Golfer's Elbow (Yes I did the forum search first)

So, I haven't climbed now in 3 months due to over training myself this past summer and developing golfer's elbow. I have seen a sports medicine doctor who recommended of course 3-6 months off, I'm coming up on 4 and I still have a slight pain when I push right on the bone. I'm just wondering about other's experiences I was thinking I was going to get started again in a couple of weeks at a very low level. I don't however want to push it too hard I've got too many trips planned in 2011. Can anyone out there who this has happened to share their experience, recovery time, and proactive steps to stop it from recurring? Any insight is greatly appreciated.

Mine started hurting in December last year and I took off until mid summer. In the middle of the summer they still hurt so I decided to start climbing anyway. I started slow and just warmed up for a few weeks and my elbows started feeling better. Who knows, I never really has success with the exercises but I did them anyway. Don't climb two days in a row at first. I only climbed twice a week for a couple of weeks.

Let it heal. Once it stops hurting for a few weeks, then ease back into climbing. Waiting it out sucks, but overuse injuries will keep reoccurring if you don't let them properly heal...

By the way, I'm not a doctor, just an obsessive climber/runner/cyclist that tends to get overuse injuries on a semi-regular basis.

Good Luck!

Golfer's elbow = tennis elbow, right?

First time I got it bad was 5yrs ago and I had to take 8-10wks off. Then came back slowly and started wearing one of those tennis elbow braces. My elbow only flairs up when climbing in the gym, which I only do in the winters, so every November I go digging thru the gear bin to find that brace again. If I don't wear it for even one day in the gym I can feel the elbow hurting, but with it all is fine. Granted it affects your grip strength to a degree, and when you do get pumped it keeps that volume of blood from leaving your elbow as fast, but it keeps me climbing and that's more important to me.

Golfer's elbow = tennis elbow, right?quote>

Golfers elbow is on the inside of the elbow and from what I've read it's a true overuse injury and more difficult to treat than tennis elbow. Thank you guys above for the info. I don't want to push it as I've taken this much time off what's another month or so but I can't help but feel like I need to just get back doing some light climbing.

Strech,very slow warmup, and when it starts to hurt stop and take a day or two off. Mine kills after a hard work out. Solution: I don't work that hard. I get a lot of crap from my partner because I don't push the grade but if I hurts it's no fun. I've come to except the fact that I'll will only ever climb 5.10, oh well it's still fun and it don't hurt much. For those long hard days I bring ibuprofen for the day then vicodin and beer at night. Btw I'm not a doctor and this my be bad advice. Climbing is dangerous and it hurts.

I developed golfer's elbow a number of years ago. It got so bad I had a hard time picking up a glass of water. A guy at the gym told, 'Yeah, I had that too. Took about five years to go away.' I thought, 'yeah, right', but he was right. LOTS of lost climbing there.

The one thing I would do that I didn't know to do then was to brace them, even for everyday activities. Keep the inflammation down. Lots of ibuprofen or naproxen. When they were sore, even stretching aggravated them, so let your elbows be your guide. Be really conservative and give them a good chance to heal early. If not, you're potentially looking at a long road of healing and no climbing.

A few years ago I had a few months of persistent inner elbow pain that would flare up during and after climbing and training sessions (3-4 times/week). Here are the two things I learned:

1. beware of stress and overuse from other sources, e.g. typing for hours on a laptop. Most of my problem was from bad ergonomics at the computer, but it only really showed up after climbing.

2. do regular workouts and stretching to help balance opposing muscle groups. I sometimes still have elbow tightness after hangboard workouts when I forget to do forearm/wrist rotating exercises (like rotating a dumbell side to side).

if I were in your shoes, I'd start now with any and all forearm/wrist exercises that don't directly strain that area before doing any pulling. And definitely back off of climbing/pullups/whatever if there's any pain.

I recently suffered through the same injury myself. The only thing that seems to help is rest, which is the hardest thing to do, as we all have the tendency to get back into climbing way to soon only to prolong the agony.I also noticed that once you had it you become prone to get re-injured. My suggestion: Once it's healed up,wear an elbow brace as an preventative measure. Certainly helped me. All the best !!

Just like David said, Golfer's elbow is on the inside, Tennis is on the outside. Medial epicondylitis and Lateral epicondylitis respectivly. My golfer's elbow was pretty bad from climbing and work, I got a couple of cortisone injections and they worked like a charm. If doc will give you those, you should be in good shape!

I would be wary of cortisone injections - they have mixed results (work great for some, not at all for others) - but they can weaken the tendons, especially if you have repeated injections. I would just be careful and fail more conservative approaches before trying this route. Just my 2 cents for what it's worth.

David, here's some advice from Dave MacLeod, who definitely knows what's up (degree in exercise physiology I think, and a very strong climber).

On golfer's elbow specifically: onlineclimbingcoach.blogspo…

On injuries in general: onlineclimbingcoach.blogspo…

Browse around the rest of that blog. Excellent stuff.

Julian, thank you for these resources, very good.

I've had this before, and REST WILL NOT HELP! Get to rehabing it now. This injury happens alot in climbing because it is Isometric, which is hard on tendons/ligaments. Pick up the weights and slowly increase resistance. Don't go under ten reps for the first month. I suggest 6 days a week.

forearm curls
reverse forearm curls

phil wortmann wrote:reverse forearm curls

+1

I had it bad a few years ago, and took a few months off (and experienced a slow death). Waiting didn't work, but after a week of reverse curls, I was back at it!

I agree. Reverse curls are key. Use very low weight, even though it doesn't seem like it's doing anything. I would say 15 pounds is pretty good and not more than 25. It is important to only do the reverse curls, so you have to use both hands to bring the weight back up again. Go really slow all the way through the range of your arm, and make sure to do both arms even if only one arm is sore.

I had extensive PT on my elbows. I've take time off just to have it come back again. I think it was really important to change the way I climbed. As others have said, warming up extremely slow and stretching is very important, and often neglected by most climbers.

Another huge thing for me was advice given to me by an old-school climber who also took off a lot of time just to have it come back again. He said to not hang completely straight-armed, especially on steeper walls. The problem is that when you hang straight-armed, you put all the weight on your tendons, which don't recover as fast as muscles. The best thing to do is keep your arm slightly bent at a small cost of taxing your muscles a bit. I notice the difference in my elbows if I don't do this. The hardest thing is breaking the habbit of keeping your arms straight.

Another major point: Stay hydrated before and during climbing. Tendons don't get much blood flow, so hydration is the best way to keep them lubricated.

Hope this helps. I'm not a doctor,either.

I changed the way I climb as well. I try to climb with an open hand grip as much as possible, whereas previously I crimped alot. That's seemed to make a big difference. Jim Holloway supposedly climbed exclusively with an open hand grip and he never had any problems with injuries.

I have had bouts of medial epicondylitis (golfer's elbow), and there are a couple of things I did that helped, that I've not seen mentioned here yet. So, here goes:
1) make sure you're not sitting at a desk chair all day with your epicondyle tendon resting on the armrest. This cuts off circulation and only exacerbates the condition. Get an office chair with adjustable elbow rests, and lower them all the way.
2) make sure you're not sleeping on your side, on that elbow all night. I had to become a flat back sleeper, and when I did I quit waking up with sore elbows.
3) Get some deep tissue massage on your forearms. The median nerve that runs through that area gets bound up in fascia and muscle in climbers, and releasing that tension will help release tension on that tendon too. Painful work, but worth every penny.

Best of luck!

Thank you everyone, some really good advice here. Sounds like I may have taken too much time off, I started slow with some reverse wrist curls today and hopefully I will be back at it soon!

Great article on this topic in Rock and Ice:

rockandice.com/articles/how…

JohnJ80302 wrote:Great article on this topic in Rock and Ice: rockandice.com/articles/how…

Really good article that actually explains the difference between golfers elbow and tennis elbow...john beat me to it when it came to posting that article. A friend of mine is a physical therapist he also recommends getting a towel rolling it up and squeezing it for 5 seconds at a time. Also doing reverse wrist curls with a can of soup or a beer.