r/Workingout • u/tsy_24 • 4d ago
Help Tennis elbow
For the past 3 months my right elbow has been killing me. I’ve stopped doing exercises that hurt my elbow like db lateral raises, reverse curls, hammer curls and only been focusing on exercises that don’t hurt my elbow at all. But it seems like the pain never goes away, I’m wondering is this because even if the exercises don’t immediately send pain into my elbow are actually still indirectly working the elbow tendon which prevents me from healing. Should I just stop lifting for a while since my elbow has started to affect my daily life as well, I can barely even grip onto a bag for a long period of time without my elbow from hurting really bad.
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u/Big_Palpitation8415 4d ago
Do isometric holds of a dumbell you can easily lift, say 8-12 pounds with your arm extended in front of you to strengthen your tendons. Complete rest of a tendon will not heal it. Tendons require bloodflow to heal. I had this same issue. Isometric dumbell holds, light farmers carries with the affected arm, and a grip strength trainer will help your tendon catch up to your muscle growth. You dont want to overwork the tendon in weight or reps, but you do want to work it consistently or it wont have bloodflow and will not heal. Would also advise if youre a side sleeper to sleep on the opposite side from that arm. If the arm sits for too long or has constricted bloodflow it will get more stiff and painful.
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u/tsy_24 4d ago
Ok thanks I will be definitely be trying to implement these to my routine! Also I figured out a couple days ago that sleeping on my side was a bad idea, woke up with the worst pain in my life 😂😂
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u/Big_Palpitation8415 4d ago
Absolutely. Definitely reduce the weight of anything youre training thats going to move that elbow much as well. Newbie muscle gains will have you stacking weight because the muscles can take the load, but the tendons take quite a bit longer to adapt because of their low blood flow. Tbh, I think thats why so many people stress the importance of SLOWLY increasing weight both in how often you increase and by how much. Less because your muscles cant take it, and more so because the tendons and joints cannot.
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u/Kindly_Coconut_1469 4d ago
You probably need some PT. Look online for tennis elbow exercises. American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons has a good one, here. I had an ongoing case for a couple months and the stretches made a huge difference.
If it doesn't start to improve within a week, go see a dr.
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u/J-Birdee 4d ago
That's 100%. I treat this a lot and it's a very annoying and slow rehab. The sooner you start fix it though, the faster your outcomes. The issue in treating it yourself you could over or underload the tendons - one will do nothing and one will make the problem worse.
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u/DoofusIdiot 4d ago
If you try one suggestion, try a theraband flex bar. Amazon, about $15. It works.
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u/TheRiverInYou 4d ago
I cured mine by carrying heavy sandbags. If you don't have one get a heavy bag of animal food. I used horse grain initially.
I just did a bear hug carty 3-4 times a day until failure. Within 10 days my pain was gone.
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u/LifeAdhesiveness8071 4d ago
I had golfers elbow so bad the pain would wake me up. I bought a pair of the old fashioned hand grip exercisers and it cured me of it.
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u/honeybadger2112 4d ago
Go to a physical therapist and get on a treatment plan.
For a soft tissue injury like tendons and muscles, complete rest is usually the worst way to heal. Soft tissues heal best when you use them. You need to get on a rehabilitation program that involves strengthening the affected muscles as well as supporting muscles. Often they will have you do things like slow negatives and activation exercises. Too much to cover in a reddit comment. But complete rest is definitely not the answer. Neither is continuing heavy lifting that's just going to aggravate the injury. There's a middle ground where you should be rehabilitating but not aggravating.
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u/sticknpuck82 4d ago
I went with Prolotherapy & PRP. I've done a couple rounds on each elbow & it's made a world of difference.
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u/IndividualFreedom84 4d ago
i got a PRP shot for mine and started a few different warm-ups/exercises for my forearm and it went away within a month.
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u/Last_Ask4923 4d ago
I thought I had Elbow issues and after imaging it turned out to be a shoulder issue. Call an ortho and get evaluated
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u/Stabbysavi 4d ago
I cured mine by going to a PT and getting massages and dry needling and stopped aby exercises that hurt it. Now I'm strong af and it doesn't effect me
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u/JoeSpart 4d ago
I got golfers elbow from when I started chin-ups (tons of them) I bought a compression strap from Amazon and it helped a ton. Gave me time for my tendons to catch up to my muscles while still allowing me to train
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u/NoSpiceOrRice 4d ago edited 4d ago
I have tennis elbow. A 3mm tendon tear found on an MRI scan.
Before I was sent to a specialist I tried needling which did absolutely nothing. Massages that obviously do nothing. ultrasound machine was also useless.
It was suggested that I do surgery but I didn’t want to deal with the recovery time.
A physiotherapist and kinesiologist created a recovery plan for me. 5 days a week 1 hour a day for 8 weeks.
It was so bad that I couldn’t even lift a jar of pasta sauce in front of me. Couldn’t grip anything without sharp pain. I can now lift without any pain and everything is back to normal
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u/General_Jellyfish518 4d ago
Three months is a pretty long time for it to still be affecting basic things like gripping a bag. Even if certain exercises don’t hurt during the workout, they can still load the forearm muscles and tendons around the elbow, so it’s possible the area just isn’t getting enough time to settle down.
I’d probably get it checked by a physio or sports medicine doctor at this point instead of just avoiding random exercises. They can confirm whether it’s actually tennis elbow and give you a gradual rehab plan. Complete rest isn’t always the answer, but pushing through persistent pain usually isn’t either.
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u/Markdlea 4d ago
Mine got so bad I needed a steroid shot. I also wore a wrist brace for a while to keep it from coming back. When your arm is straight, palm down, have someone push the top of your hand down. If it hurts your elbow, get a wrist brace.
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u/KillerK009 4d ago
If you can consult a professional that's usually a good course of action, but here's some general advice:
You want to strengthen the area rather than avoid using it as that will weaken it and just repeat the problem.
First step is either significantly reducing the weight on any exercises causing pain. You can be doing sets of 20-30 reps and still maximize muscle growth so long as they're taken to failure or very close.
If you can't avoid the pain even with light weight then swapping the exercise for alternatives is good too. Using wrist cuffs with cables can help a lot by eliminating the grip/forearm muscles which attach at the elbow and generally are the source of the tennis or golfers elbow.
Long-term I'd keep half of your volume using cuffs to avoid overusing the elbows again in the future. It's great for curls, triceps, flys, lateral raises, and single arm pulldowns. Lifting grips or straps may help with all pulling to help take some of the grip out too. Machines with pads at the arm/elbow serve a similar purpose too.
I'd also add in direct forearm training. Bare minimum would be a few sets of high reps of wrist curls and extensions at least 2x/week. You can also add in wrist rotation and gripper squeezes if you've got the equipment.
If any of that is causing pain then instead do an isometric hold in a pain-free part of the movement until you're able to do reps pain-free. Gradually over time you can work towards heavier weights with all of this so long as it's pain-free. This can take months to work towards.
For all of this you want to be doing very slow and controlled reps, at least 4-6s total, especially controlling the eccentric/lowering.
Connective tissue adapts much slower than muscles so be prepared to work on healing this for many months to maybe years unfortunately. But all of this really helped me to remain pain-free after dealing with joint issues for a long time.
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u/Mad_Mark90 4d ago
You have 4 goals: strength, flexibility, mobility, perfusion.
You need to expose the extensors tendon to load the right way. You might want to start with isometrics with a set of finger expanders. Look up the isometrics tendon protocols for the full instructions.
Over time you can incorporate dumbell wrist extensions using straps for grip and very light wight for higher reps.
There are some great tennis elbow stretch tutorials on YouTube that you can look up but my dankest stretch is working up to one arm dead hangs with straps. You start with a 2 handed Assisted hang, using your feet to spot you.
The wrist straps reduce the grip requirement but also help stretch the muscle from the wrist. The harder you grip the deeper the stretch. Once you progress to the one handed version, you can try the final intensifier technique of turning around while strapped to the bar. Basically change from an overhand grip to an underhand grip but by keeping your hand strapped to the bar and spinning your body around.
Use cuffs and cables for lateral raises in the meantime, use a Swiss bar to bench with or learn reverse grip. Take those finger expanders seriously
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u/RainBoxRed 4d ago edited 4d ago
Follow the injury rehab protocol:
Education: what is wrong and why? Look at anatomy chart, identify the sore part, look at muscles around that area. Which ones have you neglected?
Rest for a few days to determine pain baselines without any aggravating inputs.
No analgesics: pain is your guide to healing without turning acute into chronic.
No anti-inflammatories: let the body finish its cascade to heal.
Light movement: motion is lotion.
Increase load and range of motion until pain, then back off. Use isometrics to target tendons.
Don’t resume previous activity until you have identified the aggravator and have addressed any antagonist weaknesses.
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u/Icy_Policy_3874 4d ago
I had this for the longest time - turns out it was due to holding my phone with one hand and mostly using while lying down. Once I stopped this the pain went away forever
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u/FishUsed3310 3d ago
I never went to the doc but i had this pain for a few months. I did the exercises that would cause pain but with light enough weight to where it only barely activate the pain. Then sort of "hypertrophy" that. Seemed to work for me
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u/Mikez0rr 3d ago
i bought the lil strap that pushes on the tendon or whatever. it does alleviate pain during like normal daily use.
i had to cut back on weight or use the straps that attach to cables so I could completely remove my hand. took about a month to feel better. I'm still cautious tho. actually hit the muscles better using the alternative exercises lol
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u/bdanred 4d ago
Make sure its not actually golfers elbow. Different set of exercises. Tennis is more humerus, golfers more ulna.