Tricep Elbow Discomfort... Oh no!

It is with great shame and disappointment that I come to the forum for advice on new elbow pain I’ve just started experiencing!  I’ve done a pretty thorough reading of ‘elbow pain' on this forum, but have found most of the discussion to be centered around tendon issues on the lateral or inside of the elbow i.e. tennis/ golfer’s elbow ...  I have just in the last 2 weeks realized that I’m developing symptoms on the triceps tendon area on the OUTSIDE of my left elbow….

 

A bit of background: I dove into Foundation, H1, StretchSeries back in August of last year after having frustrated myself with recurring INSIDE elbow issues pursuing years of ‘street workout/ calisthenics’ style training.  I was like so many others who’ve experienced the nagging inside elbow issues but tried to train around it...  So when I started hearing/reading about Coach Sommer and the GB approach, things clicked for me.  It took a month or two for me to commit 100% to an exclusively GB program and set the ego and muscle ups aside, but I soon did.  And after several months of Foundations/H1/Stretch Series along with eccentric rehab exercises that I learned from research and talking to a PT, my elbow pain was gone and I could once again flex my left bicep just as hard as my right while rotating my wrist, which was always a test I’d do to assess how tender I was inside the elbow…

 

So this takes me to about 8 weeks ago… I’m ~4 months into dedicated GB programming, my elbow is cured and I start seeing huge gains in strength and mobility.  I’m loving it!  I’m training pretty hard, extra sets, getting sore, developing physically…. Well, I must have gotten a little carried away and over-zealous in my training.  Because ALAS, it’s my de-load week and even at half work load on movements like advanced frog stand, l-sit scissors, handstand walks… I’m realizing that for sure my left tricep tendon (and anything else related to it) needs addressing.

 

I’ve been doing exhaustive research for the last few days and am feeling a bit overwhelmed trying to decide what to do.  Here’s what I feel like I learned (for me) from overcoming  the inside elbow issue:

 

-just resting/not using the joint doesn’t work

-recovery was helped a lot by eccentric exercises i.e. (3x7 reps of negative curls BOTH pronated/ and supinated grip ~5 times/ week)

-recovery exercises weren’t discomfort free, but overall symptoms started to fade very quickly then gradually disappeared

-totally stopping doing movements that were causing sharp discomfort (i.e extra-curricular pullups/ muscle ups) and investing hard work into real mastery of still slightly uncomfortable RC PE2 5x15 rows seemed critical

 

Here’s what I’m wondering now:

-Could I do eccentric tricep pulldown negatives for outside elbow tendon in the way I did sup/pron negative curls for the inside elbow tendon?

-Where do I need to fall back in order to properly condition my outside elbow? Planche Leans?  PPPs?  Everything in my program it seems from TB stretch to CORE to UPPerbody employs locked elbows.

-Given that there’s so many elements in my current Fseries that use locked elbow positions, it’s hard to tell which ones I’ve overdone?  Is it working handstand walks with too much fatigue?  Is it pushing too hard on the TB series?  Is it collapsing my elbows bc of lacking wrist mobility during the damn advanced frogstand?

-Would switching to parralettes along with taking a few steps back be a possible approach for the SPl progressions?

-Does anyone else have experience with outside elbow issues?  

-Are there any form checks I could provide to help inform me on what I did to blow it or what to do to help recover? 

 

Please excuse my long-winded nature and borderline unhealthy obsesssion with GB!  Any feedback or comments appreciated.

 

-caleb   

43 minutes ago, Caleb Mcmahan said:

-Are there any form checks I could provide to help inform me on what I did to blow it or what to do to help recover? 

The best thing on gymnasticbodies (besides the gradual progressions) is the possibility to get regular formchecks!

Cute dog on your profile!

Thanks Petra!  You're right. I think I need to be more disciplined about getting more form checks submitted.  Dog's name is Shiva, he especially likes doing stretch series!

Hey Caleb: My two cents. I have been doing GST for some time now. Around 1.75 years. I do all three stretch series and HS 1 & 2. You've been doing this since last August, so quite a bit less time than me. But you are way ahead of me, especially in the Upper Body workouts. My guess is that you  may be strong enough to handle progressing this fast, but your connective tissue has lagged. This is what I would attribute your present injury to. I've been at HBP PE2 for over a year. Did it today and am at a solid 4 x 12 with an addition of 3 x 6 at the end. I will be rock solid on this before moving on as I too have a history of elbow tendon issues.

My advice would be to back up and submit some form checks on the last round of the earlier progressions to get the assessment of the coaches. One of the things from the Tim Ferriss interview with Coach I will never forget is the lecture on lagging connective tissue strength. Go slow to go fast lest you risk going fast to go slow.

Thanks for your two cents Bill. I’m going to heed your advice and submit form check videos going back to some earlier progressions in the HBP series.  Also for shoulder dislocates and wall handstand Ahh yes that part in the Tim Ferris interview resonated with me too!  Sommer mentions this in the stretch series too ... “remember when we’re looking to remodel ctive tissues...6 months preferably a year...” 

Suggestions:

Remove the advanced frog stand completely. Tendons don't like compression. I ended up with a right elbow forearm flexor tendonopathy and ulnar neuropathy from the frog stand.

Start with isometric loading of the tendon in three positions of the elbow: almost straight, right angles and almost completely bent (given that isometric holds yield an effect at +/- 20-30 degrees of the angle at which they are held).

Roger that Nick, thanks for the suggestions!

Just wanted to provide an update in case anyone else finds this useful... 

I think I was freaking out a little bit over the elbow discomfort.  I did some strategic backing off over the last 2 weeks and the discomfort is gone.  Which probably suggests that my self diagnosis of tricep tendonosis was wrong.  The 1st week after reporting this was deload and while I completed most of the exersizes these last 2 weeks, I steered clear of certain ones that seemed to put stress on the elbow i.e. HS wall runs, hip taps in the TB series etc, advanced frog stand... I also did a couple sessions of tricep loading as was suggested.

Going forward I really need to remind myself to not get too carried away.  "You can always do more tomorrow, but you can't undo it if you do too much today" 

I think that I was too aggressively riding a wave of excitement that came from making progress and that resulted in over-use symptoms.  Pretty sure it was from wall runs while too fatigued in the shoulders and fatigue induced advanced frog stand collapsing.  Digging into the forum,  I also realized I wasn't engaging my scaps on dislocates enough, same for seated shoulder extension.  Also, getting into more advanced exercises I'm finding it critical that I warm up.  I've incorporated the wrist warmups, shoulder dislocates, j-curls now as a warmup every time I train.  

Anyways thanks GB forum/community!