Golfer’s Elbow—How did it start for you?

[DB Golf]

So I noticed during my round yesterday a slight pain in the inside of my trailing elbow. I can still feel it today and am beginning to wonder if this is how golfer’s elbow starts. If you have/had it, how did it start for you? Was it gradual? Do you wish you had taken action sooner?

[Wardonation]

many threads on this subject use the search function

[bcc624]

1 hour ago, Wardonation said:

many threads on this subject use the search function

Cool response. Almost every subject and topic gets recycled. 

[GoGoErky]

2 minutes ago, bcc624 said:

Cool response. Almost every subject and topic gets recycled. 

If people used the search function they wouldn’t. There could be lots of causes for your pain, it could be golfers elbow or something else.

 

Best bet is to go see a PT or a doctor and get evaluated rather than getting any medical advice on the internet

 

As a personal trainer I wouldn’t assess what’s going on and would refer you out to a PT

 

 

[Esage]

2 hours ago, DB Golf said:

So I noticed during my round yesterday a slight pain in the inside of my trailing elbow. I can still feel it today and am beginning to wonder if this is how golfer’s elbow starts. If you have/had it, how did it start for you? Was it gradual? Do you wish you had taken action sooner?

Thats exactly how mine started out.

[bcc624]

54 minutes ago, GoGoErky said:

If people used the search function they wouldn’t. There could be lots of causes for your pain, it could be golfers elbow or something else.

 

Best bet is to go see a PT or a doctor and get evaluated rather than getting any medical advice on the internet

 

As a personal trainer I wouldn’t assess what’s going on and would refer you out to a PT

 

 

It’s a golf forum, this one is specifically an instruction forum. People shouldn’t be shamed into only using the search function. This instruction forum would be very inactive if there was a strict rule about no repeat topics or question. 

[Double Mocha Man]

Mine started over the course of a few weeks.   Painfully showed up every time I took a little too much divot with a three-wood.  Being an athlete I just played through the pain, as I have done before, which usually goes away. Then one day on the 14th hole I hit a beautiful long drive, and the golfer's elbow fully kicked in and I partially tore two tendons. I think the entire course heard me shout out in agony.  That was the end of golf for about a year, with the exception of putting and some short chips.

[Ed Settle]

Mine started from hitting off of mats during the fall/spring time before the grass area was opened up. As someone said PT is the best way to fix it. There is an exercise that can be done with this that will greatly improve it.

 

 

[kenoli22]

Mats

[Double Mocha Man]

1 minute ago, kenoli22 said:

Mats

 

Mine could have started there because I'm at the range a lot in the winter and the injury happened in the Spring.

 

 

[getitdaily]

Mine started when I was born with elbows.

 

 

 

 

 

It exacerbated when I stopped focusing on grip strength and my normal steepeness started taking a toll. Refocusing on grip strength resolved the issue.

[Binson]

1 hour ago, Ed Settle said:

Mine started from hitting off of mats during the fall/spring time before the grass area was opened up. As someone said PT is the best way to fix it. There is an exercise that can be done with this that will greatly improve it.

 

 

This Theraband helps a lot. Keep using it even when the pain subsides. I started with this green one and moved up to the Blue one. 

 

 

[DB Golf]

Thanks everyone for the helpful information, and apologies for carelessly posting in Instruction.

[Greenie]

2 hours ago, bcc624 said:

It’s a golf forum, this one is specifically an instruction forum. People shouldn’t be shamed into only using the search function. This instruction forum would be very inactive if there was a strict rule about no repeat topics or question. 

 

I like it when someone uses the search function and posts in an older thread. First thing someone says is wow you are bringing this thread back after all these years. You are not gonna win either way.

[GoGoErky]

2 hours ago, bcc624 said:

It’s a golf forum, this one is specifically an instruction forum. People shouldn’t be shamed into only using the search function. This instruction forum would be very inactive if there was a strict rule about no repeat topics or question. 

They would find their answer much quicker than waiting for people to respond.

 

but looking for medical advice on an Internet forum isn’t that smart

[Pepperturbo]

5 hours ago, DB Golf said:

So I noticed during my round yesterday a slight pain in the inside of my trailing elbow. I can still feel it today and am beginning to wonder if this is how golfer’s elbow starts. If you have/had it, how did it start for you? Was it gradual? Do you wish you had taken action sooner?

Golf may have helped your elbow issue show itself, but there is NO Golfers Elbow.  I don't have it because I've always worked out.  But you should look up "lateral epicondylitis" on the Mayo Clinic's site.  It's the result of overuse of tendons and muscles that lack strength.

[Admhowarth]

Fit Fot Golf has some good videos on helping / rehabbing Golfer's Elbow as well. 

[leojax]

Mine started with the mats. After some failed attempts to self treat, pt diagnosed the issue was more with poor movement in my thoracic spine and opposite (right) hip than with my  elbow. Fixing those issues in the "kinetic chain" were key to calming down the problems/pain and retraining the tendons. I did very little direct work on the elbow/tendon other than gentle message and stretching. The way they explained it was that knees and elbows are the brakes and take the wear and tear of other parts not doing their job in athletic motions. Now I focus on warming up hips and back before playing or range sessions.

[KMeloney]

My golfer's elbow (yeah, most of us know it's just a nickname for an actual medical condition) came on through some combination of hitting a lot of balls often, with steel shafts in my irons, and while thinking I could "lift through" the aggravation and pain. I kept doing curls, didn't apply ice when I should have, and it got bad. I eventually got a cortisone shot, did PT for 6 weeks, stopped swinging a golf club for a few months, stopped doing curls in that time, and switched to graphite shafts in my irons. Whereas I don't know whether the cortisone shot helped or not (I didn't get the instantaneous relief that some others have gotten), I'm sure that the combination of measures I took toward remedying the situation -- especially the rest part -- "worked." Stretching thoroughly before hitting a ball, applying ice after a round if I think things feel tender, and using graphite shafts have helped stave off a reoccurrence. 

[torbill]

6 hours ago, DB Golf said:

So I noticed during my round yesterday a slight pain in the inside of my trailing elbow. I can still feel it today and am beginning to wonder if this is how golfer’s elbow starts. If you have/had it, how did it start for you? Was it gradual? Do you wish you had taken action sooner?

 

Yours is exactly how mine started.  I looked for conservative things to try.  A most helpful member here, i*windows, suggested this link:

https://fitforgolf.blog/dr-keith-baar-golfers-and-tennis-elbow-rehab/

The exercise is incredibly simple and quick to do; the podcast explains the principle and is well worth listening-to.

I’ve been doing this exercise, religiously, 2X/day, for less than a month and the pain when I swing a club is G.O.N.E.

 

The interesting thing that I learned is that, while the physicians often recommend rest, this researcher says NO!.  I followed his advice, never rested it a day, but did eliminate golf practices and basically only swung a club during actual play.  

I have not used any NSAIDS or appliances.  I have stretched the muscle associated with the tendon a couple of times a day, and also massaged the trigger point in the muscle.  I learned second hand from a well known physical medicine doc at the Mayo Clinic, 35 years ago, that it’s typically a tight muscle that causes the tendon to get irritated and that the tight muscle usually has a trigger point at the midpoint of the muscle.  Don’t know if this is still current thinking, but I do know that every time I’ve encountered an unhappy tendon I have found a sore muscle and a trigger point, and stretching and massaging the muscle and getting after the trigger point has always seemed to work.    

I caught this problem early, and am happy that I did something for it right away.  I am now playing and practicing with no pain whatsoever and am keeping up this simple rehab exercise for a while, until all discomfort is out of the tendon when I probe the tendon firmly by rolling it with a hard rubber ball. 

Hope this helps!

[DB Golf]

5 hours ago, Double Mocha Man said:

Being an athlete I just played through the pain, as I have done before, which usually goes away.

Yeah, a younger me would have done the same. 

[BYK]

9 hours ago, DB Golf said:

So I noticed during my round yesterday a slight pain in the inside of my trailing elbow. I can still feel it today and am beginning to wonder if this is how golfer’s elbow starts. If you have/had it, how did it start for you? Was it gradual? Do you wish you had taken action sooner?

Yah agree with all the others and get ahead of it

Switching to steelfibers did wonders for me in addition to everything said above

[Rapidcat]

Going to graphite in my irons eliminated the problem for me, even when hitting off mats.

 

Took a couple of months off golf whilst re-habbing with a Theraband (I used the red one), substituted my steel shafts for graphite in my irons and then re-commenced hitting balls when my elbow pain had subsided. No recurrence in 2 years.

[5underdouble]

Mine started with mats. Would get pain after hitting balls off the mats. Nothing terrible, but more of a dull pain. I initially thought it would be fixed by going to graphite shafts but that didn’t really help completely. It was only after I completely swore off hitting from mats did it totally go away. 

[Double Mocha Man]

40 minutes ago, 5underdouble said:

Mine started with mats. Would get pain after hitting balls off the mats. Nothing terrible, but more of a dull pain. I initially thought it would be fixed by going to graphite shafts but that didn’t really help completely. It was only after I completely swore off hitting from mats did it totally go away. 

 

Well, that certainly had to limit your practice, especially during winter.

[J_Tizzle]

Mine anymore is primarily because I have terrible posture when I drive and work at my desk.  I tend to lean on my left side and where my elbow hits my desk and the place is my car is directly on the nerve.  So its very typical for me to have tingling in my pinkie and ring fingers on my left hand.

 

I use these and they seem to help keep the tingling away - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07D21FZ1F/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[NosajNeelik]

On 11/25/2024 at 2:09 PM, Pepperturbo said:

Golf may have helped your elbow issue show itself, but there is NO Golfers Elbow.  I don't have it because I've always worked out.  But you should look up "lateral epicondylitis" on the Mayo Clinic's site.  It's the result of overuse of tendons and muscles that lack strength.

Weird because I had it a few years ago from golf. Obviously golfers elbow isn’t a technical term but usually that’s what causes it. I’m very fit so that has nothing to do with it. 

[GoGoErky]

10 hours ago, NosajNeelik said:

Weird because I had it a few years ago from golf. Obviously golfers elbow isn’t a technical term but usually that’s what causes it. I’m very fit so that has nothing to do with it. 

One can be fit and still have issues if there’s tightness or lack of mobility in certain areas. There’s a lot of fit people with desk jobs that have tight hip flexors which causes back soreness/tightness.

 

Theres a lot of fit people with bad shoulder mobility that causes issues with their arms. 

[gators78]

Mine started from way too steep of a swing and hitting too many balls off of crappy mats. A few things really helped me:

1) Stretch the wrists and forearms before I start hitting balls

2) I don’t hit off mats that much anymore, if I do it’s basically half wedges and teed up woods

3) Fixed the problem in my swing

4) Graphite does help if it’s an option

Edited November 27, 2024 by gators78

[golfinbrad]

Mine was a combination of my swing getting steep and heavy steel shafts.  I dealt with it for over 3 years, which was not fun.  I have switched to a lighter graphite and got back to my flatter more natural swing.  When my swing gets steep I feel soreness that night or the next morning.  When I get the club in proper positions absolutely pain free.  There are a couple good YouTube videos where they explain what causing certain elbow pains.  Good luck.