Is there any way to lift weights with permanent pain from golfer’s elbow and dorsal hand pain (from RA or RSI, not sure) that is actually worth doing? I think I’m going to be limited to very light weights that won’t be able to induce any effect for strength or hypertrophy due to this pain. If so, I’d rather just quit and stop wasting my time.
I’ve done rehab for four months and made progress to the point where I don’t have pain during everyday activities, but heavy lifting is a no-go for me. And by “heavy,” I mean squatting and pressing the 45 lb bar (both aggravate my golfer’s elbow and pressing aggravates dorsal wrist pain). That is how limited I am.
I have the functionality of a 90 year old in a 30 year old body, and I’ve been this way for the past 15 years. I think I just need to accept my limitations.
Sorry to hear about your struggles here. There is likely a level of activity that you can tolerate somewhere between 0 lbs and 45 lbs, which is where we’d recommend getting started.
Going throughout life without any form of physical resistance sets individuals up for a number of long-term risks to health and physical independence, so we recommend finding a way to train. Our rehab team is particularly effective at helping people manage these sorts of issues, and we have numerous clients who have come to us for help with this very sort of issue.
I worked with Dr. Amato already and he was great, but I’m just wondering if my rate of progression is going to be glacial for the rest of my life. Its excruciatingly boring, and pain is the limiting factor in my training, not normal stuff like sleep, diet, programming, etc.
The workout I did today felt totally pointless from a strength/hypertrophy standpoint.
Unfortunately we can’t predict your rate of progression for the rest of your life. If you are finding your current training difficult to get through due to boredom, pain, other factors, we would continue experimenting with different activities, different exercises, and different dosages until something is found that is tolerable, that can be progressed, and that you enjoy. We would not recommend withdrawing from physical activity long-term under essentially any circumstance; you are deriving significant benefit compared to not doing it, even if it “feels” pointless.
Do you have access to a SSB? An old fashioned pec deck, pullover machine or lateral raise machine (you might be able to use bands to imitate these machines)? Those might be worth playing with so you can keep building muscle and strength while you rehab.