Elbow Injury and Crossfit

marykellymires

Hi All,

I had surgery on my elbow and wrist (cubital tunnel and carpal tunnel) on January 7th. I have been instructed by my doctor to not grip anything with weight for the next 3 months. I also will never be able to do body weight stuff like pushups, pullups etc or barbell movements with bent elbows or overhead for the rest of my life. This is because it is the second surgery on this elbow. I've seen some people online who actually have one arm and do crossfit. I guess I'm just wondering if anyone has been through this and what did you do about crossfit? My family and friends (outside of crossfit) are all encouraging me no to go back, but I've been doing some zumba and pilates (one arm) for the last few weeks and it absolutely sucks! Any advice would be awesome.

Thanks!

ashlando

I'm not a doctor, nor should I be giving medical advice here, BUT, I see lots of people in and out of classes at my box that have had all different types of injuries, surgeries, conditions, etc that make it work. Our coaches are experts at scaling and finding alternative movements so that everyone can still get a great workout. I would imagine that most experienced CrossFit coaches are the same in that sense. If you love the CrossFit style of working out and are finding alternatives (such as Zumba and Pilates) to be boring, stick with CrossFit and work with your coaches to find good alternatives to movements.

bostonwolf

^what she said. Work with your coaches given your limitations and see what they can come up with. Also is there any chance the doctor is being a bit too conservative and a second opinion might be in order?

AllanMisner

Far be it for me to question a doctor, but after a standard recovery period, I can’t imagine that you’ll “never” be able to do certain exercises. What was the actual cause of the injury?

kozinskey

Oh jeez. Are you working with a PT? I have a really hard time imagining you'll never be able to move weight with a bent elbow again. What if you need to move your fridge? I would probably ask for a second opinion.

In answer to your question though, a good box should be able to help you scale or sub movements. I've been dealing with an elbow injury myself for a while (combo of tennis elbow + nerve impingement) and I've been able to keep doing CF through a combo of avoiding grip-heavy workouts and subbing out movements like pull-ups or SDHP.

learning2fly4

Second the above, you can do modified movements for most everything.

Also curious about your surgery, what did you have for the cubital? Was told i needed it and said no thanks at the time. I choose to deal with the pain and mostly numbness as it comes.