can't rebuild a tendon without the raw materials. Your body needs those amino acids, and tendons have poor blood supply, so they get nutrients slowly. Flooding the system before you load the tendon (through exercise or work) seems to improve uptake.

Vitamin C matters because it's a cofactor for the enzymes that cross-link collagen fibers. Skip it and the collagen doesn't bind properly. You don't need a lot — the study used 50mg, which is about half an orange. I usually have juice with dinner so I'm covered.

What I'm Using

Update — One Full Container In: Pain Gone

Added May 30, 2026

I finished a full container. That's roughly 30 days of consistent use.

I did the water bottle eccentric exercise about three times a week — not every day, not perfectly, but consistently enough. I kept working the full schedule throughout.

The elbow pain is gone. Not "better" — gone. The morning wrist twist that used to send a jolt up my arm, the numbness at night, the rubbing my forearm in the parking lot — all of it has stopped.

I can't tell you it was 100% the collagen. The eccentric exercises are part of it. Time is part of it. But I ran this protocol and the result is: no more pain. That's the honest update I said I'd give you.

I'm going to keep taking it. At this point I'm not interested in running the experiment of stopping and seeing what comes back.

Frequently Asked Questions