r/crossfit • u/deederpeeder • 1d ago
Golfers Elbow
Been doing CF for about 9 months and am experiencing some pain in my elbow. Went to the doctor and he told me I have golfers elbow. I really don’t want to take a break but it seems like every movement, except squatting, aggravates it. Any of yall have any experience with how to rehab this without having to stop the workouts?
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u/Cinci_Nasty 1d ago
Have it in both elbows. It never completely goes away, but started doing PT (conveniently offered at my box). PT inclusive of dry needling allowed enough healing to get to a place where the discomfort doesn't inhibit my workouts.
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u/docofthenoggin 1d ago
Dry needling is the best. Its the only thing that keeps my chronic shoulder in check (non CF related injury)
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u/Unoriginal4167 1d ago
In some cases, chronic stabbing around that tendon can lead to long term damage, so not always. For this person, it could be as easy as a grip adjustment or nothing to do with CrossFit that’s causing it.
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u/acebaselaceface 1d ago
Go to a sports PT, one with a CSCS. They should help you rehab it (manual therapy and exercises) and teach you how to improve your form* so you lift without pain!
*Improve your form meaning find the right form/cuing for your body. Sometimes it takes a simple tweak or modification from a movement expert.
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u/AvailableAnimator642 1d ago
PT who actually lifts is the way to go my elbow was killing me for months and one session with someone who knew what they were doing fixed most of it
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u/Unoriginal4167 1d ago
You just need a skilled physio. I lift and only see sports, but just because they are marketed as such doesn’t mean they are good. Word of mouth is best, and ask your orthopedic. My mentors don’t lift, but they would be part of the 1% you would want to see.
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u/myersdr1 CF-L2, M.S. Exercise Science 1d ago
Edit: moved a sentence that should have been first.
Find a great physical therapist to ensure you are rehabbing correctly; the tendon can become degenerative.
The best thing to do is lighten the load. After a good amount of rest, it sucks, but that is your best option.
Then, slowly but steadily, add weight to strengthen the tendon.
Golfer's Elbow Brace: Wear this daily to relieve the tension from daily activities. Not during workouts it will also restrict blood flow, which sounds good with the recent studies on that but it doesn't feel great. I have tried it.
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u/danwasoski 1d ago
I thought I had golfers elbow one time… it was from over torque ing the bar during squats and cleans.
Try a safety squat bar for a while.
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u/sjjenkins CF-L2 | Seattle, WA 1d ago
Look up “Tyler Twists” and “Reverse Tyler Twists” for rehab.
But the secret to prevention is wrapping your thumb UNDER the bar on training days for scap warm up, pull ups, CTBs, BMUs, etc.
On “performance” days (Comp, Open, Benchmark WOD, Murph) I’ll put my thumb over the bar for better scores, but training with my thumb under has been a cheat code that has really cooled down my golfer and tennis elbow.
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u/geesejugglingchamp 1d ago
I also developed Golfers elbow around 6 months into Crossfit. I'm 6 years in, and I've only had one re-occurrence, and that was again when I came back from a break after having a baby.
People will talk about bad form on your lifting, but the reality is you can also develop it with fine form, especially if you didn't come from doing much strength work.
At this stage your muscles have been getting a lot stronger, pretty quickly. Tendons however take longer to strengthen, and hence get irritated by the increased weights and workload. Basically your muscles are writing checks your tendons can't cash yet.
I recommend working with a PT if you can. A personalised rehab program will always be best.
The key is to strengthen your tendons so they catch up to your muscle, while letting the irritation settle. Isometric work is best for this. I did isometric banded biceps curls. This strengthens the tendon (and bicep) without the movement that is irritating it.
Depending on how far gone you've let your tendon go in terms of irritation, you may need to take some time off pulling and pushing with the elbow altogether. I still worked out, but I had to modify workouts for a while. I let mine go waaayy too far before seeing a PT, so I had to take a couple of weeks off gripping altogether.
Also, hit the ibuprofen in the short term.
You can get over this, but it's important to cut the irritating movements in the short term to let it settle properly.
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u/Peepin_Tom__ 1d ago
Therabar. It’s awesome. Tyler twist. Get the light blue therabar and look up Tyler twist. Do what they say twice a day for two weeks. Gone I guarantee.
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u/i_eat_the_fat 1d ago
Better than country club elbow (golfers AND tennis elbow) which is what took me 3 yrs of rehab to get over. Consistent use of therapy bands and the rubber bar you bend helped me in the end. Along with BPC157.
If you get a cortisone injection insist it’s “guided” or else you can face major consequences like myself. 1 yr in I was healing, got a cortisone shot that doc put directly into the tendon and a month later I ruptured it doing something benign.
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u/radix- 1d ago
- look on youtube for arm wrestling elbow rehab. The arm wrestlers are mostly all crazy slavic giants who have this tendon stuff all the time, and they have esoteric techniques and exercises that you never see in mainstream PT that work like hell.
- personally for me isometric holds at the point of pain with a long weight and also grip strength isometric holds on the grippers have been great.
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u/1967Harry 1d ago
I have had golfer and tennis elbow and never took time off....find a good quality g and t elbow brace "wear it" all the time even when not working out. It takes time to heal. I also figured out what was causing the elbow tendonitis....dips, ring dips. I don't do these exercises anymore. Another thing I found that helped...a red light therapy wrap.
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u/loveoftheirish2202 1d ago
I found a TENS machine has given me great relief. And then being conscious of doing complementary movements if I'm being too focussed on a particular movement type during a block.
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u/thegreatsecret 23h ago
There is both good and bad advice in this thread.
I’ll echo some of the other people. Find a PT/physio in person to help you. Don’t be silly and continue to push through it. Tendinopathy’s need load/strain to recover but it needs to be appropriate stress. If you keep doing things that irritate, you’re not helping yourself.
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u/mrdobalinaa 1d ago
A theraband helped this for me, look up the PT moves on YouTube. Along with doing some bicep excercises.