Elbow Pain Rehab (Tennis & Golfer's Elbow) for BJJ | Part 1 (14 min)

And these exercises are things that you can use in conjunction with any advice that you get. But it's important to start from a good diagnosis so that we know what we're dealing with. We've done that a couple of times. I'm going to turn the forearm over.

I'm going to work down the back of the forearm with my elbow. And this time, I'm going to make a fist. So I'm going to pin the muscle, I'm going to make a fist. You should be able to feel that muscle pulling under the elbow, under the pressure in the other hand.

I'm going to work my way down. It's okay to spend a little bit more time at any points that feel like they're a little bit sore, a little bit uncomfortable. But it should be a good kind of discomfort. Now, if you've got a very reactive sort of elbow pain, so it's quite intense, then this may be, you may have to press quite lightly at first.

And then you can gradually increase that as it becomes a little bit less sensitive. But do listen to your body. With all of this, make sure that you're paying attention to the signals you're getting from your body. Now, with all of this, I'm just going to focus on the one arm.

You may want to do it on both arms. That's absolutely fine. I do recommend doing a little bit of work on the other arm, even if it's completely healthy. So the next thing we're going to do is we're going to use a bit of TheraBand.

I'm going to pin it under the elbow. And then I'm going to pin it under the elbow. And then I'm going to pin it under the elbow. I'm going to pin it under my opposite knee.

Now, we're going to work both sides of the arm with this. Depending on whether the pain's on the inside or the outside of the forearm, you might get pain in a different place and with different positions. Okay? So what we're going to do is hold the TheraBand.

I'm just going to put a little bit of tension on the band. I can adjust the position of my arm slightly. And I want the point where I can just about feel there's a bit of discomfort here, but it's not really painful. Okay?

So if I need to take some tension off, if it's particularly sensitive, so I don't want to stress it too much at this stage. I just want to be able to feel that. Okay? And I'm going to hold that for quite a long time.

We're going to look at about 20 to 30 seconds each time. Okay? If you find the pain is getting worse as you hold it, you may need to cut this a little bit shorter to start with in the early stages. And we can build up towards 20 to 30 seconds.

So I want you to pay attention to how your body's reacting. Different people at different stages are going to react differently. Okay? So from there, I'm going to shake the arm off, give it a few seconds to relax.

And then we're going to turn around, turn the palm around so it's facing up this time. And again, I'm going to adjust the position slightly so I might have it slightly more bent or slightly more straight. So I'm looking for the point where I can feel some discomfort, but it's mild. I'm going to hold that.

Now this is a really good exercise to do. It's a good one to do several times a day if you can. So if you can keep your TheraBand with you and do a few repetitions of this through the day, you'll find that your recovery will be that much faster. Okay?

And then we're going to go back to the first one. And palm down again. And some of the grapplers who I treat with this sort of exercise, they find that a few days of this kind of exercise can really calm that pain down quite quickly. And then we can build onto some of the more advanced strengthening exercises.

And hold that. And then we're going to switch over again. So we're going to do about three repetitions on each of these. And I know this isn't the most exciting kind of exercise in the world, but in my experience, it's one of the very best kinds of exercise for getting rid of that initial tendon pain.

The thing with tendons is that we do need to put some load on them. If you have a tendon problem and you rest it completely, very often we'll find that that gets worse. So we need to load it, but we need to load it at the right level. So it's important that we're not doing too much too soon.

Changing that over again. And you might find that it's getting a little bit tired by now, especially if there's a bit of pain there. So again, don't be afraid to cut this a little bit shorter if that pain is starting to build up. So you're going to build up towards a longer hold as your body adapts to this.

We're going to switch over again. Final time. Okay. And relax.

Okay. Give the arm a little bit of a shake off and we'll go into the next exercise. So when you've done that, we're going to look more at the finger flexors and the finger extensors now. And these will also have a bearing on that elbow pain.

So again, with some of these exercises, you might find that in certain positions, there's a bit of pain. You want to find those points where it's a bit uncomfortable, but not so much that it's really painful. Okay, so with this one, I'm just going to squeeze a tennis ball. And again, different grips, you'll probably find in different people will start to aggravate that pain.

So we want to find that point where it might be a little bit uncomfortable, but it's bearable. And as you hold that squeeze, what you should find is that pain, so either staying in the same position so either staying a similar level or it's starting to die off. If it's becoming worse, then ease up, or we can even cut that hold short. And we're going to build these up as they become easier.

So again, we're looking at about 20 to 30 seconds with each hold. And then what I'm going to do is I'm going to alternate that with an exercise for the finger extensors. So for this, we're going to use an elastic band, like I say, you can buy special bands that do this, but a bunch of rubber bands will do a similar job. And all I'm going to do is I'm going to push the fingers out and I'm just going to hold that.

So it's a static contraction again. And these isometrics are really good. It's very sensitive and it flares up easily. This sort of exercise is the best for calming it down and starting to do some strengthening work, but without flaring that pain up.

So I'm holding that again, 20 to 30 seconds, or I can stop sooner if it's starting to become painful. So I want to work right up the edge of that discomfort and hold it at that level. And when I've done that, I'm going to switch back to the ball again. I'm going to squeeze the ball.

Again, the great thing with isometrics is you can control how hard you're squeezing. So you can control how much force is going through that. I want you to do that by paying attention to the pain that you're getting. And then we're going to switch for the band again.

Just going to hold that. So unfortunately, this isn't the most exciting kind of exercise in the world, but it is really, really good at getting on top of pain quickly. You can change the amount of tension in the bands depending on how much strength you've got and how painful the elbow is. And we're going to do the last one.

And we're going to squeeze the ball. And again, you can change the position of your arm. You'll find that as you change the position of your arm, you'll feel little niggles in different places. So again, you want to find the points where it's a little bit uncomfortable and then just hold it just at that level where you can just about feel it.

And then we're going to switch back to the band. The last one, we're going to squeeze the ball. And then we're going to squeeze the ball. And the last one.

Working the extensors is generally a really good thing. It'll also make your grip stronger. So that's an added bonus. I recommend doing it on your healthy arm as well.

These extensors are, it's a muscle group that gets massively neglected. I find this both with jujitsu guys and also with climbers or anyone who uses their grip. So they're both really good. And then the last thing is, we're going to do a little bit of a mobilization.

So we're going to do a little bit of a mobilization and I'm going to do a little bit of a mobilization with my other hand. So we tend to spend a lot more time pulling than pushing outwards with the fingers. Okay, and we're going to stop there. Okay, and then finally, the last thing you're going to do, so you're just going to do a little bit of a mobilization and then you're going to do a little bit of a mobilization with your elbow up.

So again, I'm only taking it as far as is comfortable. I'm not forcing it. I should find that as I repeat that, I'm starting to get a little bit more movement there. I'm feeling the stretch all the way down the wrist, through the fingers, down to the forearm and right up into the elbow there.

Again, if you're getting a lot of pain, if that elbow is very sensitive, I can always back off. I can just do it less to start with. So again, I'm working just up to my tolerance level. Okay, and a few more of those.

Okay, and then just give the arms a shake out. So I'm going to stop there for today. Come back tomorrow for day two and we'll progress some of these on.