Training with Elbow Issues

I’ve recently been having some problems with my elbows. The brachioradialis of my left arm has been bothering me and the outer tendon that goes over my right elbow has been starting to flare up, as well. They started when I decided one day to do 100 chins/dips with a few accessory lifts. I took a light week to deload and they seemed okay but after raking for an hour and a half, they were baked.

I’ve looked it up and I know that I should be megadosing on the fish oil, take the ibuprofen, strech as percribed in cressey’s articles, and avoiding chins/pull ups and any direct arm work. But how do I train around this. I was thinking legs 2-3 times a week, but I’m not sure how I’d do it. (loading/tempo and whatnot). And would I do any upper body work at all? If you have any info on the topic, please post.

I found these articles helpful when I was having forearm issues.

http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=746517

http://www.T-Nation.com/readArticle.do?id=797992

Good luck!

Thanks Tex. Were these the programs that you used? But in them, there are chins and row variations. Did you happen to do legs more than once a week?

Be really careful!

I went chin up crazy a couple of years ago, I was doing like 50-100 a day - every day…every time I passed something I could chin myself on, I would jump up and do 8-10. After about 2 wks of this, my R elbow was so sore I couldn’t even hold a paperback book.

At that point it was too late, and even though I went through all kinds of PT, etc, the damage was done.

I didn’t lift anything at all for almost 2 yrs and just concentrated on running and biking. I went back into the gym one day and did a set of pullups (at which point i maxed out at like 4!), but there was no pain, so I added pullups back into my routine…for a whole 2 wks, before the pain was too great to do more than 1 or 2.

Some theorize that simpe inflammatory tendinitis progresses into a chronic tendinosis, where the collagen is unable to properly form parallel strands of organized tissue, and at that point, there is nothing that can be done.

So what do I do now? Work around it as best as I can. I can do bent-over rows and pulldowns, but it hurts and I can’t go that heavy. I can do curls, but not too heavy or too often. Usually what I do is to superset a set of pullovers with a set of straight arm pulldowns, followed by reg pulldowns.

Another thing I just started, is using those straps that people hang from to do abs…the ones that support your triceps while you hang from chinning bar…anyway, I hang from them and by contracting my lats fully, raise myself as high as I can. Range of motion on this is maybe 6", but it is ALL lats and I can feel a pump. Have to add weight though to make it worth while.

BTW, I have also tried ART and Graston with no success, but other’s have had good experience - they prob weren’t as far gone as I am.

The main point I am trying to make, is that it is a bitch to have to lay off and heal up, and I didn’t and now would give anything to be able to do a couple of sets of pullups 2x a wk.

Good luck.

Whoa, testolius, that sounds like you really did it in. I think I’m going to follow your advice. For the next couple of weeks, I’m probably going to just stick to legs and possibly deadlifts (I’ve noticed locking out the elbow doesn’t really bother them).

Thanks for the response.

[quote]Trenchant wrote:
Whoa, testolius, that sounds like you really did it in. I think I’m going to follow your advice. For the next couple of weeks, I’m probably going to just stick to legs and possibly deadlifts (I’ve noticed locking out the elbow doesn’t really bother them).

Thanks for the response.[/quote]

The silver lining to my cloud comes frm the fact that I hadn’t deadlifted in 20 yrs…I do now and consider it one of my mainstays. Another thing I forgot to mention is that I now do a lot more Olympic lifting, as the exercises themselves and the style of training are very kind to my joints. Snatches are great for your lats and don’t involve elbow at all (at least if you’re doing them right…)

Interesting…and the jerking doesn’t aggravate them? How about push pressing?