Ever had "little league elbow?"

[J.K.]

Hey Gang... :)

Nope - it's not 'tennis elbow' although it's rather close. With your hand laying down on your leg and the palm facing up, tennis elbow occurs on the outside of the elbow joint. 'Little League Elbow' occurs on the side of the elbow joint that's facing inward. It gets the name because it's most often seen in young pitchers. They strain this particular tendon while trying to throw curve balls.

Anyway, at the ripe age of 41 I seem to have gotten it lifting weights. I think close grip bench press was the culprit for me. This was three months ago! I've not been able to do upper body since.

I've seen an accupuncturist for it once, and spoken to a physical therapist about it. The physical therapist told me that I could try some streatching exercises and apply ice, but other than that I really had no options other than just to disuse it and let time and mother nature do the healing. The physical therapist also told me to expect the healing process to be a slow one, and man is it ever. I've almost recovered now, but again, it's been about 3 months..

As a result, I just thought I'd ask to see if anyone has ever had this. And if so, I'd also be interested to know how long it took for you to heal. - Also, if it did heal, did you have a problem with it coming back?

Thanks for reading. And cheers! :thup:

[kbfunTH]

I started pitching in little league and went right up through my senior year in high school and even into a few years of post high school pitching in a local adult summer league. I am very familiar with this pain you mention and remember it very well. My arm used to throb with pain and was sometimes difficult to even keep still. For me, there was some insane attraction to squeezing the throbbing area for a second or two of relief.

I do lots of close grip bench as well, but I know longer keep my hands in close like I used to. I use an Olympic bar and my index finger is right at the line where the smooth part begins, with the elbows in tight. Any closer than this and the comfort in the wrists and elbows is not there. I also quit doing up-right rows for this same reason.

My training now consists of mostly kettlebell lifting with some Olympic/Powerlifting exercises thrown in. Snatching is a big part of these types of training and the kettlebell snatch specifically, has been great for conditioning the muscles in the hand, forearm and upper arm as well. It wasn't long after I started this kind of training that my joints began to feel a lot better. I have no intentions of going back to the typical bodybuilding type of training. Most of my training volume is done with low reps at various and sometimes, methodical 1RM percentages. I balance this out with light, to moderate weight interval training.

[Bigdaddy99]

I had a similar injury and my massage therapist recommended a hot and cold treatment. If you have a double sink, fill one up with ice cold water and the other one with hot water. Simply submerge your arm in one side and then the other. Repeat until you stop noticing a difference in temperature (about 15 minutes). Doing this increases the blood flow to the affected area and promotes healing. I was better in less than a month.

As I've gotten older, I've modified my training routine to not include certain exercises that tend to injure me. Military Press has recently started to give me shoulder problems, so I don't do them anymore and just do a dumbell press. You may want to rethink your training methods. There are many ways to hit the bicep other than Close Grip Bench.


Bigdaddy

[J.K.]

Hey Guys..

Thanks for the feedback. This has been the most odd injury I think I've ever had. First, in terms of the length of time it takes to heal and second in terms of how few folks knew what I was talking about. Each time I'd try to explain it everyone would start talking tennis elbow, and I'd have to tell em, "No, that's not it.." lol

Close Grip Bench is now definitly going to be a thing of my past. I like the exercise, but will consider it a small loss in lieu the other. I think I'm also going to be very cautious about the upright rows. I haven't really given that one much thought, but it seems like it would be a real stresser on this particular tendon.

Thanks again.. And cheers! :thup: