UKC

Hi all,

I've recently started a training regime. I've built a small home board and have gone from climbing about once a fortnight to every second day for 45 mins. This has allowed me to progress from 6b to 7a in about three weeks which I'm really happy with but I've just recently developed dull aches in both elbows. The aches are present all the time and not more noticeable when I am climbing.

What do people suggest I do to remedy this? Ignore it and it will go away eventually as my body gets more used to the training? Scale back the training for a while? Are there any stretches or exercises that would help?

Any advice is much appreciated.

Cheers,
Colin

In reply to colin8ll:

Classic overuse injury. Your tendons are inflamed.


Absolutely not. Chronic inflammation will wreck your tendons.


I doubt a long lay-off is necessary, but you will need to let the inflammation settle down and then start stretching and doing specific exercises to manage it. It'll be fine if you do the right stuff.

I used one of those Powerball gyroscopes which I found helpful for this kind of thing (I think it was bicep tendonitis rather than tennis or golfers). You should get lots of useful advice on here - there's a recent article in fact http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=6156 - and there's plenty out there on the web.

In reply to colin8ll:


Dont ignore it, it will get worse.
I found dumbell exercises really helper mine, the rotational lowering ones. Mine still hurt occasionally but with occasional dumbell exercises to strengthen the tendons I can keep it at bay enough that it doesn't compromise my training or climbing. Do a search on ukb, I think the article i used was linked to my ru davies. Alternatively search for golfers elbow remedies (what climbers get is usually golfers rather than tennis).
Si

In reply to colin8ll:
I heard a good quote (I think from Dave Macleod); "tendons don't like rest or change". That's assuming it is tendons, which it sounds like... If the damage isn't badly done (i.e. it got sore and you kept going) then a complete lay off might be unnecessary, and you're probably better cranking the intensity down for the meantime. Main thing is to experiment and see what your tendons are and aren't accepting of. This way you'll learn them. But don't climb through the pain, ever.

Kev

In reply to colin8ll:
Just recovering from a yucky bout of tennis elbow (from climbing and not not on the inside like Golfers. Mine is on the outside and down the forearm)

Been seeing a really good sports therapist. This was after developing an ache and ignoring it and carrying on regardless until my elbow was throbbing with pain and I couldn't straighten my arm. Had one session with massage and been told to do the wrist curls and twisting dumbell exercises (google tennis elbow or golfers if your is inside of elbow) and it was improving but I stupidly had a campussing session and that set me back.

So kept away from campussing and scaled back my climbing to 2x a week instead of 4x (been working on my dissertation so killing two birds as well). The therapist did something called deep myofascial release on my arm in our next session and the day later I had full range of motion back and it's gone back to a small ache. Am still climbing and trying 7a no problems to my elbow but not campussing or bouldering for the moment.

Oh I also have my forearm taped with Rock Tape at 70% tightness and that's helping to lift the irritated fascia and is amazing stuff.

Streching forearms after EVERY climbing session and after EVERY dumbell session as well. Dumbells are 2x a day every day without fail. Been 4 weeks including the set back and elbow is almost back to normal

In reply to colin8ll:
Thanks for the replies. I'll try the stretching and dumbbell exercises and lower my training intensity a little. The only thing is I'm not sure if I've developed golfers or tennis elbow as the ache is pretty much central, centred on the tip of my elbow and heading back up my underarm (tricep I think).

In reply to colin8ll:


Tendons take, and this is an uneducated guess, three to four times as long as muscles to grow in strength.

My two pence worth of advice would be to lay off climbing till the pain has gone, and you can climb from the start to end of a session, completely pain free. And be pain free the next day.

Once you have let your tendons recover, then take it nice and easy for a couple of months to allow your tendons to become strong enough so that they can cope with the strength of your new muscle mass.

I speak from painful experience and sadly, the quickest way to recovery and a long and happy climbing life is to lay off climbing till your tendons have healed.

As for me, I damaged a tendon in a finger at the start of the year. It has taken two months of no climbing at all for the swelling to subside and I still can not put any weight on the finger without discomfort. I will only return to climbing when I am pain free with this finger. Sadly I still have to lift heavy objects at work, but I can use this as a benchmark for going back to the wall.

Rest, rest, rest.

And stretch, stretch, stretch those forearms.

In reply to The Lemming:

Thankfully not all tendonitis experiences are as bad as this. After a week in font I had pretty awful font elbow (bicep tendon?) which only took a couple of weeks to get better.

This year I twanged a finger pulley for the first time in yonks. It wasnn't bad enough to swell up, but it has held my climbing back for a couple of months - no lay-off, just ups and downs of doing sensible things and then unsensible things that have put it backwards (like spending an afternoon crimping the living the death out of a hard boulder problem which was high enough to allow the adrenaline to mask the pain). It's now almost completely better.

Dave Macleod reckons that proper lay-offs aren't helpful let alone necessary - but I guess it takes a very scientific and disciplined approach to make that work.

In reply to colin8ll:

Don't stop training, this doesn't work. Tendons like to be used, and whilst they may quiet down whilst you're not climbing, they will flare right back up again as soon as you get back to climbing. You need regular maintenance and stretches to sort it out, check out Tom Randall's excellent blog post on the subject, 'Golfer’s Elbow – A Possible Solution?'.

In reply to colin8ll:


Golfer's is on the inside of the elbow and is more common with climbers. Tennis is on the outside.

But it might not be either. You should consider seeing a good physio. I've had an elbow problem for years. I thought it was golfer's elbow and that's what the first physio said too. After a 3 year layoff it came back within 6 months of light climbing. I saw a second physio who said it was due to a nerve problem in my back (ulna nerve), which is another thing climbers seem to get quite often.

So self-diagnosis, and diagnosis by forum, is not gonna be as good as seeing an expert.

In reply to stp:


Funny you should say that. Along with my back injury last year, I also got severe tendinitis in my left elbow. And when I mean severe, I mean bad enough to reduce me to a quivering wreck.

The tendinitis was cleared up within a couple of days by doing a simple stretching exercise. And what was that magic exercise, I hear you ask?

The Ulnar Nerve glide.

Awesome exercise and produces results within a day, provided its the cause.

For some reason, I can not provide a link to the actual exercise. But the link here should point you in the right direction. It is the collection of 7 stick-men in the top left corner.
http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=A0LEV0hfbSdToDgAG2ZXNyoA?...