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Lingering elbow pain
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Hi, I have been having issues with golfer’s elbow for about 8 months now. It’s mainly mild annoying pain and I can climb on it without it getting worse, but ultimately I notice it daily and it hurts sharply if I try to do a pull-up. Would love to get rid of this. Thanks so much! |
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A simple golfers elbow strap with a pad to gently redirect the tendon really helped me. Something like this. Not recommending this brand, but I like this simple style. Wore it for a week or two until the flare up went down.  Note: they show it in the tennis elbow position. |
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You need to load the tendon and strengthen them . Start with iso holds. He doesn't recommend wrist curl iso holds in the vid but others do and they work for me. Remember It takes 3 months to remodel tendon. And the load needs to be high. But not so much it hurts the next day. And halt whatever causes the pain. For me it was classic pull ups on a bar. I had to switch to rings or a neutral grip to do pull ups without pain for a while. I even switched to iso pulls for a few weeks when my elbows hurt the worst. But don't completely stop working out. |
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https://www.mountainproject.com/forum/topic/125113395/isometric-hangs-for-elbow-tendonitis |
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My elbows hurt if I don't do a few "opposite" workouts on non-climbing days. By opposite I mean opposite muscles from the main climbing/pulling muscle groups. For me, that's at least some pushing (push ups or dips or bench or something) for the triceps and some extensor reps to work the opposite side of the forearm (holding light dumbbells, palms down, and extending the wrist back or up or however you'd say that). Your results may vary, but it helps me a ton |
chummer wrote: This is the only way to truly "heal a tendon". I've had knee, Achilles, elbow and, bicep tendonitis that I've dealt with over the last year or so. Load it every day as much as you can handle and it'll slowly improve with months of consistency. |
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I am lucky enough to have a local PT who is a climber and works out of a gym. One thing that helped a ton - warm up by climbing with bent elbows and moving slowly. Straight arms will stress the elbow and tendons. Once I was warmed up the elbow pain only showed up with some moves. Avoid those until your tendon is better. For example if I made a big powerful throw and caught it with a straight arm - pain. Switched to having a slightly bent elbow and muscles engaged Deep lock offs I had to avoid completely. |
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If you keep doing what you are doing that causes real pain, you will cause chronic and very long lasting damage. |
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I have found you gotta experiment a little bit to find what works for your particular injury, but the things I would try in no particular order are wrist curls/reverse wrist curls, isometric holds, "push" training (bench press, dips, oh press etc). Total rest is the enemy, tendons are not well perfused with blood and need mechanical loading to physically move in nutrients to remodel the tissue as well as to organize the directionality of the new collagen fibers that are laid down. load it frequently in a way that mildly triggers the pain but where the pain subsides within a matter of minutes after the loading. Do this frequently - perfect would probably be every 6 hours you are awake as the latest science shows the tendons will not respond to stimulus repeated before ~6 hours. But be ready to dial that back if it gets worse or your recovery is stagnating. dial back on the aspects of climbing that make it worse- often the easiest way to do this is just dial down the intensity ie drop down a few letter grades, but also identifying and avoiding specific movement patterns/hold types that trigger it can work. if it flares up after a session you gotta dial back more. |
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After following the above listed protocols over two years ( not resting, PT, strength and stretching) I had PRP (biologics) in early April. Whereas I was in so much pain I could not shake hands before, I have had significant improvement, but am certainly not 100%. Now at the end of healing, I still have some pain, but am back to climbing, albeit with some loss of strength. TLDR: PRP helped, didn’t get to 100%, will need an update again after 6 months |
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I had a year-long bout with golfer's and tennis that largely sidelined me from climbing. Hooper's beta was an extremely useful resource for me: How to Fix Golfer's Elbow for Climbers (Climber's Elbow) — Hooper's Beta. another video I found very useful: How to NOT Get Injured Climbing (NO GYM - PRO’S ROUTINE) — Hooper's Beta I also found that I had a lot of tension built up in my forearms, triceps, and shoulders that was probably contributing to tendon strain/pain. A few weeks of intense massage, using a Theragun to DIG, made a huge difference in day-to-day pain, and that allowed me to start comfortably strengthening 3 years and 2 kids later, I've been injury-free since implementing better warm-up and training habits, and have continued to be able to push my grades and overall fitness |
