Lifting with Tennis Elbow

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Tore the ish out of my elbow shooting archery over the winter. Basically archer's elbow is the same as tennis elbow. It goes away and comes back, been 3 months. Can't ride my motorcycle because squeezing the brake aggravates it. Now it's time to get back to lifting. Anyone have experience with this?

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  • steve0820
    steve0820 Posts: 510 Member
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    Tore the ish out of my elbow shooting archery over the winter. Basically archer's elbow is the same as tennis elbow. It goes away and comes back, been 3 months. Can't ride my motorcycle because squeezing the brake aggravates it. Now it's time to get back to lifting. Anyone have experience with this?

    Hurt my elbow pretty good about a year ago, still feel some discomfort once in a while, but it has gotten a lot better. Depending on the type of pain and movement, you might need to modify your workouts around that, until the muscles around it strengthen. For me personally, I had to switch many exercises to dumbbell's instead of barbell. I took a few months, but I was able to start using barbell's again. But, even today, certain exercises I still can't. And also, make sure to learn proper form and Technics for the type of lifts you will be doing.
  • EricJonrosh
    EricJonrosh Posts: 823 Member
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  • BlueBombers
    BlueBombers Posts: 4,065 Member
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    I have this same problem as well right now, great to hear what other people have to say.
  • tennisdude2004
    tennisdude2004 Posts: 5,609 Member
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    Lifting with tennis elbow is just crazy Steve.

    I hate being injured and I have a massive (what I call idiot gene) in my head and normally continue to train whilst injured.

    Currently getting over a bad back (yep still playing tennis - idiot gene).

    Point of the post is, I have tennis elbow last year and had some myofascial massage therapy and it did the trick. Some times it's not the area of pain that is the problem but the group of nerves running to it.

    Have a look into it, it may help clear it up.

    Good luck.
  • parkscs
    parkscs Posts: 1,639 Member
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    I had this problem for months. I started icing my elbow after workouts and I cut out my boxing work I did 2-3 times per week once I found out that was further aggravating my elbow. Since then, the soreness has all but gone away.
  • kelly_e_montana
    kelly_e_montana Posts: 1,999 Member
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    Well, previously I suffered from elbow tendonitis both inside and outside of the elbow (tennis and golfer's elbow), depending on what I had been doing. I got it from recreational pole dancing and specifically one move that put a lot of stress on the elbow. Basically, I just stopped doing that move. However, it was terrible for a couple of months. I could barely move my arm, I had to pack an ice pack with me everywhere, and carry Icy Hot and Alleve. It was so painful!

    When I lifted last year, I used dumbbells. I also used machines. I could not do things like upright rows or regular curls (I had to switch to concentration curls). I guess just get some dumbbells and play around with the angles. Some things bothered me a lot and other things didn't. Be careful not to hyper-extend. Rest more than you normally think you would. Ice after.
  • jofjltncb6
    jofjltncb6 Posts: 34,415 Member
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    Tendon injuries are awful. They take forever to completely heal and are easy to reaggravate.

    I developed golfer's elbow (the other side of the elbow than tennis elbow) from a day of heavy chainsawing during storm clean-up in May 2013. I tried to work through it, wasn't getting better, so I shut it down entirely for four months. No improvement. Decided "eff it" and resumed activity but trying to work around it. Got a cortisone shot (which improved it drastically for about a month). Currently, it's *slowly* getting better as I continue to work around it (by avoiding certain movements that I know are problematic) and by subbing certain exercises (like more dbs, less bbs).

    I really liked the armaid device I bought, but didn't have the miraculous results I was hoping for. That said, I know a lot of people have experienced them, so it's worth a try. Seems like a beneficial tool to have in your toolbox for dealing with problems like this. It's not particularly cheap, but compared to surgery/dr. visit, certainly worth a try.

    Also, I found the voodoo flossing technique to help a little (and really help for some other niggling problems I had along the way). An even cheaper thing to consider.

    Best of luck.


    ETA: Oh, I also had limited benefit from ART (active release technique) which I swear by as a solution for many similar problems. I also tried a month of proteolytic enzymes ("SerraGold") which I think started to help (maybe...it's hard to sort through the potential placebo effect ) but this was right before I decided to get the shot and then kind of forgot about them. Ordering another round of them has been on my to-do list for a couple of weeks though, so I decided they were worth another try.

    I also do a lot of stretching of the area by pulling my hand back. Certainly provides some temporary relief. Not sure what it's doing long-term. (This approach really seemed to help my plantar fasciitis problem when I did it with my foot, so I figured, why not.)
  • ironrat79
    ironrat79 Posts: 273 Member
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    I chipped a piece of my ulna near the elbow a few years ago and I still have mild discomfort on some lifts and heavier weight. Try to stay away from machines that isolate or put unneeded stress on the elbow, ie preacher curl machine. I mainly just listen to my body and modify weights/movements to compensate for exercises I can't do. Hope this helps
  • shane_tac1
    shane_tac1 Posts: 35 Member
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    I have issues in both my elbows. I also had active release done to help get rid of it. A few years ago I had it so bad in my left arm that I could barely pick a db up so i went and saw a local guy. He did ART on it for 30mins and it was gone! So i swear by it now. I just had issues in my right bicep and forearm and elbows that has taken a fair few sessions to clear up but i couldn't do incline biceps curls before i had it done and now im back to being able to go heavy on them again. I was also having issues doing push downs, lots of pain even on light weight and can now go heavy on them again as well.
    I have had to adapt my workout though because i still cant do Skull crushers. They give me huge pain so I just don't do them any more. I have heard for some doing them with DBs doesn't cause them pain and doing them on an incline also helps but it makes no difference to me.
    You might want to figure out exactly what you have first as well. Is it Tendinosis or Tendonitis as both can take different amounts of time to heal. Rest and some ART though would be well worth trying. I also read an interesting article on T Nation awhile back which had another alternative for curing it. Type in T Nation Eccentric Exercise A Solution to Tendonitis? to google.
  • 12skipafew99100
    12skipafew99100 Posts: 1,669 Member
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    Tore the ish out of my elbow shooting archery over the winter. Basically archer's elbow is the same as tennis elbow. It goes away and comes back, been 3 months. Can't ride my motorcycle because squeezing the brake aggravates it. Now it's time to get back to lifting. Anyone have experience with this?

    I got it decorating a couple hundred Christmas cookies with a pastry bag. lol I had it for months and it was so painful. I couldn't hold my coffee cup in that hand! But mine was not a tear , as you say, but inflamation from over use.

    I finally found a velcro closed strap that fit around the elbow. It has a little bump in it that puts pressure right on the place where the pain is. Keep that on and no more pain! Wearing this allowed the "tennis elbow" to heal. And I could once again hold my coffee mug.

    Have you tired this yet?