Stop letting pain prevent your gains (train like an athlete here)
Elbow pain when working out is the second most common source of joint pain when training (behind shoulders). When you get pain in your elbows it makes almost every upper body movement difficult to complete. Inner elbow pain can make chin-ups virtually impossible. Outer elbow pain can make even picking up a dumbbell feel like a chore (before you even do anything with it!).
In this video I show you the two sources of elbow discomfort during weightlifting, what causes them and most importantly…what you can do to fix them. Before you even start watching however, you have to realize that elbow pain is almost never a problem of the elbows! Instead, weakness either in the primary movers of the joint or more distal in the forearm flexors or extensors causes the elbow to feel the brunt of the pain.
Lateral pain is more commonly referred to as tennis elbow. Once flared up, tennis elbow can be very difficult to get rid of since it requires you to usually refrain from all gripping and lifting for at least a few weeks until the inflammation can calm down. When you return to lifting you are better off using dumbbells rather than barbells since you can’t hide the compensations of weakness as easily which could prevent them from laying you up again. Also, you have to use a neutral grip for all of your exercises, at least until you develop the strength and stamina in your wrist extensors needed.
Medial elbow pain is referred to as golfer’s elbow. This comes from an inflammation of the flexor muscles in your forearms. I see this happen most often as a result of doing chin-ups or other upper body pulling exercises where the back, rhomboids or biceps are simply not strong enough to complete the rep. Once they fatigue, the forearms attempt to kick in to help and overuse, overload and an inability to control the eccentric portion of the reps eventually taxes the muscles beyond their limits.
Again, here you want to be sure you lighten the loads if needed to enable your muscles to stay in control of the weight and not shift the forces to the forearms ill equipped to handle them. Likewise, you’ll want to keep your wrists in neutral for all exercises here as well.
If you find that aches and pains are keeping you from seeing your best gains in the gym then it’s time you head to and check out the physical therapist created workout program that today’s top pro athletes are using to stay game ready all year round.
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23 comments
Absolutely loved this video. Thank you so much for this valuable information. Lots of love from an Australian 🇦🇺❤
Is it safe to work out with the elbow pain or is it better to rest for a few days till the pain is gone?
12 million subscribers and well deserved. Each of them is a better athlete thanks to you. I got mine from snatching, I used my wrist instead of my lats to keep the bar close.
This sounds like excellent advice. I am going to pay attention to my wrists on Monday. Thank you
Thank you for this. Great explanation for my tennis elbow. Painful.
Wow. Makes total sense thanks man
I've got pain on the inside & outside of me elbow – I must have the sloppiest exercise form known to man.
Thanks Jeff and Raymond.
Jeff…. I recently found your videos and I've learned so much from you. I do have elbow pain constantly from working on biceps and triceps. I took off from gym and it was getting better but the moment I go back the pain starts again. Now when I try to open a bottle or try to pour orange juice, it hurts. I am going over all you said in video and practice. I am glad I found you. Thanks in advance
Thank you Jeff 😘 xoxo
I feel pain in my left elbow when I'm bench pressing or shoulder pressing…it starts with triceps days
I’ve been getting some elbow pain while doing Tricep extensions, does this information apply to that?
Thanks so much
I’m having elbow pain because of bench press can you help me how to fix it ?
My guy this stretch helped tremendously, I couldn't even extend my forearm all the way until I did this stretch… Definitely tennis elbow on my part..
Overusing🤣🤣🤣🤣🍆🍆
Thanks a lot for the video. Nevertheless, what can you do to avoid golfer's elbow if you do ring muscles up using the false grip? You have no other choice than curling the wrists in.
Wow Jeff you have helped me yet again,thx….
Genius
This tip of having my wrist neutral helped a lot with having elbow pain on most of the exercises but there's an opposite one.
The strange thing was I had enormous pain in the medial elbow on my leg day while having the bar behind my had either doing squats or lunges. What I figured from Jeff's video that I had a over exaggerated strech of the muscle. So when I started concentrating on having my wrist straight or even engaging my forearms just a little bit on my squats and lunges with addition on retracting my scapula a little bit more the pain was no more. This is what I found out a good way to not have elbow pain on leg day
When i work my triceps on 10 kgs only my right elbow hurts
I’m having issues with my elbow— inside pain. Popping feeling. I thought it was ulnar nerve entrapment. Will rewatch this and find some more info on your channel. Started lifting again, I could have overdone it.
is there no exercise/stretch for outside elbow pain?