[keefe]

Hi all,

Golfer's Elbow rehab programmes have been done to death & I think I have the general gist of it - but there are still a couple of questions.
What I've done so far is:
1) Taken my own advice & seen a physio.
2) Taken the physio's advice & done some exercises (3 days of it already). Luckily, these were the ones (eccentric contractions - covered extensively here & on various other climbing sites) I had already started to do.
3) Stop doing whatever was hurting it. This is where I started to struggle. Partly - identifying exactly what triggered it. OK - I stopped climbing activities for 8 & a half days & am now trying to ease myself back into it. Luckily this will be a nice gradual process as the family Xmas trip to Ireland is just a day away  .

I'm not too sure what it was in particular that triggered it - campussing? (I always reckoned i was too weak to pull hard enough to injure myself campussing), pull-ups?, some particular set of moves I haven't identified yet? - or just general overuse?.

The main question I have - are - what are the best exercises for setting it off again - i.e. the ones to avoid:

• campusing?
• fingerboard (crimps?, slopers?, two fingers?, open-handing?)
• pull-ups?
• bouldering (crimpy?, slopey? steep?, dynamic?)

Any advice or positive experiences to share?

 
Thanks

[tomtom]

Avoid finger boards, campusing and pull ups.. Straight arm dead hangs might be ok... But just be sensible - your elbows are protesting for a reason!

[jcm]

In my experience pull-ups are by far the best way to aggravate golfer's elbow.

[slackline]

Antagonistic press-ups are said to be of some utility in staving off symptoms.

[Oldmanmatt]

Antagonistic press-ups are said to be of some utility in staving off symptoms.

Why are you arguing with your press ups?

[tomtom]

Antagonistic press-ups are said to be of some utility in staving off symptoms.

Why are you arguing with your press ups?

Oh no I'm not....

[duncan]

An unvaried diet of crimpy traversing on a stone wall (ie typical early 80s training) did for me.

Several decades later, I found I could reproduce my elbow pain precisely from a trigger point in my serratus anterior.  Sausage here has suggested that a lot of climber's elbow is related to shoulder problems.  Looking beyond the local site of the problem could be useful.

I found push-ups a bit harsh but side-planks, which I was doing for a shoulder problem, seem to have abolished the elbow pains as well as improve the shoulder.  'Stabilising' the shoulder?  Influencing serratus in some way?  Perhaps push-ups work in a similar way.

In my experience pull-ups are by far the best way to aggravate golfer's elbow.

That presents a dilemma: how to manage the requisite number to win Alezee's heart without destroying your elbows in the process.

[keefe]

I found push-ups a bit harsh but side-planks, which I was doing for a shoulder problem, seem to have abolished the elbow pains as well as improve the shoulder.  'Stabilising' the shoulder?  Influencing serratus in some way?  Perhaps push-ups work in a similar way.

Cheers all,

Interesting observation on side-planks Duncan. I was doing these as part of general core & stability exercise, but they had fallen by the wayside a bit - in parallel to an increase in the injury-demon-exercises (pull-ups & campus). Maybe it's time to re-introduce the planks.

[tomtom]

Falling downs Russian bell lifts are a great exercise.. A real back shoulder work out.. Nt sure if it helped my elbows but certainly didn't make them any worse...