Is GST right for me?

Hello! First post her.

My background; 34 years been doing sports all my life, powerlifting, recent years weightlifting,  some calisthenics in the summer. 

The reason i am asking this question is I am having some elbow problems. A few years ago I had a serious medial elbow tendonitis (golfers elbow) lastet for months, after attempting the one arm chin-up, came pretty close but had to resign after this. Having also felt it while kitesurfing, it involves a lot of pulling. But a more severe case came back last summer after doing handstand pushups and L seat to handstands... Calistenicsstyle not gymnast of course. Gave it a rest and stopped working out for a while. symptoms resigned again.

Started the F1 in feb. And felt this murmuring feeling again i my elbow after 2 weeks of training. It feels like its the straight arm pushing exercises that aggressing the condition. The 3 fingers closest to the little one. Dont know how to explain this any closer i english. I started the F7 3 times a week, so maybe its just to much to soon. But having working out 3-4 times a week since I was 17, this just felt right 

So i took some time of again and started doing the push ups on rings and bars so my rist could get some rest.  And switched to the split over 4 days with 2 days of push an pull. And the symptoms dropped... now i feel they are on the rise again.. just felt it when i washed my face this morning and also at the gym today.

So my questions are, if i can't get through the pushups exercise, without getting symptoms how am i going to get past the harder ones later on?

Also is it possible that i developed some nerve damage due to the previous tendonitisproblems? So that my elbows starts to give me symptoms even before they are, well tendonitisinfested?

Regards Thomas from Norway

Have you mastered incline push ups? 

The latest advice from elbow tendon experts is to make sure you are not training with tendon pain. Make sure you progress very conservatively. 

The wrist series in H1 will also help.

Yes the inclines went well. 

I seldom feel it when i train, but rather a day or 2 after, when i pick up the coffee cup, or brush my teeth. Stuff like that, nothing painful just a little itch.

Maybe ill buy the H1 to check out the wrist series. 

Feeling it a day or two later is common with tendons. You have two options. One is to keep all exercises that involve the elbow at the same level and do not progress until there is no pain 1-2 days later. The other is to reduce all exercises that involve the elbow by one training block(4 weeks) so there is no pain 1-2 days later. If there is still pain drop another training block down. Once you find your level where you can train pain free then you can progress slowly.

This program has a strong emphasis on training the connective tissue. Often our muscles are strong enough but we have to wait for the connective tissue to catch up.

Ok think i will scale down the volume for a while and see how it goes.

How often is  it recommended to do the wrist series in H1?

10 hours ago, Thomas Hanssen said:

Ok think i will scale down the volume for a while and see how it goes.

How often is  it recommended to do the wrist series in H1?

Before each H1 workout

Bumping this again cause i feel my tendonitis is on the rise again.

The symptoms began when i started RC3, i feel it when i turn my palms to face my shoulders at the very end of the exercise. I can do rows and chin-up on bars with pronated grip without any symptoms, but when i turn my palms towards my body it kinda kicks in. I never had any issues with this during RC1 and 2. 

I also done a lot of kitesurfing during the summer which is also a contributing factor.

So do i do the rows with pronated grip for awhile? or do i just lay of rows completely? focus on rehab until the symptoms disappear...

I just started using the Flexbar from Theraband.

If there is no pain in RC2 then can you just work an intermediary step between incline rows and ground rows? Find a height that will condition the elbows without pain? You could also consider adding in hammer curls with dumbbells as supplementary work although I'm unsure that's necessary.

From what I understand the neutral grip work is what most heavily targets the brachialis and the weakest link when it comes to straight arm/ ring work. So it will be no bad thing to spend extra time working these progressions

Max

Thanks for the advice Maksis!

I thought about adding an supplementary exercise.

Because i think that my Brachialis and Biceps are really weak, and therefore my forearms and fingerflexors take alot of the strain on theese rows.

Have you done any forearm release work. I find rolling a 20kg olympic bar up and down the forearm works wonders in getting out the knots. I also use a compression wrap and work on rotation of the forearm.

Love the stuff Mark mentioned! I do them infrequently and I noticed a difference. Also wrist extension work from H1 and rice bucket training is great for relieving pain I had in my elbows (not that your problem is necessarily the same, but may also be worth trying).

Max

Thanks for advice both of  you.  By compression wrap do you mean like the vodoo bands/flossing Mark?

If so yes i tried them. Didnt notice to much of a difference

I will give the rolling a go, think a saw a video of this earlier. And also do the Theraband exercise.  And i will keep the rows and push ups light for a while.  I try not to do to many things at once, cause it makes it harder to tell which has the best effect...

With the flossing you need to move through full range of the wrist and elbow to get the best the benefit.

I've been dealing with long term tendonosis in my right elbow for years.

Recently after listening to Coach Sommer in the Tim Ferriss podcast (part two) I started treating it with heat every night.

I immerse a hot water bottle in boiling water for about six minutes, then put it on my elbow with a damp towel for as long as it stays hot (~40 minutes).

If it starts to get to hot, I just switch it to my opposite shoulder which I tweaked a few months ago.

In the last 10 days I'm seeing MASSIVE improvement.

Sounds interesting Ashe!

 I will go to the pharmacy today and get myself a hot water bottle. 

I will give the flossing a try again Mark, before i do the Therabar work.

Do some rolling on forearms after workout. And hot water bottle it at night...

Hi Thomas, 

Would be glad to hear and update of your golfers elbow, how is you rehab going?

I'm dealing with the same issue just recently so finding ways to fix my right elbow too.

Hi Matias.

Thanks for asking, i guess its time for an update

I had a good couple of weeks after my latest post where i didn't have any symptoms. But i still figured i give the GST a rest and do something else than working out. Having all this energy and nowhere to put it is very hard! 

So i started doing some home improvements. I am fairly handy so i started building my new kitchen,(not a good idea looking back) within a few weeks a was having both my elbows affected. Got so bad that I couldn't sleep at night without taking Diclofenak/paracetamol. Burning sensation all over my elbows, could barely lay them on the table...Just had to stop doing pretty much everything, couldn't shake people in the hands..brush my teeth.

So i went to see a PT which specializes in ART(active release therapy). He said that my finger flexors is tightly packed, and also that my nerves are irritated, ulnar and median nerve. This was over a month ago. So now i doing stretching exercises 2 times daily that i got from him, and also some nerve flossing. 

My condition is slowly improving again...I m still doing the core exercises from GST, but none from the upper body. 

So my best advice is to see a Physio that has experience with athletes and this type of conditions. I believe there are several ways to cure this but, but there is no quick fix for everyone. And what worked for someone on an internet forum may not apply to you...I know i tried most of the advices out there

Good luck!

I had/have major problems with my elbow, but Handstand wrist series have done wonders for me. Forum coach @Luke Searra also advised me to add some 5 pound biceps curls before sleep which helped with my problem as well. I just wanted to say that I greatly underestimated wrist stretching since I had access to the exercises for a few years, but doing them only once or twice per week was not enough. Now that I am doing them consistently (before every workout + sometimes during work) I can finally see improvements. I would have never thought something as simple as that can help. I talked about my problem with @Wesley Tan, he is the one who recommended me to do wrist stretches more consistently. I was sceptical since I tried multiple expensive therapies with no luck, but luckily I was wrong  Btw, thanks again Wes and Luke