If you have tennis elbow, or lateral epicondylitis as it is officially known, you know one thing – it hurts and you’d likely do anything you could to stop if. In this video, I’m going to show you the best way to fix tennis elbow pain once and for all by actually continuing to workout rather than stopping all together, which is never really the optimal solution to any orthopedic inflammatory issue.
When we talk about tennis elbow, we are talking about the pain that radiates from a specific spot on the top side or outside of the elbow whenever we reach to pick something up or hold something with a palms down grip. This spot is where many of the extensor tendons of the wrist converge and attach. The issue with this group of muscles is that they are very weak and unable to handle a significant load on their own, when unsupported by the muscles that are supposed to contribute to making their job in function easier.
The irony is that many of the tennis elbow injuries don’t come from playing tennis. The backhand stroke in tennis is the one that requires a forceful extension of the wrist at the moment of striking the ball that powerfully drives it towards your opponent. That said, this is not ever going to be as strong as it could be if you are leaving these weaker muscles on their own to produce maximal force.
Well, as is almost always the case, the mechanics that are out of whack when the tennis stroke goes awry carry over to the gym as well. The same things that are lacking on the court can play out in the weight room that lead to almost immediate aggravation of these tendons in weightlifters. Keep in mind, while this is known as an overuse injury it should probably be more properly termed an overtaxing issue.
This exercise is almost always the side lateral or front dumbbell raise for shoulders. It pains me to say it because this is one of my all time favorite exercises for building up bigger middle delts and shoulders in general.
When performing a side lateral raise you can either use a weight that is challenging but attainable to complete 10-12 repetitions, one that is lighter than what would normally be used here or one that is even heavier than usual but relies on body swing and momentum to get the weight up. I’d argue that the worst weight to use here is the one in the middle. This is because it often times exceeds the isometric strength capacity of the wrist extensors.
Instead, as I’ve advised countless times on this channel, choosing the light dumbbells for strict form side lateral raises is the only way to go. Incorporating additional intensity techniques like slow motion reps and one and a half reps is going to help equalize the load and take a weight that may be too light and create an overload that is appropriate for causing muscle growth.
The exercise that does this better than any other? The kettlebell swing.
That’s right. The swing allows you to progressively and gradually load the muscles that are being subjected to too much isolated load right now and incorporate the muscles that are supposed to be assisting in the first place.
Start with a two arm swing (one being the injured arm and the other being the healthy one that can serve to spot the other through the initial recovery). Perform sets of 30-50 swings at a time with a light to moderate weight. This should be performed as 2-3 sets two to three times per week. As you are able to handle more, you can either increase the weight of the kettlebell or shift to a slightly lighter kettlebell but hold it with just one hand rather than two and perform the same movement.
Also, you can offset the load by swinging it to one side rather than straight down the middle. The key benefit here is that you turn the exercise from a sagittal plane driven exercise into a transverse plane exercise as well. This will help to load up the hips into rotation for additional power recruitment and further blend every day function into the ultimate demands of the forearm extensors.
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Jeff, what about a problem in the elbow area, possibly Radial Brachialis and wraps around to (what is possibly a tendon?) in the bend of the elbow next to the vein? Brought about by Curls, Pull Ups and Chin Ups. Making a back & bi workout painful and nearly impossible, along with making the arms virtually useless for extension for 2-3 days; which leads to interference on push day/Chest & Tris. This has been an ongoing problem for me for about 28 years, please offer advice.
The original injury occurred 28 years ago during a back-bi workout in the military.
I do only bodyweight and bands for a couple of reasons. 1. that’s all I can access and 2. Epilepsy makes weight lifting, risky.
@ducky0ify my elbow clicks really badly and loudly everytime i lift my forearm up like everytime i try to do a pull up, chin up, lift weight, etc. Makes working out almost impossible :(
my issue is not tennis elbow but pain above and behind. I’ve learned from other sources its probably due to a weak tricep but every exercise I do to strengthen it aggravates the issue. Anybody have any ideas?
How much weight should we use?
where would we all be without Jeff
What’s it called when the pain is on the direct other side of the elbow? I used to have that pain when throwing Javelin in high school, and now it only acts up[ after throwing a football for extended periods of time
@Seanabo might be worth a shot, I had a similar issue but both sides, and within an hr it was gone and never came back.
@Joel Slaymaker which joint sups? I have both golfers and tennis.
That’s medial epicondylitis
Tommy John / UCL reconstruction is a surgery commonly used to repair a torn ulnar collateral ligament inside the elbow by replacing it with a tendon from elsewhere in the body. The goal of the surgery is to stabilize the elbow, reduce or eliminate pain and restore stability and range of motion.
Ya, throwing is a very unnatural motion. I threw a lot on high school and had ulnar nerve issues. I started throwing again 10 years later and now my rotator cuff is causing me problems and the elbow is fine. Throwing is just not good for you.
I needed this! My right arm is so weak from this pain and not proportioned to the left
Jeff pls make a playlist on the injuries caused at the gym and how to fix them, like plantar fasciitis, back pain fix, etc in one playlist
Plantar fasciitis sucks butt, the only thing that helped was ice, ton of ice and stepping on a tenis ball all day doing massages
You know you can could make the playlist if you wanted.
Stretch calf’s make sure your ankle flexors or strong
I got it from going straight to heavy curls without a warm up, the pain was excruciating even lifting really really light. With physio it will heal over time but i still feel it slightly when doing curls
I got mine from barbell curls. Not sure what it is about the straight bar but when I use dumbells its less problematic for my tennis elbow.
I switched to hammer curls and it’s been way better for my elbow. Also got one of those grip exercise hand things you squeeze, along with a rubber hand ball you squeeze. Using those before my workout is been extremely helpful. I also had noticed taking my warmup from 5 mins to 10 mins makes all exercises a bit more less stressful for me. Good luck!
If you’re still looking to do curls while having that issue, I found that supported waiter curls (laying chest down on a bench slightly lower than 45°) are absolute money. And personally I felt it take enough pressure off that it could heal while I incorporated curls in my workout, along with hammers as well because the neutral grip.
I always use hammer curls as part of my workout anyway but they do help. I will definitely try the waiter curls and go a bit heavier again. Thanks for all the advice so far guys.
Just to say it never stopped me training, I just went lighter on curls and did the physio movements every day and made sure I warmed up!!
Since having mine, all curl exercises need to be on the machines where you have the triceps supported. Anything else causes too much pain.
Ive seen forums that say those grip strengthening finger bands and grip donuts, will help with tennis elbow, will those actually help? Or is it mostly hip and shoulder?
This one is super easy to fix. The one when it hurts at the back od the elbow is much much worse – of you can do a vid about this one I will officially declare you the best YouTube channel in the Universe
@Anton find at least one
@WILLRACE4FOOD Agreed!!!^
@Smez Builds i think i have cubital tunnel syndrome,it doesnt hurt but it bothers me so much lol
Here’s a link to maybe a fix
https://youtu.be/6XluNfBCBIE
I believe it is tricep tendonitis, I have pain in the same location sometimes if I go too hard on Pull-ups or tricep focused exercises. It is directly behind the point of my elbow where the tricep meets the elbow.
as you said at the beginning, it can come from below or above. I think for people who lift the wrist is the usual culprit, either from pullups or bench press or both. In pullups people try to assist subconciously with wrist flexion and bodyweight is far to much load for wrist flexors. In bench people have the barbell too high in the palms so they are constantly resisting against wrist extension (wraps can be used to mitigate this, or better grip placement). Also there could be other exercises with too much wrist involvement, but these are the main 2 and if you understand them, you can correct the others with the same principles. I think if these 2 problems are taken care of and the pain doesnt go away, then I would start looking higher up.
I’ve wondered if my tennis elbow has to do with my bench grip and straight lateral raise issues posed in the video. Going to try both Jeff’s and your recommendations. Thanks for posting.
In my case it had a lot to do with lateral raises and inverted body rows. When doing body rows I started to fill the pain in the top part, where the chest almost touched the bar.
Just got that injury 3 days ago and here is a video. Great!
Look up “Jill Cook Grappling with Golfer’s Elbow: Rehab for BJJ and Judo”. Think Isometric holds, 5 sets with a weight that I could just hold for 40-45 second holds with 2 minutes rest between sets.
Works for both golfers and tennis elbow.
Cured it for me permanently.
@gedmin383 Yeah, I wondered how that advice compared to this one too. I tried that when I had it bad but I don’t think I stuck with it consistently enough. I’ll be honest, my tennis elbow didn’t go away until I went to the doctors and took their advice: don’t do anything to aggravate it for 6-8 weeks (if you feel during that time that you hurt it again, it resets the healing time back to the start) and do wrist extensions with a small dumbbell everyday, presumably to strengthen and increase blood flow like Jeff said. After having it for many months, that cured it in 8 weeks. I should start doing these kettle swings or those bar holds for prevention more though.
Same here lmao. Perfect timing
The AI is good hey.
Got the exact same injury literally 3 days ago as well.. what are the odds huh..
I’ve found that club swinging has helped my pain quite a bit. Similar motion to kb swings, but a bit easy to change and add more angles for the swing.
I literally just slipped on an elbow brace for my tennis elbow that hit me a few days ago. Bang! Jeff reads my mind. Thank you Jeff!!!
What a crazy coincidence. I’ve been dealing with this very issue and wanting to do something more (than I already have been) to put the issue to rest. Thanks for the suggestions, I’ll be giving it a shot!
The timing for this video couldn’t have come at a better time, dealing with both elbows currently and not sure what I did, thanks Jeff!
Need this for golfer’s elbow too. That medial elbow pain limits so much of my bench press and tricep exercises
https://youtu.be/7kTNk3qEuLM
This makes perfect sense! I’m a Violinist, and the wear and tear of 30yrs of playing has taken its toll on a few spots, namely elbows & wrists! I’ll definitely be incorporating more KB Swings into my workouts! Thanks Jeff, Legend!
this shuldnt help with that, thats a completely different position of ur arm, u should look at golfers elbow if anything, that would be a bit more in line
It’s insane how much nearly all your videos have helped me tremendously in developing and perfecting my workout routines, as well as avoiding injury. Massive amounts of respect and thanks!
Great information. I had a tennis and golfers elbow on the same elbow last year and I was able to work on it. However, the golfers elbow is still there at times but the tennis elbow is 100% gone. Would appreciate if Jeff could revisit his points on the golfers elbow to work on strengthening the area to permanently fix it.