hyperflexible elbows and elbow pain

Over the last few weeks I've been getting this pain in only my left elbow. I think the pain is due to one of 2 possible reasons. I've been training my freebalancing handstand maybe a bit too much lately. Or it could be from the addition of muscle ups into my workouts. The pain only shows up when I'm doing a free balancing handstand and a few times when doing muscle ups.

I have pretty severe natural hyperflexibility in my elbows, and my left elbow hyperextends quite a bit more than my right elbow. (I can provide a picture if that would help)Is this kind of pain something that people with my elbows have to deal with? Can it be prevented? Should I fully extend my arms in handstands even with the hyperflexibility in my elbows?

Any advice would be much appreciated

You are pretty much screwed. MU can cause elbow pain. A bunch of my girls would also complain from it from time to time when doing long wall HS holds. Well, longish for them. (typically, they have more problems with wrist pain than elbows).

Again, work bent arm strength and pray.

Blairbob said:

You are pretty much screwed. MU can cause elbow pain. A bunch of my girls would also complain from it from time to time when doing long wall HS holds. Well, longish for them. (typically, they have more problems with wrist pain than elbows).

Again, work bent arm strength and pray.

Ooh not what I was hoping to hear. lol. Thank you for the response.

Which side of the elbow are we talking about here? Inside or outside. Inside is commonly called golfers elbow, outside is tennis elbow and both are attributable to repetitive movements. Lots of MU, HS or anything will cause it.

I don't know that I would say you are screwed. The earlier you recognize an issue and deal with it the easier it will be for it to get back to normal. Great time to scale back a bit and do another piece of programming that you have been putting off. It's also time to examine your mechanics. Your hyperflexible arms might mean that you need to video yourself and determine where in the movement you need to change things.

I recently worked through a bout of golfers elbow that I believe came from too many MU and pullovers. I scaled back on those and did quite a bit of self massage in the forearm/elbow area to increase circulation and 3-4 weeks on the pain is gone and I'm slowly working back in to the MU and pullovers. (one thing I think really worked was getting in the jacuzzi and aiming the jets at the inflamed elbow and arm - great stuff!)

That might be related to your tendons, and that might be or not related to your hyperextension. If the pain is in your inner elbow, you might have to wait for the inflammation to be gone, then work to strengthen your biceps and their tendons, to support your elbows better. If it is outside of your elbow and tendon related, the muscle-ups might have caused inflammation in them, especially the transition part, which is more similar to a relatively heavy triceps extension than to a dip. If that happened to create an inflammation in your triceps-elbow tendon, rest it until it doesn't hurt, then wait a few more days (there might still be inflammation even if you don't feel it), then work your triceps in a more isolated way, with high-tension movements, with a low volume (to avoid causing inflammation). That should strengthen your tendon. So like Blairbob said, working bent arm strength should help.

If the pain was caused by handstands, then you should review your biomecanics, like stated earlier. And you should definitely identify what kind of tissue is painful.