Tendonitis -- result of BJJ, weightlifting, gymnastics

Hey, all.

I stumbled across this board after searching Google to tendonitis related hits.

I train Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, lift weights, and started taking basic gymnastics a month ago.

Monday of last week, I completed my basic pressing weight lifting routine (bench, dips, etc.).

Tuesday I went to my intro gymnastics class -- we were working on some handstand walks, handstand pops, etc.

Wednesday I went to my usual jiu jitsu class.

On Thursday AM, I awoke to pain in my left arm, a litltle above the elbow, triceps region. I'd classify it as a dull ache. It definitely hurt when placed under load.

I suspect it's tendonitis. Since then, I've done RICE, and once the ache/pain went away while at rest, I started performing some active therapy rehab work on my own -- e.g., kickbacks, very light pressing for high reps, running to get my blood flowing, etc. My guideline for this has been to do work which engages that region while being pain free.

There is no pain at rest today (6 days later), however, doing some basic load tests indicate that it's not "normal" yet -- beginning inklings of pain when I start to put any signifcant load on it, so I back off and go back to low resistance -high rep exercises.

I really enjoyed the basic gymnastics class, but I am thinking I simply did too much too soon (and weightlifting strength does not necessarily translate into gymastic strength).

Any suggestions here other than to continue on doing what I am doing and eventually "buying the book"? I don't want it to turn into a chronic thing or tendonosis. If you've experienced something similar, how long did it take for you to come back to form?

I want to get healthy first before I tackle my gymanstics class again, but I am afraid that I might dive into things too soon. My brain says "go," but my body is telling me "no."

All input is welcome.

If you're already an active person, the volume doesn't seem like a huge deal as it appears you're only doing one thing per day. I would suspect that you're problem may be intensity related, as opposed to volume.

I do 3 days per week of BJJ, and 3 days per week of strength training (gymnastics for upper body and weights for lower body), and it works fine for me in terms of recovery. Although, I've gotten almost no where with gymnastics strength do to acute (not overuse) injuries that I sustained over the years from BJJ. A fluke elbow injury in particular caused me pain for about a year and a half. I would suggest that you make sure to go through regular deloading periods, e.g. 50% week every 4th week and active recovery week every 12th or something along those lines.

Ratio,

Thanks for the advice! When you lift, what ranges are you typically working in? 3-5 rep? X % of 1RM?

Side question: Current ranking in BJJ/ years training? How old are you? Was that elbow injury the result of an armbar?

Oh, now that I think about it more, if your strength training or gymnastics are particularly long and somewhat pack with exercises, then it could be volume related. Or maybe you just were never this active so it is volume related. I don't know.

My strength training is usually 5-8 reps, or if I do static holds then 50% max holds.

I've been doing BJJ for a long time, very off and on. I started about 8 years ago doing no-gi very inconsistently (go 1 time per week for a month or 2 then disappear for a few months, that sort of thing), but then 2 years ago I started going regular in the gi. I have a blue belt. My elbow got injured when someone was trying to escape from under my mount. I had my hands planted on the floor and they tried to break down my arm and when they did they hit my elbow in and hyperextended it.

I'm a blue belt as well -- I hear you on the BJJ injuries!

I think it is a combination of volume and intensity -- I have been lifting and doing BJJ for a couple of years without issue. I only recently added the gymnastics portion, but that seems to be the proverbial straw.