My fiancé has been experiencing elbow pain over the last while (guess is 2 years). She’s 25 and was a competitive volleyball player (middle hitter), but still plays recreationally around 3 times per week. The pain is spread but originates around the posterior side of the left and right elbows. Pain intensifies while playing volleyball, specifically when she fully extends during setting, passing, and blocking. She has also mentioned that she gets some numbness down her arm when resting her elbow down in certain positions. She hasn’t been training consistently over this time but is now starting to train two times a week with barbell movements. I’ve been coaching her for the last 3 weeks, twice per week. Training hasn’t aggravated her symptoms yet, other than some pain in her forearms yesterday while doing Pendlay rows.
I am familiar with the biopsychosocial model but am not sure how to best help her in terms of the details here, since the pain seems to relate to sport movements that are hard to avoid. Any advice or insight towards relieving her pain and manipulating training variables would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again!
Load management doesn’t mean she needs to avoid sporting movements but perhaps we regulate how often she’s playing volleyball and at what intensity. This can also include regressing to drills only if necessary before actual gameplay.