Elbow Bursitis - doctor's orders no stress on it for at least 3 weeks...HELP!

Pain & Rehab Forum [Moderated]
1

So I’ve dealt with this before, back in the summer, I had extreme pain on the back part of my elbow, just below my triceps muscle. I was gone for a week, no access to a gym, and rested it. It only got worse, stiffer, and when I got back I went right back to the gym. Worked out through the pain for a while. Finally went to the doctor, and they said I had bursitis, I was supposed to take 2 weeks off, and take a medication called diclofenac - to heal the inflammation. I did, but, I continued to workout. So it never got better.

Went back to the doc, about a week ago, and they told me that I HAD to stop working out on it for a minimum of 3 weeks, while taking the diclofenac. So now - I’m going to try to do this, but, doc told me not to do any exercises that aggravated my elbow…which are

  • any sort of chest press
  • any sort of triceps pushdown or extrension

I can do some curling movements, and pretty much all my back movements/lifts are fine.

I feel like i’m wasting away to nothing - haven’t been able to do a good chest or arm (triceps) workout in several weeks.

I do seem to be able to do cable crosss flyes with little to no pain. I can also do lateral extensions for my elbows with no problem. Like I said, it’s mostly in chest press exercises and any sort of pushdown or extension for my tricpes.

My question is twofold:

  1. Any suggestions for workout out my chest and triceps while this heals?
  2. Any advice for elbow bursitis besides the medication?
2

This type of bursitis (assuming that is an accurate diagnosis) is typically an overuse-type syndrome, similar to tendon-related pain or other aches and pains in the context of training. There is nothing wrong with a short layoff for the area to let it calm down, but it does not require the use of NSAIDs to recover, nor does it require 3+ weeks of absolute rest.

I would manage it in the same way as we would other types of overuse syndromes, which is outlined here. Principally, this would involve substantial reductions in weight, changes in exercise selection, and the use of controlled tempo movements, with a much more gradual return to “normal” training over time. Your use of movements like chest flys, lateral raises, front raises, vertical/horizontal rowing, are reasonable in the meantime. You can also do unilateral exercises for the other side (e.g. one-arm DB presses/machine presses, one-arm tricep extensions, etc. if desired). If you remain unclear on how to do this from our available content, a consultation with our rehab team would be helpful to get individualized guidance.

Finally, unless you have a severe medical disease, you will not “waste away to nothing” in a just few weeks. Check out this week’s podcast episode for more on this.