re: Elbow Pain (golfers elbow)

rice bucket

Here's what I did to get rid of my golfer's elbow pain. My situation sounds different from yours, so this may not be helpful but I'll offer it up. I only had pain on my inner right elbow and it was 100% obvious to me that the pain was caused completely by my setup with squatting. My grip width, bar placement, hand position....all of it contributed, so I changed all that up and by doing so I almost completely fixed my pain. So if you are in a position to fix your problem by modifying something or just stopping something, do that first. If stopping something isn't an option (can't just stop working out altogether, and this sounds like you) then you'll have to rely completely on other options. Hopefully one of these works.

1. Either chin ups or palms-facing pull downs, low reps, very high number of sets. I borrow this from Starting Strength. I did 10 sets of doubles on palm-facing pull downs, but the article I read mentioned doing as many as 15 sets. The idea is to overload the tendon and treat the inflammation by getting that tendon REALLY inflamed and that leads to healing. Here's the article if you want their specific guidance. SS: Elbow Tendonitis

2. Massage - Transverse friction massage/whatever you want to call it - just rub the hell out of it. I used my thumb to work over the sore spot for 2-3 minutes at a time while sitting at my desk and while this is very uncomfortable, it is easy to do and worked great. Recently I realized I had a little 1 inch rubber bouncy ball that I got out of vending machine at a laundromat that is pretty solid and hard and it's like a little lacrosse ball that I can put on my desk and just lay my arm on and work it around for a few minutes. It hurts like hell at first, but then it kinda goes numb, and then afterwards it feels amazing. (My elbow hasn't hurt in weeks from squat, but I still do this rubber ball massaging occasionally and I can find tender spots in there and work on them, I just consider it ongoing maintenance now)

3. Tempo Bench Press - I didn't do this method because my elbow never hurt during any pressing of any kind(just squat), but if this fits for you, try it out. Again, this is from the previously linked Starting Strength article, tempo bench press in 3-1-2 format. If your elbows hurt during pressing movements give this a try. I would imagine you could do tempo push-ups or tempo presses as well.

4. Twist stick/flex bar - haven't tried this yet either, but I probably will to work on resolving the "Tennis Elbow" on my opposite(left) arm, lots of people swear by these as they have helped resolve either form of epicondylitis, Tennis or Golfer's. Sounds like a good cheap tool to have to hopefully prevent my right elbow issues from returning and even more hopefully resolve my left elbow issues.
Here's a link to what I'm talking about, just as an example, I don't own this but this is kinda what like I imagine I'll buy. Amazon Theraband flexbar