Elbow tenderness / soreness

I've been sorta ignoring this for a few weeks, hoping it would go away. My elbows hurt on the inside side of my elbow (the right side of my left elbow and left side of my right elbow). I've also noticed it the soreness is worse when I rotate inward (clockwise with my left arm and counter clockwise with my right arm).

I'm 46, so I'm guessing the answer is to not climb and go easy for a few weeks, then start back slow. Tough to hear, since the alpine season is just starting and that's my true love... but any advise on PT or active recovery that I can do that will get my back on the rock sooner would be most appreciated.

Or a referral to a good PT who knows climbing would be as good as an answer.

Thanks so much in advance

Sounds like climber's elbow to me. Plenty of good resources if you google. Key exercises for me have been wrist curls (eccentric focus) and hammer rotation. Go to the Medial epicondylitis section of this post stevenlow.org/overcoming-te…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iMueqiCsVI

Based on your description it sounds like golfer's elbow (different than tennis elbow). I've had Tennis elbow for about 14-15 months, and it's finally mostly-ish gone. I think the recommended exercises for both injuries are different, so make sure you're getting good advice for the correct injury.

I’ve dealt with elbow issues on and off. The keys for me are consistent training volume, opposition exercises like planks and push-ups, and PT exercises with the therabar. 

The answer is to get stronger but only by warming up really well and taking proper rest days, like 20-30 min warmup or longer and then pull ups / dips following standard progressive overload protocols (use bands if necessary to get in the 4-8 rep range). And lots of ice. Stretching helps too but don’t push too hard if you feel pain. 

I've been working virtually with dr.climbermike on instagram, get more out of it than any in person PT I’ve ever had. 

Had tried figuring it out on my own, taking time off, pt mills, etc. Golfers elbow is really stubborn stuff. 

Awesome!  Anything in particular that has been helpful info?

Rich Azierski wrote:

I've been working virtually with dr.climbermike on instagram, get more out of it than any in person PT I’ve ever had. 

Had tried figuring it out on my own, taking time off, pt mills, etc. Golfers elbow is really stubborn stuff. 

Hey, I literally feel your pain. I'm 48. I had the exact elbow issue for over a year. There's a LOT of information floating around about how to treat it. I tried many, many things and I'm happy to say the pain is finally gone. I'm not a doctor so take all this with a grain of salt. It's just what worked for me. 

The key thing is that you have an imbalance. You need to strengthen your way out of it. Rest doesn't help. If you want to climb during your strengthening process, go for it if you can handle the  pain. I climbed during my recovery because not climbing would have been too depressing. But it hurt. Not all the time. Once the elbow was warmed up, the pain subsided during a session. 

I tried the theraband but it wasn't enough. I tried pushups but it wasn't enough. I did a zoom session with a big name climbing doctor. He mainly recommended lock-offs. They helped somewhat, but didn't feel like the magic solution.

What really made the difference for me was the "hammer rotation"... i.e. holding a dumbbell (with pretty heavy weights on only one side of the bar) vertically in my hand, and slowly lowering it left, then back up, then right, then back up, again and again. The key is that this should hurt. You need it to hurt. When I finally got deadly serious about doing this exercise daily, my pain went away in about a month, after about 15 months of dabbling with other solutions. Don't dabble. Go hard at it and build the muscle. 

Good luck!

Harry K wrote:

Awesome!  Anything in particular that has been helpful info?

Like you said, warm up and get stronger. Problem is if you are good at programming you wouldn't have tendonitis in the first place! 

My program has me doing a lot of lock off repeaters, hanging from a bar at 120 and 90 degrees. Dumbell curl isometrics with reverse/hammer/regular grip at 120 and 90 degrees. Internal rotation isometrics. Lots of stretching. We determined I have weakness in my shoulder girdle from a pervious injury, so strength training to get that right. Now that my pain is reducing, working on open hand strength so I'm not crimping everything. And climbing on top of that. 

Really can't recommend enough biting the bullet and hiring a pt/coach for a couple months. Definitely more can be done than playing with therabands. 

Okay, I haven’t tried some of those. Thanks for the info. I have been considering getting some help with programming, I may do that also.  

Rich Azierski wrote:

Like you said, warm up and get stronger. Problem is if you are good at programming you wouldn't have tendonitis in the first place! 

My program has me doing a lot of lock off repeaters, hanging from a bar at 120 and 90 degrees. Dumbell curl isometrics with reverse/hammer/regular grip at 120 and 90 degrees. Internal rotation isometrics. Lots of stretching. We determined I have weakness in my shoulder girdle from a pervious injury, so strength training to get that right. Now that my pain is reducing, working on open hand strength so I'm not crimping everything. And climbing on top of that. 

Really can't recommend enough biting the bullet and hiring a pt/coach for a couple months. Definitely more can be done than playing with therabands.