If you have Tennis Elbow or Golfer’s Elbow you can certainly continue with your cardio exercise and lower-body work out (that’s probably obvious and uncontroversial!)…
The big question is: Should you continue to lift weights or do upper body strength training? (With or without weights or equipment)… It depends…
If your injury was caused by weight lifting in the first place, you might need to cut back or stop your upper body strengthening routine for a while.
You may still benefit from doing Tennis Elbow specific rehab exercises, but there is still the question of: When is the right time to begin those rehab exercises?
- If your injury stems from some other activity, then it may not be necessary to stop.
- But you WILL probably still need to cut back: (Drop the weight, reduce the resistance and/or number of sets you do)…
- And you may need to drop certain exercises entirely for a time, because they can be too aggravating to your Tennis Elbow – See this post on “Which Exercises Should I Avoid?”
Of course continuing with your cardio and lower body workouts is not only acceptably – but highly desirable from a “stay fit and healthy” perspective, and also to maintain good circulation and healing in your injured upper body.
Although swimming is in a category of its own. It may or may not work – especially if you have Golfer’s Elbow. See my article / video on Swimmer’s Elbow, here, for more on that
To stop everything would be to invite more stagnation and degeneration, and those are your absolute worst enemies when you have a tendon injury!
Here’s an overview of the principles of Tennis Elbow Exercise and Rehab
PODCAST: Working Out Wisely When You Have Tennis Elbow
Here’s the podcast version that you can download and keep by clicking the “download” link under the player below.
What If Lifting Weights Injured You In The First Place?
Is It OK To Work Out With A Tennis Elbow Injury?
One of the main concerns and deciding factors is whether you developed Tennis Elbow from “over exercising” – as in working out too often without enough recovery time, using bad form and/or too much weight or resistance, whether lifting, or doing some other form of strength conditioning – like P90x, TRX or Cross Fit
If that’s how you were injured in the first place, it’s probably ideal (and common sensible) to take a break from that activity (or ANY activity that you are fairly sure caused your injury.)
But let’s consider three other very common scenarios:
- Your injury comes from some other highly physical, but NON-sport cause: Construction, landscaping, etc,
- You got your Tennis Elbow the “classic” way playing tennis or golf, (See this article/video on Playing Tennis or Golf With Tennis Elbow.)
- Or you got your injury from doing something repetitive but a lot less physically intense, like using your computer.
1 – Injured Via Heavy Physical Work:
If you spend your whole day doing something rigorously physical with your upper body, such as contracting work / construction, then more weight lifting in the gym may just be too much for your muscles and tendons until you make some progress with healing your injury.
Rest and recovery time is going to make the most sense for you, in that case. It’s not like you can just take time off from work to rest, right? So, something has to give.
Be sure to get enough sleep, too. That’s when the majority of tissue repair happens and you probably need it more than anyone.
2 – Tennis Golf / Short Duration Activity Injury:
If your injury is from golf, tennis or some other shorter-duration, medium-intensity sport or activity, then it may be quite beneficial to continue your gym workouts – although reducing the frequency you play tennis or golf would be wise.
If your Tennis Elbow is on the severe side, you should definitely be prepared to stop playing for a while if necessary – and know that if you continue (whether it’s severe or not) it’s going to take longer to recover.
It would be wise in either case to stop playing tennis or golf for a while and focus on your weight training and other structured exercise (and core strength, shoulder flexibility etc.) where you can carefully control how much load and force you put on your muscles and tendons – unlike tennis and golf where unpredictable things happen.
3 – Low-Intensity / High Duration – Computer Use, Etc:
Lastly, if your injury is from computer use or any other type of low intensity, but highly repetitive work, task or hobby, then you will probably benefit the most from continuing your weight training.
If you don’t already have an exercise program – This could be a good time to start a cardio/core/lower body program, at the very least, for the overall benefits…
And it might even make sense to start doing some upper body exercises (very slowly and carefully with light weight) – if you haven’t been doing any.
In your case, part of your problem likely stems from long periods of low intensity, repetitive and minimal range-of-motion actions, which has a weakening effect on your muscles and tendons, and you should benefit from careful, gradual low-weight exercise.
Be Smart If You’re Going To Continue Working Out
In short: Warm up! Do less – And remember, ALL gripping challenges your Tennis (and Golfer’s) Elbow muscles
1 – Warm Up THOROUGHLY: Start with at least a 10 to 15 minute cardio session to get your blood flowing and your muscles warmed up – (Better still, make this the top priority of your workout and start off with more like 30 – 45 minutes.)
Do your abdominal / core / hips and legs routine before your upper body strength training as well to further warm up your whole body
Consider doing some gentle, light forearm-specific exercises AND stretching before finally doing your weight / resistance training for your upper body.
I think Wrist Deviation (in both directions) is the best and safest exercise to start with (post + video) – And I would avoid ‘Wrist Extension Curls’ at least until you’re well on your way to recovery. They are the most direct challenge to the muscles involved.
2 – LESS Is MORE: Less is always more when you have an injury. It’s always so much better to start with much less weight than you normally would – even if it’s unsatisfying. (It’s a lot better than “blowing up” your Tennis Elbow and not be able to do anything for weeks, right?)
If you’re accustomed to doing 3 or more sets – Whoa, there! – Cut back to just 1 or 2, depending on how bad your elbow is. Just do one light set – Or a light set and a medium set and skip the heavy!
3 – STOP If It Hurts! Obvious, right? The most important rule of thumb while doing any upper-body exercise OR Tennis-Elbow-specific rehab exercise, is NOT to feel any significant pain WHILE you’re doing it.
(You don’t have any idea how it’s going to feel LATER – But at least you can stop right away if it screams at you while you’re exercising.)
4 – It’s All Gripping: Always keep in mind that ALL gripping challenges your Tennis (and Golfer’s) Elbow muscles – And almost all upper-body exercises involve gripping.
Even if you’re not doing a forearm / wrist specific exercise, the muscles on BOTH sides of the wrist and forearm are involved in your grip.
So, take time to rest between sets (or bang out a few more crunches or minutes in plank) and to gently and carefully stretch your wrist muscles in both directions.
5 – Barbells Vs. Dumbbells: There is also a view is some circles that it’s better to use a barbell rather than dumbbells for certain reasons. It’s something to think about…
But I’m not going to chime in on that here. Instead I saved that for another post about:
“Which Exercises Should I AVOID?”
Listening To Your Pain – What The Heck Is It Saying?
There are two extremes when it comes to “listening to and respecting your pain” either ignoring it completely OR stopping everything until you’re 100% pain free.
I have to reject both of these in favor of some kind of sweet spot in the middle.
Yes, on the one hand, it’s important not to completely ignore the pain and just continue pushing and working through it…
But on the other hand, there is such a thing as “Babying the Injury” by being overprotective of it and not doing enough to challenge it as it heals!
The symptoms of Tennis Elbow vary widely, from a dull ache to intermittent jolts and “twinges” of moderate intensity – to severe, sharp, “knife-like” searing pain.
And the problem is we tend to assume the worse the pain, the worse the injury – This is often true but, in this case, not necessarily so.
Sometimes people with mild cases have a lot of pain and conversely, some Tennis Elbow sufferers with more severe, advanced Tendinosis are not in that much pain, all things considered.
It’s still important not to ignore the pain, but it’s also important not to overreact to it.
A twinge of sudden pain now and then is not necessarily a sign that you’ve re-injured or worsened the injury – Especially if the pain logically seems “out of proportion” to what you were doing when you felt it.
In other words, if you feel a jolt of pain taking the milk out of the fridge, you probably have nothing to worry about – Even if it acts a little b!#chy for the rest of the day!
But, if you’re trying to lift as much weight in the gym as you would normally lift, without taking into account your injury, (risky!) and it suddenly hurts like hell in the middle of your set, that’s much more likely to mean a re-injury/worsened injury.
Again, the most important rule of thumb while doing any kind of upper body strengthening exercise is not to feel any significant pain WHILE you’re doing it. (Maybe some tightness or very mild burning.)
The next day if it hurts more that could mean that the exercise was too much, although that is not a given. It could just be a little aggravated and it will get over it.
There is quite a lot of trial and error, and “Two steps forward – One step back” in the tendon healing process, innately that we need to make our peace with.
Should You Wear A Strap Or Brace While Lifting Weights?
Maybe. I would NOT recommend wearing any kind of rigid or even semi-rigid brace around the entire elbow, because it’s potentially too restrictive
Weight lifting straps that encircle the wrist and strap-type braces, like the CounterForce Brace, which encircles the upper forearm muscles, (but doesn’t cover the elbow) may make sense temporarily.
As long as you only use them while working out and never while at rest or performing low-intensity repetitive tasks, like typing.
Here’s my article and video on why Braces, bands and supports are not a good idea long-term.
Should You Ice Afterward?
As a general rule, my answer is “No”
Unless you feel like you did too much, your elbow was aggravated by the exercise and it’s hurting considerably more.
In that case, a little ice for a few minutes may calm it down and make it feel better.
(Notice that I don’t say anything about “Inflammation” because that is actually a non issue in most cases of chronic Tennis Elbow – See my post and video on icing here)
If it’s really flaring up on you it’s possible that you did worsen the injury and you may be having an “Acute Episode” and if you’ve further damaged your tendon(s) then it will make sense to use ice then and there.
Especially if there’s swelling. (A sure sign of acute injury and time for the RICE protocol – Rest, Ice, etc.) in which case you would probably continue a few times a day for 2-3 days.
However, with most flare ups the pain is not the result of a significant acute injury, and there isn’t any swelling, so ice is not necessarily helpful (except to lessen the pain.)
And on a related note:
- Can You Keep Playing Tennis Or Golf If You Have Tennis Elbow?
- Why Cycling + Mountain Biking Causes Golfer’s Or Tennis Elbow
- Does Swimming Cause Tennis Or Golfer’s Elbow Or Can It Help You Recover From It?
Learn To Treat And Heal Your Own Tennis Elbow Or Golfer’s Elbow At Home With This Video Program
You’ll get instant access to a complete VIDEO program designed by a professional therapist to help you take charge and break your vicious cycle of pain and frustration!…I’ll be your personal tutor guiding you through step-by-step video lessons, where you’ll get the therapy techniques, key stretches and essential exercises you need to treat and recover from your injury at home. (Without any special equipment.)
Tennis Elbow sufferers: Learn More About The Home Program Here
Golfer’s Elbow sufferers: Learn More And Get Started Here
I’m on board with the information and suggestions and I’m seeing some relief, however after 12 weeks of not playing tennis my chiropractor is encouraging me to slowly get back in the saddle (play lightly 1/2 hour per week). I’m very gun-shy and want to know what you recommend? (My tennis elbow pain is largely under control, but not completely absent. I get a twinge of discomfort here and there. Is it time to start playing again without risk of being knocked back to square one?)
Thank you in advance for your feedback.
Heather
Hi Heather,
I’m guessing that you missed my more recent post, Can You Keep Playing Tennis Or Golf If You Have Tennis Elbow?
That’s going to be the best, most detailed answer I can give you. (I probably wouldn’t worry too much about occasional twinges of discomfort. I doubt you will end up “back at square one” if you’re careful) – See that article for suggestions, and please feel free to post any questions you might have over there.
Sir I’m suffering from TENNIS ELBOW SINCE 2MONTHS. Weekly 2days I pour 10 buckets of water to plants /day. Capacity of bucket is 8 liter. Still I have pain elbow (mild). Shall I continue doing this work? Or have to stop
Drpradeepa, I’m sorry to hear that you’re hurting, but I can’t tell you whether to stop or not. You have to make the best decision you can – but I do wish you all the best!
I believe I have “tennis elbow” from lifting. The pain went away after a few days and I started to push it with lighter weight, more repetition, and there’s no pain, but I keep feeling like it’s weak. I guess my question is, if my elbow pain isn’t there, is it okay to continue lifting as long as I am careful Of the pain?
I guess I shouldn’t say the pain is completely gone. It’s there, but it doesn’t bother me much if at all at times While I’m lifting. I couldn’t put my arm straight or bend it to touch my shoulder two days before hand.
I don’t know, Matt. You’re not really giving me much to go on here. Be careful about doing the thing that caused your problem in the first place – whether it’s actually Tennis Elbow or something else.
Hello Allen, I have tennis elbow for years from being a painter. The repetitive movement up and down does it all the time. If I understand you right ; I am supposed to do some lifting. I already stretch a lot but I still have this annoying tennis elbow. Now my shoulder is starting to hurt. could the constant problem with my elbow cause my shoulder to have the same problem? I have a good resistance workout machine but i’m afraid of using it. What should I do?
I think you might have misunderstood something. I’m not saying you “should” be weightlifting if you have Tennis Elbow. The idea is whether you should continue weightlifting if you already are.
Shoulder problems often go “hand in hand” with Golfer’s or Tennis Elbow – but it’s more likely that your elbow issues stem from your shoulder – even though your elbow started hurting before your shoulder. That’s something I see in my practice all the time. If I were you I would get some professional help – especially since your work depends on a working shoulder and elbow!
(You might want to consider my self-help program for your elbow but I don’t have anything for the shoulder at this time.)
I scanned over your article. Looking for the “pro” to workout, since that is what I have done, but have cut back and lowered weights pound per exercise type. It depends on the exercise, i.e bicurl or upright row vs shoulder press and tri kickback.
I don’t know how I got this Tennis Elbow in my right elbow joint area, but may have happened while tossing Frisbess and then the Chuck It for my two puppies (now 9mo old) that I exercise daily. I didn’t notice until I used the Chuck It, and Wow I was bummed to feel that pain. Knew it immediately. It all started about first of Dec 2015, and then around first of the year, I started using an ACE Velcro wrap with an ice pack and then heat and hand presses then forearm wrist roll ups. After a couple weeks, I felt great, no more pain. Several days I wore the ACE Velcro wrap while working because I do physical work, i.e. computer tech and have to move hardware equipment.
Started workouts and pushed the weight load back up, stopped using ice packs and heat, and including forearm wrist roll ups and bang, the symptoms and pain are back. Sooooooo frustrating.
So, I have been a lacky on the cardio workouts at home, and only because I run my dogs (pups) daily, still tossing the Frisbee with the right hand, doesn’t bother me. However, I have to use my left hand for the Chuck It.
Feeling so much in denial right now. Okay, gotta go workout 🙂 thanks for sharing good info.
ps…you are spot on with your information, I needed the confirmation.
Glad to hear you got the “confirmation” you were hoping for, Doux. I would bet (I can almost guarantee) that you developed your Tennis Elbow thanks to that Chuck It stick, which is fairly notorious and co-named “Chuck It Elbow!”
If I’m not mistaken, you make a “snap” of your wrist to release the ball at the end of the stroke, and that snap done over and over is very hard on the Wrist Extensor Muscles and their tendon origin at the elbow.
I treated a patient with a bad case of that some years ago, and sometimes ask people out in public if their elbows ever hurt when I see them tossing balls to their dogs using the Chuck It (and sometimes give them a word of caution) – I actually think this is one of the fastest ways to get Tennis Elbow there is!
The frisbee-tossing motion is a much more integrated, full-body motion and I’m not surprised it doesn’t bother you.
(For others with this Chuck It Elbow problem looking for alternatives, there are also some interesting sling-shot like devices for launching tennis balls, one of which is called the Hyper Dog Ball Launcher (LINK)
Hello Allen,
Thank you for your insight. I have been suffering from tennis elbow for 5 months. I am not sure if I got it from working on my computer, (my job depends on this all day) or the weight lifting I was doing simultaneously. I haven’t lifted weights now for about 2 months, thinking that was the cause, and I have been favoring it during cardio exercise. It continues to hurt, and I feel like it will never go away. I am encouraged to know that I can still lift weights. Is it o.k. for me to start up again now that I have taken 2 months off? Also I have been wearing a brace all the time, it sounds like from what you are saying that is a mistake?
Thank you for your help.
Cheryl
Hi,
Great job, you appear to know your ass to your ” tennis elbow”, lol
I’m actually a 46 year old RN, but your knowledge crushed mine in this topic. I’m in great shape and workout 6 days a week, I’ve suffered from both medial and lateral epicondyl tendinitis, though my ” tennis elbow” this time around has been horrible, it’s been 14 months and I’ve gone thru my limit of 3 cortisone shots which only help for two weeks. I mentally can not stop going to gym, though gave 2 weeks rest after shots.. what’s your take on the Graston technique?
I also heat the area after I shave the hair,use lotion and the handle of a butter knife( ya I know!!), then do deep tissue passsage and pressure point for 10 minutes with ROM, then ice for 20 minutes, I do this 2-3 a week. Benificial or making it worse, any thoughts?
Hard to extend all the way,touch my shoulder, and shaking hands brings tears to my eyes.
Hello…great insight on your page. I thought my relatively manageable ‘tennis elbow’ was simply that until it kept locking out recently & had an MRI to reveal 2 torn tendons, torn ligament, muscle damage and atrophy…my pain threshold is pretty high & just presumed my bad golf grip & heavy upright rows were to blame. My Ortho has suggested PRP treatment. Any thoughts on this?..and any idea when I can hope to be back to full strength following it? Thank you, Shaz*
I have just experienced the return of my tennis elbow injury. Right arm and I’m right handed so it’s my stronger side. Back last October I had a cortisone injection followed by rarest then rehab exercises. I’m still not back to full gym even now. However I felt the tendon “seize” whilst pulling up on a rather heavy resistance band. My bad! I have just started boxing and am already addicted. I have been working out with a personal trainer ie. gloves v pads. My question to you – is continuing to do this going to cause any problem in the recovery of my tennis elbow? I also run, walk, use a spin bike,as well as do lower body exercises but I am hooked on boxing! I am 59 years of age.
I would not be boxing right now, if I were you (if my priority was healing my Tennis Elbow) – especially considering that it’s a new activity and you probably haven’t become conditioned to it yet. I think the risk of aggravating the injury is very high.
You also have to keep in mind that you had a Cortisone shot, which may have weakened your tendons (that’s what those shots are notorious for doing, anyway) See my Cortisone Shots Post Here
Hello, I have had tennis elbow for about 2 years now. Over them years I have been doing a lot of sport such as rugby. I have always tried to go to the gym but my arm stops me. I have had this pain for a long time now and I have completely stopped sports that affect my arm. It is also my strong arm so it is set off when I write. I am on antibiotics but I want the problem to go completely. Can it go completely? I want to be able to exercise and do anything I want to do. If I rest for a long time, will I be able to lift weights etc as If nothing had ever happened? Thank you
The biggest thing I want to get across is that time and rest are often meaningless with Tennis Elbow. It doesn’t necessarily matter how long you’ve had it or how long you stop doing an activity and “rest.”
It can get better. It can get worse – or it can stay the same – for years. What I believe matters most is what you’re doing to treat it and break the cycle of stagnation and degeneration.
Please keep reading, watching my videos and listening to my podcasts. (And consider my self-help program, if it feels right to you.)
There’s so much to learn and understand – and so many myths and misconceptions to overcome with this injury…
YES! It can heal completely! But once it’s reached a certain level of severity, chances are, it’s not going to fully heal by “Resting, Hoping and Waiting” – Time passing does not mean healing is happening. (Past the early stages of the injury, anyway.)
You need to be very proactive about it. All the best to you, Cam!
Thank you very much, I’ll keep reading and watching. Need to get it sorted
I have tennis elbow in both my arms my doctor wanted to sign me of work I’m a school cleaner so it’s a lot of lifting and pulling as well as carrying I don’t know what to do as I don’t get sick pay and I’m not sure how long my doctor will sign me off for she said it’s not the right job for me and that I need to rest but it’s really hard as I have two kids
Sorry to hear you’re having such a struggle, Gina. That sounds really tough. I would say that the good news is that rest – in the form where you have to take time off from work and do as little as possible – is not necessarily what a tendon problem, like Tennis Elbow needs most. (But the kind of rest where you get enough sleep is very important for healing, as I understand it.) Hope that’s helpful to you (and the info on this site is useful, too) and I wish you all the best!
I have tennis elbow from one year and when i do my RMI
The elbow is normal but i have a small pain when i exercice
My question is can my tennis elbow recur in the future if is completely healed ?
Thank you
Just a brief comment regarding your podcasts. I’m and avid exerciser in my early 60’s and developed tennis elbow through weight lifting (I think). I’ve been looking for direction on how to keep going with weights, playing tennis and other forms of cardio that would help with upper body development/maintenance. I was just thinking of moving to swimming to keep upper body definition. In all of the research I’ve done, your podcast have provided the most clarity in addressing the types of exercises while lifting and looking for other forms of cardio. Most important for me was knowing what the most unhealthy techniques are and what not to do. While some of this is common sense, never having tennis elbow before my confidence level in doing the right thing was low. With that I want to give you a big THANK YOU!!!
You are very welcome, Paul! And thank you so much for sharing and letting me know that you found my podcast so helpful!
Hey Allen,
I was a regular gym goer with no issues at all with the elbow for years.
I got my tennis elbow from trying out wall climbing. In one 2 hour session I suddenly got my issue.
I was wondering to which category i fall into in the video “1. construction etc. 2. golf, tennis.. “?
Thank you!
So I’ve hurt my elbow once before and it took a year and a half to heal, I just recently hurt my left side elbow and I did it by lifting a side of my bed then k heard and get a pop in my elbow, immediately I knew what I had done because it had happened to my right elbow before. I work construction as an electrician I do use my elbow a lot but I dont lift the same way a gym work out. I mainly pull, lift with my shoulders and back more than my arms alone and work with my hands a lot. Will it heal if I keep going?
I’m sorry, Edgar, I can’t answer that. I have no way of knowing.
Hi
I am having surgery this week on my right elbow tendon as I have an 80% tear (based on an MRI from a year ago, it could be worse!) my question is: I currently do a lot of cardio exercises and run roughly 40-60 minutes 6 days a week. I also go to the gym 1/2 times a week to carry out cardio workouts (I don’t do any weight training of any kind).
How quickly after surgery can I return to doing cardio activity and what exercises would be best to do?
How long roughly would it be before I can resume running?
I’m sorry, Jo. I can’t say. Those are the kinds of questions you need to ask your surgeon.