Is Insanity a good option when resting from tennis elbow?

fitmominutah

New Member
I am having to rest a third time from heavy weight lifting because of a tennis elbow flare-up. I am starting PT on Monday, but I really need something to keep me going and motivated. I never bought Insanity cause I always love Cathe's stuff, but I'm wondering if it would be a good option to do as Sean T. doesn't use any weights? Any thoughts would be appreciated!
 
It's be a while, but if I recall, there is a fair amount of burpees and pushups, That may not be the best idea for your elbow.
 
I had tennis elbow debridement surgery on both of my elbows just three years apart. I had the second surgery this past July after having a PRP injection first. PRP is a successful non-invasive treatment for some, but unfortunately, that was not my experience. It was ridiculously PAINFUL!!! All of this pain put me out of commission for lifting even the lightest amount of weight for about six or seven months out of the year. :mad:! I ended up doing lots of cardio, barre, and many of Cathe's lower body workouts. Her LIVE lower body routines are fun, varied, and of course, highly effective. For weighted lunges or squats, I used light DBs or no weight at all. Good luck to you. I know how horribly painful tennis elbow can be, so do take the rest time that you need to heal completely.
 
It's be a while, but if I recall, there is a fair amount of burpees and pushups, That may not be the best idea for your elbow.

I also think there are lots of crab-kicks and dips where you are on your hands with elbows bent behind you. I also think you would have to do quite a bit of modification in some of the workouts.
 
so do take the rest time that you need to heal completely.
THIS.
Sometimes bodyweight exercises can put more strain on certain joints than 'weighted' resistance due to time under contraction amongst other factors. For now, I would go along with the movements your PT outlines for you. I know it sucks! You might just have fun with your bands though and learn about some new ways of exercising! :) In time, you'll probably be using bands with light wieghts simultaneously. I do this all the time. I find it super effective for a lot of upper body work.

Take care!
 
Thank you everyone for your replies. The crazy thing is--push ups don't bother my elbow at all. It's more of the bicep exercises that irritate it the most. I am fine on the concentric movement, but the eccentric gets me every time. I will see what the PT says on Monday and go from there. I appreciate your input.
 
Thank you everyone for your replies. The crazy thing is--push ups don't bother my elbow at all. It's more of the bicep exercises that irritate it the most. I am fine on the concentric movement, but the eccentric gets me every time. I will see what the PT says on Monday and go from there. I appreciate your input.

I had tennis elbow for about a year and mine was the same as yours: bicep curls hurt it the most, followed by barbell rows. What helped was work to strengthen forearms (PT) and grip, followed by as many if not more exercises for triceps than bis. The point is to have balance at the joint and in opposing muscle groups. Now, whenever I do bicep exercises, I always precede them and insert a tricep exercise in between each, the best ones being band work taught to me at PT that mimic work done for triceps with cables at the gym.

I found that I could often do compound weight work and lower body weights work, but had to avoid biceps work assiduously. However, even when I did compound weight work, it was not more than twice per week. I did loads of cardio during that time. I did not find that things like mountain climbers and burpees hurt at all, nor planks, so body weight exercises were OK for me. You'll have to experiment and see what you can do and what just introduces discomfort and pain.

It seems that we all experience 'tennis elbow' just a little bit differently, with the pain coming out of different muscle/ligament/tendon insertion points. One person's experience may not be yours. See what you can do and what you can't and make up a program for yourself for a few months based on cardio and whatever else your elbow joint allows. It's only for a short time and you will get past this. I actually ended up just taking most of the year off eventually, with just daily long walks (some other stuff going on in my life at the time) and it's OK< once you get back to weights, the strength will come back.

Clare
 
something that worked for me to recover from tennis elbow was using a wrist immobilizer at night while sleeping. there is a lot of torque applied to the elbow from hand and wrist movements while asleep even thought you probably aren't aware of it. the splint gives elbow needed rest time to recover. I've used splints several times and the discomfort goes away quickly for me so I wore the splint longer to be sure. You can get better and cheaper on amazon than the local drug store, IMO. I would not do any exercise that causes any discomfort.
 
Was thinking of this thread whilst doing weight plate rows this morning. They were much more comfortable than BB rows. Playing with hand position makes a huge difference to elbow and shoulder comfort.

Clare, good point about strengthening other (weak) links in the chain like forearms and triceps.
 
Here is my 2 cents:

The first step I suggest is to stick to your PT recommended. While you are recovering, there is no reason to not resistance train the lower
body.While you are training I suggest you self-question your form while executing moves such as biceps curl, hammer curls and barbell row. I would also question the gripping ability. Your extinsors run from your the middle of your hands. They are of course part of your forearm
and a sloppy hand grip can cause a discomfort from your wrist to your forearm. While recovering squeezing a soft ball listening can help strengthen/rehab some of your extinsors.Wish you a prompt recovery:):)

Last but not least, think about the weight load you have been adding asking whether it was too soon to increase or not. All the very best:)
 
I had tennis elbow for about a year and mine was the same as yours: bicep curls hurt it the most, followed by barbell rows. What helped was work to strengthen forearms (PT) and grip, followed by as many if not more exercises for triceps than bis. The point is to have balance at the joint and in opposing muscle groups. Now, whenever I do bicep exercises, I always precede them and insert a tricep exercise in between each, the best ones being band work taught to me at PT that mimic work done for triceps with cables at the gym.

I found that I could often do compound weight work and lower body weights work, but had to avoid biceps work assiduously. However, even when I did compound weight work, it was not more than twice per week. I did loads of cardio during that time. I did not find that things like mountain climbers and burpees hurt at all, nor planks, so body weight exercises were OK for me. You'll have to experiment and see what you can do and what just introduces discomfort and pain.

It seems that we all experience 'tennis elbow' just a little bit differently, with the pain coming out of different muscle/ligament/tendon insertion points. One person's experience may not be yours. See what you can do and what you can't and make up a program for yourself for a few months based on cardio and whatever else your elbow joint allows. It's only for a short time and you will get past this. I actually ended up just taking most of the year off eventually, with just daily long walks (some other stuff going on in my life at the time) and it's OK< once you get back to weights, the strength will come back.

Clare


This is such good advice! You have to balance the muscles. Tennis elbow and golfer's elbow, I have suffered from both. I bought a green (medium) Flexbar from Theraband that I keep up with even when I'm healed up. There are some great YouTube's on how to use it for tennis/golfer's elbow. For me its hammer curls and close grip barbell curls that were impossible to perform. My last bout with Golfer's Elbow dogged me for 6 plus months. This blogger's post worked for me, and its the craziest thing, but heck it worked.
https://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/2012/11/23/golfers-elbow-a-possible-solution/
 
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Hi Everyone,

I am back on this thread to mention Reverse grip bicep curl as one of the exercise which could be difficult to perform
while having weak forearm and/or sloppy hand grip. This exercise is a double sword one IMO. It can help strengthening
forearm when performed with light weight and very good form. It can cause real pain if the form is sloppy and/or
if the weight is too heavy for the forearm ability.;):)

It is also a really good arm builder for those who need to increase arm size ---Mainly men!

 
This is such good advice! You have to balance the muscles. Tennis elbow and golfer's elbow, I have suffered from both. I bought a green (medium) Flexbar from Theraband that I keep up with even when I healed up. There are some great youtube's on how to use it for tennis/golfer's elbow. For me its hammer curls and close grip barbell curls that were impossible to perform. My last bout with Golfer's Elbow dogged me for 6 plus months. This video worked for me, and its the craziest thing, but heck it worked.
https://tomrandallclimbing.wordpress.com/2012/11/23/golfers-elbow-a-possible-solution/
DirtDiva...Thanks for the link! I am going to try this..looks interesting! Thanks again!
 
DirtDiva...Thanks for the link! I am going to try this..looks interesting! Thanks again!
Your welcome! I realized I called it a video, but its a blogger's post with pics. I've permanently bookmarked that site on my computer, because it worked for me. Hope it helps you too.
 

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