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Thread: Where Exactly Is Golfer's Elbow?

  1. #1
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    Default Where Exactly Is Golfer's Elbow?

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    I'm feeling a pain reoccur on my left inner elbow, JUST above/running over the bony part on the anterior side. When I say above, I mean where the bicep is, not the forearm. I've exhausted search on this today online and seem to have got conflicting results on just where you are supposed to feel the pain. I do not feel this in my forearm at present. I only feel it where I mentioned. The pain first presented itself 2 years ago doing chin ups. I was very uneducated on anything to do with tendons and injuries and instead of searching for anything here (didn't give forums that much credit I guess) I made the huge mistake of trying to train through it. This made it worse, and then no matter what I did it kept getting worse anyway. I was just at the end of my NLP at the time and had got up to 300 lbs on the deadlift, which is exactly where I had to stop them because I couldn't pull with that arm anymore. I couldn't even hang a grocery bag from that arm. It was so bad there was visible bruising just above that bone in the same spot, and I remember telling someone I was feeling it go down into my forearm at that time.

    To make a long story short, I gave up on training entirely and took way too long to get back to it. All this time I thought the elbow was healing but upon asking questions and doing research a few months ago, I was told it hasn't. It just doesn't hurt anymore. GREAT NEWS! haha

    So here I am 2 years later reaching the end of my NLP again which was thankfully uneventful. But now at 270 lbs on the deadlift, my elbow is talking to me again off and on. In case it might have been the low bar squats (which I never got right before) or the chin ups that caused it, I didn't do them this time. I'm just doing high bar squat, bench, press and deadlift.

    I've posted a couple threads dealing with this before, one when it occurred and one a few months ago before I went back to this. I posted one just a couple months ago right here (Elbow Popping or something) asking you about popping of that same left elbow during benching and pressing. I've since used sleeves religiously and done warm ups by the book and the popping is gone on the bench (now at 170) and is being stubborn about the press, but I have hope. I don't think it could be related to the triceps because not only did it stop my chin ups and deadlifts (pulls), the one thing I was able to continue to use my elbows for was pushing (benching and pressing).

    I just want to make sure this is truly golfer's elbow before I move forward with some kind of protocol in case it gets bad again. I've read about the medial ligament, which I did a search for myself because the pain was so bad I actually couldn't hang anything from my arm. Then again, that could have just been super tenderness from being so inflamed, and anything being held has to be gripped, hence using the tendons that are involved in golfer's elbow, right?

    So does what I describe sound like golfer's elbow to you? If so, is there a protocol you recommend for dealing with this by training through it? I recognize now stopping training altogether is NOT an option. I've read about Rips pin firing technique, read the study that puts eccentric training in positive light, and seen suggestions by others I'm taking with a grain of salt.

  2. #2
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    Are you using an alternate grip on deadlift with your left hand supinated?

  3. #3
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    No I've always used double overhand even when weight got too heavy last time. I was using both hook grip and straps.

  4. #4
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    I think this is primarily a programming issue because it sounds like it is repeatedly happening at the end of LP (a time when accumulated fatigue is very high). First find a load on each exercise where the pain begins to emerge but is not distracting you from performing the movement. These will be your starting loads of your new program. Next slow your rate of progression and switch to intermediate programming. Go from increasing the weight 2-3x/week to 1x/week. Then get your form checked.

    The injury does not sound like the typical presentation of golfers elbow that we deal with but it does not mean it's not golfers elbow. Understand that this can be persistent and the course of rehab will have ups and downs. If in a month you have no improvement from managing the load to your elbow via programming and technique then you can try a higher volume chin-up/lat pulldown protocol if you want to. If you do go that route make sure the load you are pulling for 3-5 reps is something that you can do for a set of 12-15 reps.

  5. #5
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    Well it didn't give me any problems this last deadlift session, so that was good. In fact, it feels completely fine now. Thanks for the suggestions. I'll try that if the pain gets out of control again.

  6. #6
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    That's great news! Lots of times these things end up going away on their own, sometimes it just takes longer time than we want.

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