Golfer's Elbow - Pin firing

[ArmandoFerrari]

Hi All,

I have had medial epicondylitis for close to 3 months now. I have tried resting, icing, diclofenac, TENS, PT, and most recently a PRP shot about 2 weeks ago. It has improved a bit but the pain still persists.

I am starting to load the tendon now. I started Mark's pin firing protocol today with 20 sets of 3 chin ups. I must be further along in my recovery than I thought because the pain was minimal.

Question - Mark prescribed sets of 3 chins *if* you can do around 10 chins. I haven't tried in 3 months since the pain started but I'm pretty confident I can still do 15-20. In the moment, after a little pump, I felt very little pain and I keep hearing that I should be feeling more pain. Should I up the reps to 5 @ 20 sets, or is that over-doing it and I just need to be patient?

Also - any issues with rolling the tendon on a lacrosse ball daily while doing this pin firing protocol? Would that interfere?

Thanks,
Armando

[Mark Rippetoe]

Up the reps to 5 and see what happens.

[Maybach]

The "ceiling" here is going to be how much, if at all, it interferes with your productive training. It's not a training stimulus, is the thing. Go as high as you want before that happens.

[ArmandoFerrari]

The "ceiling" here is going to be how much, if at all, it interferes with your productive training. It's not a training stimulus, is the thing. Go as high as you want before that happens.

Thanks. I'm going to hold off on all other upper-body heavy push/pull movements to maximize recovery, for at least 4 weeks. It shouldn't interfere with anything. My focus is getting rid of this thing.

[Mark Rippetoe]

The rehab protocol does not require that you detrain the other lifts.

[Maybach]

If you are avoiding heavy weights because they might irritate your elbows, then what exactly is your rationale for employing a rehab method *specifically designed to irritate the piss out of your elbows?*

[ArmandoFerrari]

The rehab protocol does not require that you detrain the other lifts.

If you are avoiding heavy weights because they might irritate your elbows, then what exactly is your rationale for employing a rehab method *specifically designed to irritate the piss out of your elbows?*

Thanks! My rational was that the targeted exercise (chin-ups) was loading my elbow in a way that required specialized recovery to accelerate medial epicondylitis specific healing. So I thought doing other grip-heavy training would slow the recovery/healing process. But I'm obviously not the expert here - I'll take your lead.

Update - I upped the reps to 4 (at 20 sets). That's more than enough! Probably the sweet spot for me.

Appreciate the guidance here.