How NOT To Get Golfer's Elbow 

The algorithm is starting to bless this guy

I just found you somehow and it has been life changing! How the heck are you not a top notch RU-vid star. Perhaps people prefer hype over useful information. Anyway, great content and you have got yourself a new sub. Peace!

One of the key points made in _Convict Conditioning_ is to start off with the super easy exercises and work you way through them even if you can do the "real" exercise, eg. do wall pushups and incline pushups first, even if you can do full pushups. This is to help strengthen and condition your tendons.

Unfortunately I discovered this channel after I already developed my golfer's elbow. It happened exactly like you discribed by increasing the rep volume too fast. I tried to recover with rest and it didnt't help. BUT I really can recommend buying a massage gun and treating the injury with it every day for 10 minutes. In just one week I got great results and now after 1 month I am finally pain free.

As recommended I swapped my pull up days for inverted rows, not only has my elbow pain largely disappeared but I've also been able to improve my form on rows which I hope will translate to better pain free pull ups as I gradually re-introduce them.

Excellent point with the workout comparisons

Great advice, left arm golfers, right arm tennis (the top part of the elbow) it’s been interesting working around my injuries. I was in great shape early 20’s and didn’t workout again for 10 years. Sadly my strength rebounded much quicker than my connective tissues, wish I would have known that…

Hey Kyle, you are definately right that high reps build strength as well. I do 20 slow perfect dips with good eccentric form. And when I tried weighted dips, I could easily do a lot of reps with 20 kg on my back, which really surprised me. So for those, who doubt about strength gains from high rep basic bodyweight exercises, They simply WORK!

I've experienced this same condition when I went wide gripped pull ups. That really put a strain on my elbow. I brought on my hands just a little and it went away.

Yeah, great video topic. Take it slow, build up the ligaments correctly, and slowly work up to the 3 sets daily, 6+ days per week. 👍🏻👍🏻

Great advice. Really one of the best one I saw on youtube. I wish I watched it like 6 months ago. Can't fully recover and it's killing me. I miss pull ups so much. I'm sick and tired of just abs and legs workouts

Every single day I lift weights, and in the spring/summer/fall I generally play golf or tennis about 5x a week. When I hit mid 30's, I began to develop this pain (Tennis / Golfer Elbow.) Sometimes, after a set of wide-gripp'd pull-ups, or practicing my tennis serve, my entire right arm would hurt. It's like this radiating numbness that goes from my finger-tips to my elbow. The pain isn't horrible, it's not like severely tearing a muscle, but it's DEFINITELY very uncomfortable & more-over, it was WORRISOME. It was one of those things that felt like, "This is going to GET WORSE!" But, for ME, it was an easy fix: 1.) Finger Spread stretches. Before I do anything that involves my arms, I will hold my arms out directly in front of me, parallel to the ground, but my HANDS are bent upwards, 90 degrees from floor/arms. Then, I just spread my fingers apart from one another, as far as they can go. Just 2 sets of 20. (It should look like you're reaching out to grab something.) 2.) Wrist stretching. I just place my palm against a flat surface, and slowly and carefully stretch the tendons in my wrist. Then, I do the same thing with the BACK of my hand. 3.) Standing hammer curls, but, the TOP OF MY FIST is facing the CEILING. I call them "T-Rex Hammercurls." This exercise really engages a arm muscle that I neglected for my ENTIRE LIFE. It's called the brachioradialis. Since I began doing those 3 things, I've NEVER had tennis elbow again.

wow, just found this channel and this information is pure gold, thanks for the videos!

Watched 3 vids. Subbed. Str8 forward no bs. Could you do a follow along full body workout?

Loving every upload 🔥

I just focus on pure technique and love the longevity of movement itself. I love how you do squats, definatly gonna try and aim there

real talk! great content

Great information! Thanks

For anyone suffering with golfers elbow, what worked for me in clearing it up (after having it constantly for a number of months from high volume of pullups),was good quality magnesium tablets. Took them one night,an completely gone the next day! It was the only thing I changed in my diet or otherwise,kept taking them for a while and it has never returned. Definitely worth considering if you have it

I think it's also worth mentioning that you can feel pain in your elbow but it's actually coming from the shoulder or even the traps, if you have knots there. Also, it can be from poor sitting posture in front of the computer, because the arm is kind of half on the desk while the elbow is in the air. There is also the issue of poor adjustment on a bicycle, if there is no bend in the arms there will be a lot of stress on the elbows, so adjust your seat. Just some things to consider that I've noticed myself.

finally someone saying it!!! I am getting so mad when fitness gurus talk about progression steps for pullups and tell the audience neg. chinups is step one...someone who never exercised and is heavy overweight will hurt his elbow in just a few workouts.... I was one of those victims. 😤😤😤

Right on. Bodyweight is still a lot of weight for your resistance training, and repetitions

Thanks for this tip!

I got golfer's elbow a ton of times over the past year. My ROM was solid. 100% lockout. All the way up, all the way down. Chest to floor. Once I switched my ROM from 100% to 80-90% I never had tendonitis since the transition. I guess I kind of did a hyperextend. Been able to do high rep burpees since then.

Thanks Kyle. Can you also make a vid on warm up before calisthenics session including your personal warm up routine? I've watched all your vids and I believe you haven't made one about this unless I missed anything.

really awesome video topics!

I was the intermediate guy trying Get pull up count up. Used 20lb vest. Major golfer elbow for past 6 months. And crazy pain between bicep and forearm too when I get to about 90 degrees of pull up.

Also need to break a sweat and keep it up for a while as well as weight training. I got the stubborn issue. Also throwing a few hundred BP pitches and poor form as you mentioned doesn’t help. Don’t let it happen. It is pretty hard to get it to go away.

Super helpful thank you

What helped me cure golfer elbow and later preventing it was daily use of finger rubber band, meaning doing cca 50-100 finger extensions per arm both in straight arm and L arm elbow angle position. Just my 2C

One of my favorite routines right now is inverted row x 1, push-ups x 1, prisoner squat x 2 in a pyramid circuit format. The high volume rows are hitting everything while building up my strength endurance.

Great video! I love how you keep everything in context. I have a slightly non-training related question: What are your thoughts on sun exposure, skin health, that whole jazz? For reference, I think I'm a little lighter than you. I've been trying to take care of my skin and cover it from the sun for the past 6 months or so after noticing my skin freckling considerably. It is frustrating doing so, and difficult sometimes in the Texas sun/heat.

Doing chin-ups too frequently brings it on for me. Great advice, thanks!

I got golfers elbow in both arms chasing 10 ring muscle ups (managed 9) upped the volume and boom, tear in each arm. Still stubborn and here 8 months later, I miss doing pull ups and other fun stuff, listen to your body folks. Great vid!

Great video, rock on!

Enjoyed the video but really happy that I got to watch you doing the squat with your hands behind your head and would really appreciate it if you explained what and why you're doing in regards to that form i.e. are you applying pressure as an isometric tension on your spine, Using it as a way to maintain proper spine form? Like your take on how to present the information you share...it's relevant to every level of fitness. Thankyou

When I first got rings I couldn't look at them without my elbow starting. Cut way back on volume and intensity but stayed persistent and came through. Kept counting down four weeks without increasing intensity for the tendon and ligaments bench mark growth time

Man, i wish i found your channel before i jacked up my left elbow.. I started doing 100-120 pull ups a day.. (15x8 mostly) Exactly like i you stated in the video, i decided to "push through it".. And of course it just got worse, even hurting when i didn't use my arms at all.. I took a 7 week break from training arms and hopefully mend it.. When i got back around to it about 3 months ago, it was better and i decided to mix up my training routine alot more, i stopped relying on pull ups only.. But even tho i am alot more careful now, it still hurts sometimes, and also random tingling, even when i haven't trained arms at all.. I wonder if this injury will ever go away.. It's quite annoying and it gives me straight up anxiety thinking about having to go through another long break.. I only do pull ups two times a week now, but something still ain't quite right and i have no idea what i'm doing wrong, maybe i have gotten myself some permanent damage.. 🤷‍♂️

I get it last year after combining pull ups and chin ups sets in workout. After 3 months stop to heal i am now only doing pull ups. Note: my training involve doing it with weights. I think the excessive reps are worst for tendons than the weight. But it is my experience and i do not know if this is scientifically proved.

In addition to the other valuable tips, here are some things that significantly reduced my issues with golfer’s elbow: - Scapular pull-ups (build strength to pull with the back muscles). - Hanging from the bar (build grip strength). - Regular stretching of the pecs, biceps, triceps and forearms, building up to German hangs and skin-the-cats.

I've gotten it before, yeah it's annoying. Mine went away on it own though I don't recall doing anything special as I was literally forced to do less pull-ups the pain + weakness was pretty annoying. It was when I was working on max pullups when I was in the Marine Corps, I surpassed the 20 rep 100 point max for the PFT score, and just kept going and got to around 30 reps...and that's when I got that pain there. I just stopped doing as much pulls, worked on my run more as I actually needed to improve on my 3 mile run, and it just went away in a couple weeks, and I haven't had it again since. Of course I never made my goal of 50 reps in one set of pull-ups...but tbh I'm good with that, I've gotten close like 42, and now I'm not even up there anymore more like 28 maybe, and tbh I'm good with that. I no longer have that goal, and that rep max goal...if you train wrong and too intensely, you'll definitely get that tendon issue. I just want my pull-ups to be strict, controlled and powerful...so I do a little weighted, do some really slow ones. My goal now adays is to be able to do really strict and slow muscle ups with zero kipping function at all...no pulling all crazy on the bar to get any swing momentum...super slow and super strict.

Thank you

glad I found this hidden jem. Question: For a person who workout in the gym 3 times a week and want to move to body weight only, do you recommend to workout every single day?

Thanks for these, always appreciate the fine detail and reasoning behind these posts. I am a 51 year old, not completely, but relatively sedentary male. I eat clean, i get between 5-12000 steps in daily (is that even sedentary?) But i am looking into building muscle, I bought a dip bar, and more recently some rings and been looking at false grip, but looking back through your videos I see you don't do a whole lot of "muscle ups" which seem to rely on false grip, just regular pull ups. I am finding because I am in the early stage of progression and just getting into things, I cannot get the false grip at all. Am I better off just focusing on pull ups on the rings first with a "standard" GRIP, thinking about proper form and not overdoing things, or would a bar be a better starting point?

Thank you..

I would avoid chin ups on a straight bar too. Depending on the individual, a rigid straight bar can put significant stress on the inner elbow and cause golfer's elbow.

Thanks!

I got golfers and tennis elbow at the same time plus a labral tear. It was great

I had this problem a few years ago. I wanted to increase my pull up count, so I looked up some plan that said that if you could do 5 pull ups. Do like 1, then 2, then 3, then 4, then 5 as sets every day. After like 5 days of doing it my elbow hurt a lot, to where I was icing all day to stop the pain. Literally could barely do any workouts for like a year, but this time when I started, I just slowly progressed, and if I felt a bit of elbow pain I stopped for a few days. Now I can probably do around 15 clean reps, or 3 sets of 11/12.

Please could you make a video of rehabbing and fixing tennis/golfers elbow

Great videos Kyle. I have started to implement the higher frequency training you recommend. I am 42 going on 43, 6ft 1 inch and around 195lb. I have pretty small joints and long arms etc. I am in fairly good shape and have worked out for many years using various methods from weight training to calisthenics and trained martial arts for 12 years (not anymore though). I started doing 2 x sets of push, pull and squat but I cannot use a bar for high frequency. My right elbow started to flair up as I have had golfers elbow in the past. I pulled back on the frequency to every other day, switched to rings and that seems to have stopped the pain at the moment. What would you recommend in terms of moving forward? Should I keep to every other day and build up to more sets or build up to everyday with 2 x sets?

Any advice for Tennis Elbow?

Hello Kyle. Thank you for sharing knowledge. I'll be happy if your cover the topic of designing training program when having physically demanding work. From Russia,so sorry for BAD ENGLISH. my case is: im going to return as mover to factory. in past had negative 'body feedback' : immune drop-frequent colds,some low back discomfort after year of combine workouts with my work. I was doing hight intense ~40min workout after workday with weights or with bodyweight. all sets near failure. Now to avoid troubles with health want to intergrate only calistenics workout sets into my workday(there is some stuff at the factory,which i can use as pullup-bar). in 'greasing the groove' style: for example do 3-4 pullup sets with volume of 60-70% of my max throw the day,one set every 2hours. same with push-ups and squats on another days. Saturdays and sundays - days off for recovery. Going to try it and check my body reactions. Oh and my goal is simple- just continue to do some calestenics at long distance. Because i love feels it gives. What's your thoughts about this topic? Maybe some tips for this kind of problem. Thanks.

I have a question ? Why do you hold the isomeric (which builds the least amount of muscle) and not control the eccentric portion that builds the most amount of muscle ?

Is it possible to get not golf elbow bet tennis elbow by doing chin ups cuz i experienced tennis elbow and i just started doing chin ups and pull ups but i feel like i am getting the same injury again so could it be because of this or somethink else

How about the outside of the elbow? I tried to up my game by doing elevated pushups with a narrow hand placement and it crushed my elbows. Looking into it I’m strengthening the upper part of my forearm and triceps before I try elevated push-ups again. Any thoughts or suggestions?

Great channel mate. I've started getting golfer's elbow - I started your system to try and increase my pull up count 3 weeks ago and the elbow issue started coming on in the right elbow 10 days ago. Would you advise to stop? I really pay attention to my form and it looks okay. Thanks

This probably belongs on another of your videos, but how do I progress after I am able to do a desired number of reps on a certain exercise. For example I’ve been doing 100 push-ups daily for some time now, should I decrease my frequency and increase the volume or what should I do? Thanks

I have tennis elbow (bilateral). It's put my training right back. There's still plenty I can do in the gym with lower body and abs etc but I'm laying right off arm work for the next month.

Great content! I had golfer's elbow and tennis elbow in both arms after pulling TONS of nails and staples from a subfloor. It's been an entire YEAR and only now feels better, but I can tell it's still there if I start to lift. Should I go to a physical therapist? Or am I on the mend? I'm just hesitant to do anything strenuous with my arms because recovery was soooo slow and brutal. I'm a pretty fit 38 year old guy, but this shit sidelined me.

How would you program then to get your first pull up?

What do you mean by over gripping?

bro are 'good mornings' better exercise for lower back than deadlift ?

Holding my phone and watching fitness videos for the last 2 years, has given me golfers elbow.

Flexors and extensors have to be balanced in strength.. Once I starting using a forearm blaster to train both, it went away.

I can’t see a doctor, no insurance, no money for a doctor , and I more than likely have all ready developed this condition! The pain comes and goes , any other tips on pushing through ? My pull-up gains increase very slowly. For months I could only do 2-3 pull-ups to failure , now I can do 5-6 to failure. The ultimate goal is 25 to failure. Any tips how I can reach this goal as soon as possible, In the midst of dealing with this condition? Any other exercises I could do?

Also would this video also apply to that protruding bone that sits on the outside of and just below the knee in respect to the calf muscles? I get the feeling that beginner runners cause themselves similar problems in their lower leg in a similar way.

Can you make a video of how to deal with golfers elbow? I've had it for 3 years, I can still do some exercises but no push ups.

Love the channel. Question for someone with golfers elbow who still wants to train pull ups. Would you recommend using a band to reduce resistance, or an assisted pullup machine? Or something else? Thank you!

Got my golfers’ elbow lately from higher training frequency of pull ups For context I can do ten pull ups with decent form but I have a really weak grip(I cannot hang on the bar for 1minute). I believe my weak grip is also a factor for the problem. Now I just backed off from any upper body exercise to let my elbow heal. Any suggestions on training grip strength without overusing the forearm muscle? Thanks a lot

Hey Kyle, this is completely off topic for this video and I'm sorry for that! But I joined your channel not that long and just devoured all the videos, it's great content. I changed my split to PPL 6 times a week 3 series a day, and now I am trying to put some variety on it. Currently I am doing 1 day of bw regular reps, then paused reps, weighted, lighter variations day, regular again and finally a rest-pause day till failure before the rest day. My question is, do you think its a good idea to have so many variety? Should I just stick with more regular reps and some weighted sometimes, or anything like that? Idk if this is a question for Q&A ahahah but if you can give me your opinion either way I would be really glad! Thanks!

Great point about the 225 bench, you'd never apply that chinup logic to any other lift.

I got golfers elbow from doing low bar squats. Would you recommend me doing these exercises to fix that also or something else?

Is there a particular type or brand of exercise rings that you recommend?

Been doing pull ups 3x a week for 6 months (about 100 total for the week). Had a very small amount of elbow pain between workouts for a long time but it never got worse. Now trying high-frequency so doing the 100ish quantity across 5 days. Focusing a lot on mastering form now so going slow through full range of motion and leading with my chest. The elbow pain seems to be getting somewhat more acute. Is this a check in with a PT situation or should I dial back quantity or training frequency?

What watch is that you're wearing while working out ?

I'm under the impression that ring Pelican Curls are great for avoiding Golfer's Elbow when you focus on the negative and TUT

For anyone experiencing this problem, does it flair up when you turn yourwrist inward?

Does changing the grip (pull vs chin) do much to prevent it? And how often should you change grips?

It's actually your shoulder causing this problems, especially as a result of pull-ups/chin-ups. If you do not retract your scapula and keep your shoulders down during the exercise it pinches tendons in the shoulder which causes inflammation, tears and pulling on the connections at the elbow. Rounded forward shoulders change your forearm position, pushing your thumbs inward - creating more stress on the inner elbow during exercise.

I am a subscriber love your content the best on Calistenics. Iam heavily into calisthenics, I have just developed golfers elbow, the only thing I can do is push ups, body squats and triceps now pulling exercises are shot way too much pain, any advice besides seeing a doctor how to rehab from this have you ever had this problem

Ok ok ok Iv subscribed

how do i take it slow if i wanna do pull ups and can only do about 3 in one set? how do i progress

What about mobility routines prior to workout?

Could someone please recommend some Gym rings I could purchase online (I’m in Australia)

What do I do if I have had golfers elbow for 6 months now, I keep resting it and trying different things but it is still getting worse, even affecting my sleep now and I can't even do a simple bicep curl or chin up any more.

in one interview, the climber said that when he started training, his ligaments and tendons constantly hurt for the first 4 years. it takes so long for these tissues to adapt to high loads

What do you think of the azz to grass logic when squatting? Is it truly necessary to build glute and quad muscles or is 90 degrees sufficient with high volume reps

How the F does this dude only have 13k subs?!?

I am at a point in my life after 12 years of calisthenics where I can say I look good and i am happy with my body, but I will stop working out so much because of this issue, I have had it since I was 20 years old, now I turn 30 tomorrow and I think my whole body tends to get inflammation from working out 6 days a week. I thought to just work every muscle group once a week. I still think this can lead to progress if I progressively overload

Mr Boges, how to treat Golfer's elbow?

It’s a chronic condition for me due to my job:((. So painful!😢

And is it possible to get tennis elbow from pull ups?

What does it mean if rows actually aggravate the golfers elbow more than the pull-up?

Anyone got any advice on how to fix it? Haven’t done a curl without pain in 6 years except like really light curls done during physical therapy, which I’ve been to 3 times. Never fixed it. Absolute nightmare. I’m in terrible shape and can’t do anything without totally screwing my elbows. And my terrible elbows made me compensate and wreck my rotator cuffs, which also get jacked up doing very light exercise. Honestly quite depressing

What about tricep tendinitis?

Jesus Christ i just found this Chanel and you are lean as a Stick thats Impresive work in the kitchen!

Where is this filmed?

I think I have this. Really flares when doing muscle ups 😩😩😩

What's "overgripping" (2:50)?