Elbow pain:(

[whipper27]

A little about myself first:

35 yr old male. Workout 5-7 days a week. Very fitness driven.

Over the last month as the gyms have closed, I’ve developed extreme elbow pain in both elbows. Part of it I THINK may have to do with everything I do now is free weights. But I especially noticed my elbows killing me the last couple days since I did chest day(bench press, incline and ended with tricep workout). The pain is so bad it actually wakes me up at night and I have troubles sleeping. It hurts to fully extend my elbows and is even effecting my job now as I have hard time lifting things.

Now I know most will say take time some time to rest and heal(which is so very extremely hard for me to do, fear of losing everything I’ve worked so hard for). But do I do a complete upper body rest? How long do I do this? I’m so discouraged because fitness and weight training is my biggest stress reliever and the anxiety of losing everything I worked for is killing me. Anyone that has had this issue and could tell me what has worked for them or hasn’t worked would be GREATLY appreciated! Somehow someway I need to get on the road to recovery

[DLizzle]

I as well have elbow pain and I'm in the exact same boat. My elbow pain is in both arms, right at the funny bone (inside the elbow), diagnosed as Golfer's elbow (aka tendonitis). This injury came from, I'm very certain, poor technique at the tricep pulldown machine. I've since had to stop doing the tricep pulldown, lat pulldowns, and bicep curls. All of these aggravate the **** out of it. I'm still able to bench and tricep dips, abs, and legs. The injury isn't getting worse, but certainly isn't getting better. I've seen two different specialists, and they only provide short term relief - no solid cure or resolution.

The elbow pain has woken me up at night as well. I wouldn't call it pain, but more like extreme discomfort. I quit lifting in December because of it, took four months off, had cortisone injections (which worked temporarily), but the pain came back within a month of lifting. I lost about 10lbs of muscle when I quit lifting for four months, and it sucked big time - I was purely miserable. The muscle came back quickly, thank heavens, but I don't want to lose it again.

When I sleep at night, I wear wrist guards that has a brace in it that keeps my wrists perfectly straight, and limits the range of motion significantly. This works. I was told by isolating the wrists, it minimizes the pressure off the tendons in the elbow. I was advised to get an elbow brace that keeps the elbow joint straight and wear it when I sleep, which I'll do ASAP.

I wear compression sleeves when I lift, I believe this helps somewhat. I don't want to take Aleve for the rest of my life, nor do I want to quit lifting.

My question is, who has experienced this before and what did you do to solve this problem?

There HAS to be someone who's experienced this same thing, and found a cure. Whether the elbow joint is misaligned and/or needs a professional adjustment, or needs a specific brace to correct the issue, acupuncture, Graston therpay, or whatever the cure is.

I refuse to accept that this is the norm and it won't get any better. Someone somewhere has dealt with this same issue before and knows how to cure it once and for all. Any physical therapists have an answer? PLEASE HELP !!

[ReboundReps]

A little about myself first:

35 yr old male. Workout 5-7 days a week. Very fitness driven.

Over the last month as the gyms have closed, I’ve developed extreme elbow pain in both elbows. Part of it I THINK may have to do with everything I do now is free weights. But I especially noticed my elbows killing me the last couple days since I did chest day(bench press, incline and ended with tricep workout). The pain is so bad it actually wakes me up at night and I have troubles sleeping. It hurts to fully extend my elbows and is even effecting my job now as I have hard time lifting things.

Now I know most will say take time some time to rest and heal(which is so very extremely hard for me to do, fear of losing everything I’ve worked so hard for). But do I do a complete upper body rest? How long do I do this? I’m so discouraged because fitness and weight training is my biggest stress reliever and the anxiety of losing everything I worked for is killing me. Anyone that has had this issue and could tell me what has worked for them or hasn’t worked would be GREATLY appreciated! Somehow someway I need to get on the road to recovery

In the event that it's tricep tendonitis, you should rehab it with eccentric exercises. You can do tricep pushdowns with different graded therabands, use both arms to push them down, and then one arm to do the eccentric bit.

If that works out, you could then move on to 'heavy slow resistance' training which involves slow tempo reps (e.g. a 303 tempo).

Try reading up on both methods as the forum wont let me post any links.

This is all of course assuming that it is tricep tendonitis... but if it is, then the above two approaches should work like magic as it did with me, unlike all the garbage articles I read online about just icing it and taking painkillers

[jaxqen]

I have the same problem, but less severe.
- only in my right elbow
- it hurts a little when fully extend
- it hurts a lot sometimes during one dumbell skullcrushers (the only tricep exercise I can do at home, with gyms being close)
- it used to hurt a during bench press and barbell curl at the gym

I used a Diclofenac gel and another stuff... both helped, but only for for a while.
If I rub it on the shoulder before working out, the pain is less severe.

[ReboundReps]

I have the same problem, but less severe.
- only in my right elbow
- it hurts a little when fully extend
- it hurts a lot sometimes during one dumbell skullcrushers (the only tricep exercise I can do at home, with gyms being close)
- it used to hurt a during bench press and barbell curl at the gym

I used a Diclofenac gel and another stuff... both helped, but only for for a while.
If I rub it on the shoulder before working out, the pain is less severe.

Is it a sharp pain? do you get it at the bottom of the movement a lot with skullcrushers?

If so then sounds like tendonitis, see my post above and it'll sort you right out.

[jaxqen]

Is it a sharp pain? do you get it at the bottom of the movement a lot with skullcrushers?

If so then sounds like tendonitis, see my post above and it'll sort you right out.

Yes, sharp.
Yes, at the bottom of the movement.

I'll try your method, although I don't understand why it works.
The concentric remains the same but the eccentric it much harder?

[ReboundReps]

Yes, sharp.
Yes, at the bottom of the movement.

I'll try your method, although I don't understand why it works.
The concentric remains the same but the eccentric it much harder?

If you're taking the eccentric route, yes this is how it should be. The eccentric part puts less strain on the tendon (or something along those lines)

There is an article on T-Nation called 'Eccentric Exercise: A Solution to Tendonitis?' which explains everything, I can't post a link though as this forum won't let me

[tjackson8889]

I had a similar problem but I gave mine a couple months rest and it went away. I just found other exercises to do in the meantime.

[KathleenRyan]

I also have relatively significant tendonitis in my left elbow, but haven't had any specialist look at it. I've had it for years. General consensus from a casual check up and primary care physician is that once the tendon has been stretched and pulled, it can't really rebound back to the state it's supposed to be.

I can feel the tendon slip over the ulna/funny bone ever time I bring my arm in close to my body. I have to sleep with the arm extended, if I have it tucked I gradually lose sensation down the rest of my arm.

High repetition pushups or certain tricep exercises like skullcrushers seem to aggravate it the most. It's rare that it's outright painful though, normally just very uncomfortable and distracting.

If mine gets worse I'll see a specialist or whatever, spend more time looking into it. But I've already had to deal with this for years, and it seems like it's the way things will stay for now.

Edit: Elbow/compression sleeves during pushing workouts helps keep the pain down a little. Doing wrist stretches before and after may also help.