Overcoming elbow injuries/soreness

[Husker2019]

Hey folks, new to these forums....this is my first post. I'm 41 years old, have lifted since junior high...has always been my favorite form of exercising. Flashback to Jan of 2018. I'd been lazy for a few months and really got back into a great routine for a few months after getting back into the gym, lost weight, built a lot of muscle, gained a lot of strength. I could feel pain in both elbows creeping in over time, and then it finally got to be way to painful to continue lifting. I was forced to take several months off. Now we get to Jan of 2019. I'm 6'3"....and in Jan of this year I weighed 234.....the most I've ever weighed....and it wasn't good weight. So, my elbows had heeled up so I got back to the gym.....lifted as usual, about 4 days a week and then a couple days of cardio. Did really great with diet and exercise up until June and lost 22 pounds and was as strong as I've ever been. Then the elbow thing happened again, both elbows. I haven't gone to the doctor, but I have no doubt it's like a tendinitis thing. Even hurts at the head of my bicep at the elbow as well as the tommy john area and the outside of the elbow. Really painful, and makes my arms really weak. It's been about 4 months now and I'm still not completely over the elbow pain yet, but really want to get back to working out. Cardio doesn't motivate me to get to the gym. I have to find a way to lift again. My work outs have always been really basic. Heavy dumbbell work, and other basic lifts, nothing out of the ordinary. I've been told to ditch the dumbbells going forward as that might help my elbows. Any other suggestions....I don't want to abandoned my biceps and triceps all together. Anyone else have chronic elbow issues? Thanks for reading.

[willybrokeback]

First off, go to the Doctor and make sure it is really tendinitis. I had this in my right elbow so bad I could not shake hands with anyone without cringing like a baby. I would wear an elbow sleeve, and on top of the sleeve I would put a Bandit compression band (made for tendinitis) and this helped me get through things until it got better. I also iced it daily. I did have to take time off of upper body stuff for a bit though. Oh yea, I also used straps for everything regarding pulling, trying to remove grip from the equation. Good luck.

[risingstarl96a1]

For me I personally did have elbow and wrist pains. Until I started to stretch and made a lot of changes to my workout. I worked on my wrist to get it stronger and stretch my elbows to loosen it up before a workout.

[KidFreeze]

Not sure if it's "tennis elbow" but I had a real bad case months ago. People say stop exercising and rest but i did the opposite, no rest, continued to workout, but rehabbing as well. The pain in the elbow all comes from the forearm and bad form. Be more consciouss of you wrist when performing curls and pressing. Even a slight bend in wrist over time with give you elbow tendinitis.

As someone said up top lots of stretching. I took a lacrosse ball and would dig deep in my forearm to loosen the cartilage up. I also did single hand dumbbell curls with a 20 or 25lbs. 3 sets for 15 reps, very slow on the way down and up. I'm 99% healed, I still get some irritation in the elbow after a workout, but it's gone the next day.

I got the wrist curl idea from this video. Basically this video cured my "tennis elbow" I did all these exercises as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIYD...index=5&t=579s

[Husker2019]

Thanks for chiming in.....I'll take all this into consideration

[MrCarrot]

I must admit my elbows are one of the things that aren't niggling me yet (touch wood). Jeff Cavaliere has done some useful videos on elbow pain, a couple of things I remember is that stretching your forearm and elbow by bending back all of your fingers isn't as effective as pulling back on just your ring finger. Also, lots of people do pull ups with their finger tips because apparently it's easier (I don't know why) but this can lead to tendinitis compared to holding the bar properly in your palm.

Personally upper and lower arms are probably my best feature, so I use straps for most pulling movements and I think this might help to avoid problems with the wrists and elbows (I could be wrong, since some might argue it will lead to muscular imabalances).

[Ntsfan]

Hi there.
Look up Theraband and Tyler Twist. I saw a few threads on this site. I had medial elbow pain (golfers elbow) for over a year. I tried all kinds of straps, wraps and stretches.
I got the Theraband and did the “Rev Tyler Twist” . Did multiple times throughout the day. Still do it before and during workout between sets. My elbow pain is gone. It took a few weeks, so be patient and keep it up. Hope it works for you.