Tennis Elbow? from cycling?

I started getting elbow pain in fall of 2019 during pushups. It was always on the inside of my right elbow, where the muscles connect to the ulna, approximately.
Came and went.
Now I have what appears to be classic tennis elbow symptoms, pain on the OUTSIDE where muscles attach to the radius.

Question: anyone else get symptoms like this from cycling? (MTB primarily).
I’ve long been a rock climber so 10+ pulups and 50+ pushups in a set were within my capabilities. So i don’t think it was a sudden load on inadequate muscles.
Squeezing the life out of the bar on descents?
Mouse and keyboard work?

I have had golfers elbow (inside) for over a year now, started when with too much rock climbing too quick. Gets inflamed with pull-ups so I now do sets of two with 1-minute rest. It sucks seems like it never goes away. But Mountain biking never inflames it.

The best way to manage it is to lower the volume or take out any exercise that gives it pain and wait a long time. But I have heard horror stories of it taking years to go away. Maybe worth getting it checked out with a phyiso if it gets worse.

This is 100% N of 1 and bro science but I am totally convinced both types of epicondylitis are muscle imbalance in nature.

I fought with this for years from lifting and to much keyboarding. Rest never helped, half a year off and it came back in weeks. Therabar twists helped a great deal, hammer rotations helped even more. Take a 3lb mini sledge hammer. Hold it the normal way, let the weight drop counter clockwise, return to center, drop clockwise, return to center. Full stop at each point. Try to get a bit of stretch but dont over do it. Dont use momentum for any of it. For the therabar, do high rep forearm curls and reverse curls by twisting the bar. Sets of 25-30 should be pretty easy before you move up a color. The jumps between colors is actually bigger than would be ideal.

I bet you are squeezing the bars pretty hard with lots of leftover grip strength from the climbing. Maybe try those thumb hook things they talked about on the podcast a few times and see if you can spend more time with your shoulders more externally rotated (elbows more down than out)

I’ve had golf elbow going on 1.5 years now, and switched from right elbow to left. I think its a combo of golf (love playing) and phone holding for long periods of time. When holding my phone for long periods of time (watching YouTube etc. while waiting for wife to finish her makeup removal routine for bed) I notice pain the next day.

I’ve gotten both tennis elbow and golfers elbow over the past 5 years. Hard to say what causes it - cycling, lifting or climbing. But apparently it’s very common when you hit your 40s.

There’s stretches you can do to help. As well as wearing a brace something like this:

I showed tennis elbow symptoms after a manic house-cleaning episode once, so… anything is possible :laughing:

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oh yeah. also, nearing 42 so that makes absoulely (shitty) sense.

Thanks folks. Definitely read a couple of relatable themes here:

Gripping bars
Shoulder posture
Age

Muscle imbalance a possibility as well. I do have 4lb sledge and 15 lbs therabar. so i can get to work on both of those options. Also have an Arm Aid from climbing days. It’s like a foam roller for your forearms. We’ll see if any myofacial or muscle tension is putting undue stress on the tendons

Zombie thread revival!

Am now battling severe tennis elbow in left arm and less severe in right arm. Started with yard work in fall (splitting wood and otherwise abusing my old body (55+)). Then exacerbated the initial trauma by increased time weightlifting in winter followed by mountain biking this spring and summer. It’s the mountain biking that put thing over the top. Which is a shame because it’s one of my favorite things to do.

As a lifelong cyclist had not realized how common this sort of injury is for bike riders.

Typing only because as cyclists we hear a lot about core strength and posterior chain issues but there are a few other things we should pay attention to for general health and welfare. And to make sure we can keep riding the bike the way we want to.

From a TR perspective, perhaps some time spent incorporating prevention type concepts into the plans could be a value add for subscribers?

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Tennis elbow is a PITA. And since everyone is different, the recovery methods are different. Just my .02, but I had it for 2 years, and I tried PT, Cortisone shots, rest, etc and it never got more than 50% better. I got an MRI, but it didn’t show much.

I finally found a sports ortho and via an ultrasound scan of my elbow, they found a micro tear that was contributing to the Tennis elbow. They administered “PRP” treatment to help heal the micro tear. I did more PT after PRP and 4 months later, I’m back to 99%. I can ride and lift pain-free. It’s still a bit stiff after long rides, but it’s a million times better than it was. Check out “PRP” for Tennis elbow. It might help if you don’t get relief via other methods.

Good luck!

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It is painful. Am seeing a specialist today and will see what course of treatment is recommended. I’m old enough to remember when PRP was only for professional athletes :slight_smile:

If you feel like typing, am curious what the PT regimen was? I’ve been doing a series of exercises with the Theraband flexor, some banded work and reverse eccentric curls. Along with active release / soft tissue work with Chiro. All helps a bit but not enough.

I suspect it’s gotten bad enough where a hiatus from mountain biking and weight lifting is indicated :frowning:

Tnx for the response above.

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I’m currently doing the Tennis Elbow program from The Ready State thereadystate.com
So far it’s been really good, and I’m only up to the 'pain relief ’ phase, before moving on to solve the underlying issue.

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How wide are your handlebars? I get this from time to time and have chalked it up to push ups I did incorrectly for pretty much my whole life, but also to mountain biking. However, I noticed on when I try to bend my elbows on my trainer bike, I feel the discomfort a lot more than I do on my road bike. My road bike has narrower handlebars and I was surmising that the twist you have in the chain from your shoulder to your hands as well as the external rotation created by the wider handlebars seems to put more strain on my elbow.

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When i started riding about 6 years ago i had this. I eventually worked out that it was because i rode with straight arms with my elbows locked out. The road noise was just banging the joint over and over again. I made a conscious effort to soften my elbows and the problem went away after a few weeks.

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Road bike and trainer bike are both 42cm bars. Roughly the same as I’ve used for 40 years. On the mountain bike, I tend to run narrower than is currently in vogue, around 730-740mm

Am fairly certain what happened was I triggered the elbows doing yard work last fall and winter. We recently moved and I spent a lot of time using a chainsaw and then splitting wood with a maul and wedges. Looking back with 20:20 hindsight, I likely overdid it and pounded my forearms.

Come winter I did a lot of weightlifting along with house stuff and that likely exacerbated the problem. By the time the elbows got bad enough to bother me, we were into mountain bike season. We had relatively good weather and I wanted to do more mountain riding this year so spending a lot more time off road than on road.

TL;DR, myself and the docs all think it’s the vibration and forearm / elbow pounding of mountain biking that compounded the issue and is keeping things from healing. We ride fairly technical trails locally so that’s an added factor. Lots of roots, rocks, drops and small jumps. aka a lotta fun!

Longer story short, just had a steroid shot and will continue with ART and in home exercises. Will significantly decrease trail riding in favor of road riding and hope that is enough. If it’s not enough will just move inside onto the trainer, knock off the weightlifting and give everything a chance to heal up.

My lesson here is an ounce of prevention. When I first started feeling something in the elbows should have sought treatment and identified the cause. But typical cyclist, have a high pain threshold and just tried to work through it hoping it would get better. Will pay the piper now!

Thanks all - appreciate the posts and thoughts.

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@DarthShivious Yea, PT was different in between the 2 phases - before PRP and after PRP. Before PRP it was a lot of “traditional” tennis elbow PT work. Therabar twists with increases in reps or therabar sizes, thoracic stretching, overhead walks with kettlebells, etc. After PRP I went to a different, myofascial PT office. They started out with massage and myofascial release. We graduated to “scraping” with flat bladed instruments, and finally some dry needling. They had me keep up my therabar work, but drop the other PT exercises. They also recommended some modifications for riding the bike (mostly indoors). Eventually they had me to move to dumbbell work at home (all the while doing the myofascial release/scraping/needling).

None of it was fast and the PRP itself needed time to work. I only had minor improvements over the first 2 months after PRP, then more in the 3rd month, and finally best results in the 4th month.

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I got tennis elbow, then golfers elbow, in both arms over a period of a few years.

I think what triggered it was a combination of riding my fatbike on dirt trails (trying to control the bouncing of the front tire), and general age.

Solution included:

  • wear a tennis elbow brace when doing any activity
  • Stretching multiple times a day
  • only hammer grip when doing bicep curls
  • stop riding fatbike on dirt

Haven’t had a relapse in the past 2 years.

Similar to the ArmAid, we have a Roll Recovery 8 device. From my wife’s prior battles with tennis elbow. Also the red and yellow TheraBars.

Noooooooo…!!!

The elbow brace / band definitely helps. Once this is under control, will need to develop a daily routine and add it to the other stuff I already do (core, posterior chain, etc).

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For the record, and for anyone stumbling upon this thread in the future of internet browsing, I can confirm that PRP injections are definitely an “interesting” sensation. Hope it works.