You use your elbows for any activity that involves your arms, like reaching, pushing, pulling and lifting. However, many exercises can cause you to injure your elbows, causing pain and discomfort. If not cared for properly, elbow pain could lead to further injury like strains and muscle tears, which could require surgery to repair.
Causes
If elbow pain occurs during or after a workout, it could have been caused by several things. If you lift weights, you can injure yourself by using improper technique, such as overextending your elbow when lowering a dumbbell during a bicep curl. Using weights that are too heavy for you could also lead to injury. If doing non-weighted exercises like push-ups, pull-ups or inverted yoga stands, you could injure your elbows if you fail to warm up properly or you lock your elbows while supporting your weight.
Apply Ice
Icing your elbow after it starts to hurt can help it heal faster. The ice will reduce swelling and inflammation, cutting down on the damage and the pain. Use ice for no more than 20 minutes at a time, says MayoClinic.com, for up to four times a day to cut back on the pain and speed up the healing process.
The Problem of Rest
Once you've developed elbow pain from working out, you should immediately start resting. This will allow the elbow to heal and prevent you from causing further damage. However, It's very difficult to completely rest the elbow because it's a vital joint and responsible for bending your arm, which you must do to perform everyday activities. If the pain is severe, immobilizing the joint with an arm sling may be necessary to prevent further injury.
Stretch Well
To help your elbow heal and prevent pain from developing again in the future, it's important to stretch before and after exercising. Any stretch that increases the flexibility in your forearm muscles will help. To perform an effective stretch, put your arm out in front of you, palm up. Relax your wrist so your fingers point toward the ground then use your other hand to pull down on these fingers. Hold for several seconds then repeat five times. Perform on the other arm.
