Weightlifting is a great way to build strength and define muscles, but it can also result in sports injuries. Repeatedly lifting heavy objects may cause repetitive strain injury. Do not accept elbow pain as a part of your workouts. Learning to identify and address this common issue can help you continue your weightlifting routine successfully. Visit Pain Management NYC for expert guidance and comprehensive pain management advice from Dr. Leon Reyfman, our sports injury specialist. He understands how elbow pain can affect your life and movements and recommends the most effective treatment options so you can get back to your routine activities as soon as possible.
The elbow is a small, but complex joint with cartilage, ligaments, fluid, muscles, tendons, and bone. It enables us to perform several different movements in the arm and hand, including rotation, extension, and flexing, often combining these motions at once. Elbow pain can occur for various reasons, including lifting objects, whether they are light or heavy.Elbow pain in weight lifters is a surprisingly common and incredibly frustrating phenomenon. Lifting a heavy object, especially one that is unusually heavy, can cause an acute injury. If elbow aches and twinges are disturbing your workouts and the way you exercise, it is time to take a break and address your pain before the condition worsens.
Conditions That Cause Elbow Pain From Weightlifting
Weightlifters are especially prone to overuse injuries that often affect the shoulders, elbows, knees, and back. Chest, triceps, and shoulder exercises can all put pressure on the elbow. Medial elbow pain, which occurs on the inside of the elbow, is known as golfer’s elbow, while lateral pain, on the outside is commonly called tennis elbow. Both conditions impact weightlifters by causing inner elbow pain or outside elbow pain.
Golfer’s Elbow
Golfer’s elbow is a repetitive stress characterized by pain on the inner part of the elbow. Also known as medial epicondylitis, it is common in weightlifters as well as other athletes who regularly use the forearm and elbow. The persistent strain on the wrist and forearm, such as gripping or twisting motions, improper lifting, throwing, and hitting, can lead to tiny tears in the tendon that can cause wrist, elbow, and forearm pain.
Symptoms of golfer’s elbow include moderate pain in the inner elbow. Some people experience a burning sensation that extends down to the forearm as well. The affected area is tender to the touch or slightly swollen. Pain seems to worsen when you attempt to flex your wrist, pick up something with your palm joint, or squeeze a ball. Your joint may also feel stiff, and as the condition progresses, your wrist and hand become weaker, with possible numbness in the fingers.
Tennis Elbow
Weightlifters often experience inflammation or micro-tears in the tendons that extend from the outer elbow into the wrist and fingers. This condition is known as tennis elbow or lateral epicondylitis and occurs due to stress on the wrist extensors, which bend the hand into the high-five motion. Increased training volume, reduced rest and recovery time, or simply changing your grip can cause tennis elbow.
What begins as gradual discomfort can turn into a burning pain, extending into the forearm and wrist, along with heat and swelling, as a result of loading your tendons beyond what they can handle. You may find it difficult to grip your weights and experience pain in the elbow joint when you try to twist the wrist.
While this condition is usually related to racket-based sports, weightlifters develop this problem due to overuse of the elbow and forearm when they repeat the same motion again and again or go too heavy with their weights. Even typing can stress these tendons, so people who go to the gym straight from the office can experience pain in their elbow when it does not get sufficient rest.
Elbow pain can be very frustrating for weightlifters. If your pain has lasted longer than two weeks, you cannot lift without modifying your routine, or it affects your daily tasks, it is something serious. You may have to make changes to your fitness routine and in some cases, see a pain doctor to get your elbow checked and get relief.
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Treating Elbow Pain From Weightlifting
Most cases of tennis and golfer’s elbow improve with rest and home treatments. If your pain is not subsiding or you are having problems with your routine work, call a doctor and have it examined right away to avoid further pain and complications.
Options for treating elbow pain include:
- Stop lifting – Pain is your body’s way of telling you to stop, so stop lifting and take a break. It eases the pain and may prevent the symptoms from worsening.
- Take over-the-counter medications – Over-the-counter pain-relieving medications can reduce swelling and pain. Anti-inflammatory medications also provide quick relief from pain.
- Icing – Use ice packs on the affected area to keep the pain and inflammation down. Applying an ice pack for about 15 to 20 minutes, at least twice a day, can ease the painful symptoms.
- Wear an elbow brace – A brace is a support mechanism that can relieve some of the strain on the elbow and prevent your pain from worsening.
- Injections – Steroid injections help to treat chronic pain resulting from repetitive strain that does not respond to other treatments.
- Physical therapist – Your therapist will recommend low-weight strengthening exercises, often using cuff weights to restore the damaged muscles and tendons.
Surgery
If these treatments are not successful and your pain does not get better, minimally invasive surgery may be necessary to repair broken bones or damaged tissue. After surgery, the arm movement is temporarily restricted by using a splint. You can expect two months of rest, followed by gradual strengthening exercises for three to four weeks to fully recover.
You can look forward to returning to light athletic activity within four to six weeks and competitive athletic activity within four to six months with the right care and treatment.
Although treatment for elbow injuries can effectively relieve pain and improve range of motion, the condition can reoccur if you slip back into old habits. You must focus on preventing elbow injuries.
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Tips on Avoiding Elbow Injuries
Many conditions of the elbow are caused by overuse. Protecting yourself from an elbow injury is a combination of taking lifestyle adjustment steps and making sure you are properly protected when performing activities or playing sports.
- To prevent elbow pain, engage in proper form as you lift, avoid using excessive weight, and don’t repeat the same arm-stressing routines at every workout.
- Be sure to warm up and stretch beforehand, and use compression wraps for additional support.
- Balance is important so focus on strengthening both the flexor and extensor muscles in your wrists with wrist curls and reverse wrist curls.
- Take short breaks when repeating exercises to prevent strain on the elbows.
- Maintaining good posture and proper body mechanics can prevent elbow injuries.
- Personalized coaching can help you refine your technique to avoid injury.
Whether you enjoy weightlifting for personal fitness or have your eyes on Olympic lifting, learning how to prevent elbow pain can keep you fit and take you closer to your goals without any hiccups.
Are you searching for the best treatment to eliminate elbow pain and get back to your workout – Call Pain Management NYC today and schedule an appointment with our top-rated sports injury specialist Dr. Leon Reyfman to remove pain from your life. Dr. Reyfman has years of experience treating tennis elbow, golfer’s elbow, and other similar conditions that cause discomfort in your arm and restrict its movement. He focuses on the affected part of the elbow and the severity of discomfort to determine the type of treatment that would work best for you and take you back to your training in the shortest possible time.
Leon Reyfman, MD, is a top-rated, best-in-class interventional pain management doctor. He is a nationally recognized pain relief specialist and is among the top pain care doctors in New York City and the country. He is an award-winning expert and contributor to prominent media outlets.
Dr. Leon Reyfman has been recognized for his thoughtful, thorough, modern approach to treating chronic pain. He has been named a “top pain management doctor in New York” and one of “America’s Top Doctors™” for advanced sports injury treatments. Among other accolades, he was voted by peers as a “Castle Connolly Top Doctors™” and “New York Super Doctors™”. Dr. Leon Reyfman was a part of the medical team at the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.