Elbow niggles

We’ll continue our series of videos on quick first aid ideas for those niggles you get every now and then in training. They are intended for some symptomatic relief so you can focus on improving your technique and mobilizing the surrounding areas. This week we are talking about the elbow. Most elbow issues we see at the gym seem to be related to one of the following

1.) Elbows bending during the forward swing portion of kipping pull ups
- Develop that “active shoulder position” (make sure to check with your trainer if you’re unsure what that means). You’ll also need to focus on getting your midline stronger and on thoracic/shoulder mobility.

2.) Tight shoulders / thoracic spine
- You need to work on mobility around these areas, preferably on a daily basis

3.) Too much, too fast – You’re lifting too much weight or doing too many pull ups/muscle ups/ring dips too soon or too fast and your tendons and ligaments haven’t yet adapted to this
- Taking some time to do high reps with light loads on movements like ring rows and push ups will help you build your tendon and ligament strength

4.) Weak midline stabilisers
- You need to spend more time carrying heavy things and learn how to brace on heavy lifts (make sure to ask your trainers about this)

5.) Weak shoulder stabilization
- You need to spend some time doing ring holds/planks, turkish get-ups and overhead carries.

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Some more amazing feats of strength on rings as we continue to play around with time under tension training on. This time we’ll take a look at the named elements on gymnastics still rings.

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Workout of the Day
A. Play around with different combinations of movements on the rings (skin the cats, muscle ups, L-seats, Toes to rings, pull ups etc.)

B. Athlete skill levels