My outside elbow tendon is sore and is tender to the touch. As I understand it, a tendinopathy is usually an overuse injury, but none of my usual movements have an effect on how the tendon feels. The only movement that causes feeling in the tendon is reverse wrist curls, which is not something I do. I do lots of chin-ups, pullups and rows (things I usually associate with tendon issues), but those don’t affect it; neither do squat, bench and deadlift, so far as I can tell. Perhaps triceps pushdowns, although I rarely do those? I don’t play tennis or any other relevant sport. The tenderness started rather suddenly.
You are correct, we typically recommend loading the tendon to tolerance in these types of scenarios. Given the only movement that is recreating symptoms is reverse wrist curls/wrist extensions, I would recommend the following protocol to help build some more capacity: 1. Wrist extension - perform with a slow and controlled tempo: 2-3 sets x 15 reps @ RPE 8
2. Pronation/Supination with dumbbell - perform with a slow and controlled tempo: 2-3 sets x 15 reps @ RPE 8 You can perform these 2-3x per week, preferably at the beginning of a session to also serve as a warmup prior to any rowing/pulling movements. I would also recommend using straps for your pulling and rowing movements if they start causing discomfort, at least temporarily to allow symptoms to calm down. Every 2-3 weeks you can lower the rep range to allow for more loading. For example, sets of 15 x 2-3 weeks, sets of 12 for 2-3 weeks, sets of 10, so on and so forth. You likely won’t need to dip below 10 reps for those movements. In regard to icing, if it feels good and helps with symptom relief by all means. Just know that it isn’t necessary for recovery and those effects are typically short lived.