Elbow Soreness after Ring Training

[Randeep Walia]

After my really good ring workouts I feel an incredible fatigue and soreness in my elbows. I am not worried about it, because it feels very "prodcutive". That is, the pain isn't a bad pain and it feels like I am working the elbow tendon up bit by bit in preparation for doing more advanced techniques.

I'm still a beginner: I can't do a MU and my BL and FL are in a very early stage.

My question is, do I need to be worried that this soreness can lead to an injury in the future? One of the coaches at the gymnastics center that I work suggested I consider an elbow stabilizer to prevent any future injury.

[viewty]

Reduce your workload volume/intensity. If you use a support/stabilizer you're building a dependency on it - there will always be an imbalance between the muscle strength and the work the joint can tolerate. Allow time for the joint (and all the surrounding involved 'bits') to develop to handle the work.

[Blairbob]

Hmm. Does this go away by the next ring workout and get worse?

You have to differentiate between sensation and pain. Basically I feel something and OWW!

[Randeep Walia]

Bumping this thread because I took the advice here and it worked for me... at the time. The Elbow pain has returned and it certainly does not feel good or "productive" in any way

I have been triggering it primarily with my Negative Muscle Up training. It's at the point where extending my arm triggers. On a scale of 1 to 10 the pain is about a 3, but if it gets triggered while I am training it can make it up to the 6-7 range.

I took a week off but that did not really help. I have made the following adjustments:

I try to not do any NMUs right now, or I'll do them with reduced volume. The problem is I was only doing 2-3 per set as they are pretty tough for me. In fact, I think the original source for this was that when I started training them I would lose control after my elbows passed the parallel point and I would "jerk" down. Instead, I'm focusing on jumping muscle ups, or setting up a harness on the rings with bands and doing it from there.

I'm doing the elbow myofascial massage described in Overcoming Gravity which feels pretty nice.

If there are any other elbow rehabilitative modalities anyone can recommend I would love to hear them.

[Randeep Walia]

Actually, browsing around just now I discovered this little gem from Joshua Naterman:

I would suggest scaling back to a position that doesn't hurt, and use high rep bent arm work to heal the elbow. It is a big mistake, in my opinion, to exclusively practice straight arm work. Very important to use biceps curls for prehab if nothing else... I think there is a good reason why so many of the best rings guys do this. In my personal experience it makes a big difference!

in the thread: viewtopic.php?f=18&t=8722

Any other advice you all have is appreciated as well. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some curling to do!

[Blairbob]

Try the NMU with your feet propped up on a block so your hips are piked.

[Scott Malin]

Low ring MU also is appropriate depending on how much weight you need to take off. I would add that it's important to squeeze at the top of the bicep curls in order to maximize benefit. Programming-wise, the curls should come on the same day and after the straight arm work.