Hey dude, that’s a bummer but it’s definitely something you can work around.
When I get back to my computer I’ll type you an in depth reply, my phone and tnation are at odds with each other these days. I’ll tag you in the edited post tomorrow evening or early Monday!
@jdm135 My treatment approach was to reluctantly start eliminating things from my daily routine that bothered my arm. I was working a manual labor job at the time so I couldn’t completely rest it, and drills actually bothered it the most of anything so my time table for recovery was a bit slow.
I did what I could to minimize how much work affected the arm, and cut out a lot of different lifting exercises. Low bar squats were a no-go (still are actually), deadlifting was out even with straps, no traditional rowing, no barbell benching, no pullups. I bought a safety squat bar and a football bar and used those for lower body work and benching. I could still press with a barbell, do dips, don’t remember doing many pushups around that time.
For back training I used bands pretty exclusively since I train at home. I’d just put my hand through the band and let it pull on my wrist without really squeezing it. If you go to a gym with cable machines a cuff would probably work great.
I probably spent a solid month or so doing only SSB lower body, press, football bar bench, banded back work, and whatever assistance moves I found that didn’t bother the elbow. Eventually I was able to add hammer curls in and found them to be therapeutic. I think the next thing I added back in was trap bar lifts, as the bar wouldn’t roll in my hand. Rows and chins came next, in lower volume to start.
I have it mostly under control now but still get occasional flareups. Low bar squats are the only exercise I haven’t gone back to since they a big trigger for it. I mostly stick with the SSB, and use straps for any pulling work that grip may be a concern. I climb too so I try to budget the stress on the elbow accordingly.
I found hammer curls and band pushdowns to be helpful, seemed getting a ton of blood in the area made it more comfortable. I actually was having flareups a few months back and started doing forearm extensor stuff and that seemed to help as well, like a counterbalance. I didn’t really find stretches or cuffs or anything helpful.
It was probably 6 months or so before I actually felt like I was getting back to normal. Definitely a bummer but just a blip on the radar grand-scheme wise. Once I got it under control it’s been fairly easy to manage, but I’m not sure it’ll every fully heal.
Sorry for the rambling nature of the post, it’s been a hell of a weekend and coherent thoughts seem to be off the table for me right now.