Summary:
- Drink Tart Cherry Juice & Supplement with Curcumin to reduce inflammation
- Don’t consume vegetable oils or sugar
- Strengthen Wrist extensor muscles
- Stretch Wrist Flexor muscles
- Promote relaxation in the muscles surrounding the injury with magnesium and kava kava
- Avoid heavy bicep curls and barbell bench press
- Consider using lifting-straps for chin ups and other exercises to put less stress on your flexor-muscles/grip.
- Don’t hold the pads or hit a heavy bag – get a ‘top-and-bottom-ball‘
Another Sensational Headline About Nutrition but it’s generally good to avoid vegetable oils
Golfer’s elbow is a very common injury in both BJJ players and MMA fighters.
From my experience there are 3 things that cause problems with the inner-elbow:
- Gripping all the time – developing wrist flexor strength & not extensors
- Holding pads
- General inflammation & over-training
You can address the problem in several ways, we’ll separate them into 3 categories:
- Reducing inflammation
- Reducing muscle tension
- Rebuilding tendon strength (if possible without HGH)
- Strengthening Flexor muscles
Reducing Inflammation in the Elbow
For a ‘quick-win’ try reducing inflammation.
There are a number of ways to do this including:
- Restricted-time eating / intermittent fasting
- Ketogenic diet
- Supplementing with Tart Cherry Juice
- Supplementing with curcumin and/or turmeric
- Supplementing with omega 3
- Reducing consumption of sugar & vegetable oils
- Cold showers/cryotherapy
- Saunas / infra-red lamps
I’ve found good results from drinking tart cherry juice with my main meal in the evening, using cold showers and the Wim Hof method, and using an infrared lamp.
Selfie Wanker – with Cherry Juice Concentrate
Reducing muscle tension
obviously stretching is the ideal way to reduce muscle tension, but a lot of people are also deficient in magnesium, which causes a range of health problems.
Some quick wins for reducing muscular tension include:
- Supplementing kava kava (at your own risk, is illegal in the UK now)
- Supplementing with magnesium glycinate and/or a magnesium spray
- Epsom salt baths – be careful not to use too much & get dehydrated
- Stretching
Rehabbing the Actual Golfer’s Elbow Injury
I’ve had golfer’s elbow since I was 17 in my right arm. It started when I was holding pads in JKD class and doing weights all the time with bad technique.
It’s got a lot better since I stopped doing:
- Barbell bench press (do dumbbell instead)
- Free weight bicep curls (use bands instead)
- Do chin ups using Wrist-straps
It’s also got a lot better when I’ve strengthened the extensor muscles in my wrist with:
- Bottom up – kettlebell shoulder press
- Reverse bicep curls (with bands)
Here are some more decent exercises:
And finally…
if you have joint and tendon pain in general, then supplementing with collagen and/or gelatine may help alleviate some of the pain according to recent research.
