This has been the most insidious injury and I’m someone who’s had a lot of health problems over the years. I’m a climber, do lots of calisthenics, and work as a coach (CSCS) with a college. I need my body for my work, like a lot of people. I hurt my elbow back in July changing a tire. And this make sense from a GE perspective: I was pulling so hard (with improper torque spec) that my tendon gave out before my muscles. Curiously, I didn’t feel anything at the time, just a dull ache the next day. But, I did the dumb thing and rested for a few months (I had this injury confirmed by an Ortho btw). So now, many months in, it’s up and down but consistently irritated where on bad days even shampooing is tricky.
I’ve tried most of the rehab stuff as outlined by @deborah123 and the article from Rock and Ice. I also bought an Armaid, but I often wonder if the manual therapy just exacerbates things even though I feel some temporary relief. I have the particular flavor of GE where I’m really aggravated by exercises like finger rolls. Or, EG, if I’m on my knees and doing something like a modified finger push-up, that would be quite difficult. All the same, I’m definitely improved (on my good days). I feel, though, that I’m in the chronic tendinopathy phase. So I’ve plateaued for sure.
BUT, there is one very curious piece of data to share. Against my better judgement and having a week of “F-it” I tried the Mark Rippletoe protocol to fix GE. It sounds bananas, but it’s simply doing 15 sets of 2 reps (breaks in between) chin-ups every 5 days. I focused on the eccentric, skipping the concentric portion. Very much aggravated my elbow, but the next day I woke up and it felt great. It defied all good logic. I waited a few days and by day 4 I could sense a little bit of aggravation coming back. I did it a second round and the following day it wasn’t feeling that great. So I backed off. I’m thinking maybe I should continue giving this a chance.
I’m writing all this in a kind of desperation, hopeful that maybe others have covered similar based to no avail. I have to have my elbow in good form this summer or I’ll lose my marbles! Thanks for reading
edit - one thing I've noticed is all exercises when my arm is much more flexed (like if I were touching my nose) is 5x more aggravating. So maybe I need to target that angle much more
I’ve tried most of the rehab stuff as outlined by @deborah123 and the article from Rock and Ice. I also bought an Armaid, but I often wonder if the manual therapy just exacerbates things even though I feel some temporary relief. I have the particular flavor of GE where I’m really aggravated by exercises like finger rolls. Or, EG, if I’m on my knees and doing something like a modified finger push-up, that would be quite difficult. All the same, I’m definitely improved (on my good days). I feel, though, that I’m in the chronic tendinopathy phase. So I’ve plateaued for sure.
BUT, there is one very curious piece of data to share. Against my better judgement and having a week of “F-it” I tried the Mark Rippletoe protocol to fix GE. It sounds bananas, but it’s simply doing 15 sets of 2 reps (breaks in between) chin-ups every 5 days. I focused on the eccentric, skipping the concentric portion. Very much aggravated my elbow, but the next day I woke up and it felt great. It defied all good logic. I waited a few days and by day 4 I could sense a little bit of aggravation coming back. I did it a second round and the following day it wasn’t feeling that great. So I backed off. I’m thinking maybe I should continue giving this a chance.
I’m writing all this in a kind of desperation, hopeful that maybe others have covered similar based to no avail. I have to have my elbow in good form this summer or I’ll lose my marbles! Thanks for reading
edit - one thing I've noticed is all exercises when my arm is much more flexed (like if I were touching my nose) is 5x more aggravating. So maybe I need to target that angle much more