Elbow pain gone after doing Handstands

[Groundshaker]

I've been having trouble with elbow pain while doing push ups for almost my entire life.

I broke my arm in the elbow when I was 3-4 years old and the doctor put the bones in the wrong position so my push up position looks like this:



You can see that my left elbow is flaring out, so it probably gets really stressed, and this could probably be the reason why I feel so much pain when doing the excercise.

Once, I tried resting it for about 3 months, but it was still hurting me. I tried a lot of different excercises for the elbow, but every time I did push up I felt sharp pain in it, as if I was shocked by electricity. (also the I can hear the elbow popping on probably every rep)

The weird thing was that, some days, the pain is there, and the other days, it isn't.

So about month ago, me and my friend transitioned from weight lifting to gymnastics and I noticed after doing my handstand workout, I can do push ups without any pain in the elbow. (I can do them less because i wasted most of my energy on handstands but still ) The next day, pain returns though.

Does anyone know why the pain stops after doing handstands?

And does anyone have some advices about my elbow pain? I've listened to Coach Sommers podcasts and he says that when this type of pain happens, it indicates that you are not ready for the excercise. Well push up is the most basic excercise, so I have no idea how I could prepare my elbow... Unless, the handstands are allready doing that and thats why the pain is going away.

Edited June 21, 2014 by Groundshaker

[Alexander Egebak]

You might have developed a chronic injury during your training with bad form. Your injury will in all likeliness remain unless you fix it properly. A physiotherapist can diagnose and help you cure your elbow, but you should stop training any sort of elbow movements since it CAN only make it worse.

[Groundshaker]

You might have developed a chronic injury during your training with bad form. Your injury will in all likeliness remain unless you fix it properly. A physiotherapist can diagnose and help you cure your elbow, but you should stop training any sort of elbow movements since it CAN only make it worse.

At the time, one of the best physiotheraphist in my country advised me not to operate on the elbow again (after doctors error), because benefits could be very little or none, compared to potential dangers.  (since I was little and my bones didn't grow fully yet, my arm could've potentially remain small if the doctor hurt the nerve in it)

He told me the same thing when I was about 14-15 years old and told me to just develop decent grip strength in it, because he had somewhat similar problem with his elbow.

In the gym, I could do shoulder presses with 55 lbs dummbbells with 0 pain in elbows, probably because I was doing them with good form.

I think that I need to somehow strengthen my elbow tendon and I think the handstands are in some way doing that.

Edited June 21, 2014 by Groundshaker

[Alexander Egebak]

Really, you need to be more assured than "I think..."

 

You might be right, you might be wrong. You can find out in 2 ways; let a professional diagnose you, or see if the injury arises again