The most common causes of elbow pain I see are:
· A lack of training/movement variation
Repetitive movements and/or strain from upstream (shoulders) and/or downstream (wrists) are a recipe for elbow catastrophe!
Elbows (like knees) are hinge joints, which means they’re heavily influenced by the things around them. Let’s address all three of these causes to get rid of your elbow pain for good!
1. Check Your Wrists
It’s common to struggle more with the flexion, it often feels much tighter & weaker than extension, and when you think about it that means there’s a big imbalance! Loads of tightness in your forearm on one side but not the other! If your forearm is constantly tugging one side of your elbow more than the other, it’s no surprise it gets cranky.
This video covers the best wrist stretches for both flexion and extension and radial and ulnar deviation. If you find these super uncomfortable then that’s a great place to start, and after a few weeks of practice you’ll see a massive improvement! And you’ll have stronger wrists too! Win-win!
2. Check Your Shoulders
They’re a ball & socket joint so have a large range of motion for us to check. One of the easiest ways to do that is to use a wall using The Wall Shoulder Rotation or Shoulder CAR’s!
If you have elbow pain just on one side you may notice a big different between shoulders. Luckily, you can use this exercise to keep improving your shoulder rotation, along with other rotation exercises like the Banded Dislocates. Make sure to film yourself to check for any cheating!
3. Add in Movement Variety
Not only does this help get your shoulders moving in weird & wonderful ways, but we’re also bringing in some wrist stretching & strengthening too! Animal Movements can get really fancy, but just devoting 5 minutes to transitioning from Bear to Crab is a great place to start!
It’s stuff like this that helps you fill in the gaps & get so many gains you didn’t even know were missing! If you have had recurring bouts of elbow pain, then these exercises will be a massive help! If there’s any you find super challenging, they’ll be the ones you gain from most. Throw these movements into your warm ups, cool downs, or supersets between exercises and you’ll be surprised how easy it is to fit them in! As you work on them there’s a chance you might flare up pain temporarily but wait for that to subside and try again with slightly less volume/resistance! If your shoulders/wrists have been tight for years it might take a little while for them to change! As always though, if you’re concerned make sure to see someone in person!
[Feature photo from pixabay.]
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