Arm, Other
2020-04-30 – 2020-09-20
Grade: 2
Sore elbows after overdoing the home training during lockdown. Probably a combination of increasing my strength training (including new Beastmaker and trying to learn handstands) without the usual support of climbing, swimming etc.
Scaled back my training in May after initial reluctance. Kept doing lots of yoga. Tom gave me some advice, information, videos and I started proper rehab exercises on 24th May. They didn't help.
Finally on 13th June:
Zoom physio session with Steve Hodgson for my elbows. Awesome as ever!
Diagnosis: I lost a lot of my usual, less intense, protective activities during lockdown (e.g. walking, swimming, climbing) and replaced them with more of the intense stuff. Sitting down for work with spikes of intense activity every day = not good. However, I AM STRONG and the injury is bilateral, so it's unlikely to be tendinopathy. More likely to be something happening higher up, such as stiffness in my neck and shoulders. Stress will have made this worse and increased the pain response.
Recommendations: Stop overloading my body and trying to find ways to trigger more pain by doing rehab. That will only reinforce the pain response and lead to hypervigilance. Eccentric exercises are unlikely to help because I AM ALREADY STRONG. Better to relax about it and get on with doing less intense activities like swimming and easy climbing. Try to increase movement and rotation through my upper body and neck. Take more rest days. No need to ice or massage my elbows.
Gradual improvement since June. Still not perfect (need to be careful at the wall and training) but I just climbed E2 at Gogarth so it can't be too bad.