UKC

ok so ive been climbing/bouldering for about 6 months and climbing 5+ to 6a+ ish and im finding im rapidly getting stronger...However my forearms and elbows are really suffering.
I am assuming its something like tennis elbow where my tendons are just not up to the job

I think the only way to fix this is to have a 4-6 week break with sounds horrible I dont want to loose everything ive trained quite hard to achieve. However I could do with loosing some weight so will i be better just focusing on cardio or is there any form of strength training i can do to at least maintain where i am right now?

Sorry for the long post :P

In reply to andork123: This article may help:

http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?t=453362

In reply to Neil R: Brill cheers

In reply to andork123:

Also:

http://www.athlon.com.au/articles/r&i_dodgyelbow.pdf

In reply to andork123:
The recommended articles are really good but do take time to let things recover because once elbow tendonitis sets in it's notoriously difficult to get rid of (speaks from experience).I suspect your muscles are getting stronger quickly but the tendons, with a poor blood supply are much slower to adapt.

In reply to andork123: I occasionally suffer very painful elbows when I'm getting back into training after a lay off and climb too much. I believe I have worked out ( in my case) that this is because I over strengthen my bicep and neglect the tricep, certainly a few tricep workouts lat time made the problem vanish - ensure you are keeping general balance and not just building climbing strength.

In reply to biscuit:

This article helped me hugely.

The trick i've found to healing elbows is to take time off but not too much. 4-6 weeks is probably excessive. I found about 1-2 weeks enough to let the trauma settle, then climb gently alongside the rehab(be disciplined with the gentle part!)...and crimp less.