Been managing a rotator cuff issue for the past year so my workouts were pathetically irregular and far between. At the beginning of December I finally got myself disciplined enough to get serious about my workout again. I was feeling great and made some gains in my strength program since. My eating was on point, water intake the best it’s ever been. I mean, really doing well. But in the last couple weeks tennis elbow decided it wants to join the party. Being that I had no grip strength and it hurt like crazy I took time off to let it heal. I’m bummed and feeling setback. To top it off, this year I’ll be 40. What the heck, is this what 39 is? Just parts stop working? 
39 was when I sustained an injury (other than broken bones as a kid) that put me out for a couple months. I was doing great at the gym and the heaviest I’ve ever been; in a good way. Things went south on a dead-lift and I herniated a disc between L3 and L4. I dropped 10lbs, which is a decent amount for me and it was a good while before I was comfortable lifting again. I was off work and not being able to pick up my kids, not being able to lift, not being able to work, was psychologically hurting me more than anything else.
It’s almost been a year and I’m overall stronger than before my injury. Although nerve pain is completely gone, certain parts of my right leg are still numb and tingly. But in all other aspects at the gym and my health I’ve gotten stronger. I’m mentally still not ready to do dead-lifts but working my way up to it.
Point is, I’m 40 now and am in better shape than I was in my college days. Recovery just takes a bit more time! Good luck to you!
The best advice I can give you is hang in there and be patient. After having gone through 3 different surgeries over the course of 2 years a short while back, the process of recovery can be very frustrating. Each time I regained my strength and momentum it seemed I was being hit with another obstacle. The shortest of which kept me sidelined for a month.
Do whatever type of workout you can in the meantime. Continue eating well and practicing the good habits you developed while you were working out. When the opportunity to really start hitting it hard again comes make sure to take full advantage of it. It’ll be more of a mental thing to get back your confidence and start feeling like you’re making progress, but it does come. Good luck to you and I hope this setback is over quickly!
If you think turning 40 is bad, wait until you turn 50.
And if you think 50 is bad, wait until you turn 60. :sarcastic:
Young uns, wait until you all hit 75.
“I had no grip strength and it hurt like crazy I took time off to let it heal”
Do you have elbow or forearm pain?
My last 20 years in order, triple coronary artery bypass surgury, shoulder surgury, neck surgury, back surgury, caridoablation and last week 2 stents. Still hitting the jym twice a week. You have to lower expectations of what you want to do to what you can do.
I’m kinda scared what the next 10 years holds if the last 10 were this tumultuous lol But all joking aside, thanks for the boost yall.
Yoni, when I tried to grip the pain is up on my forearm where it goes into the elbow on the lateral side, over the round bone. That part was tender to the touch too. The pain has subsided over the last few days but I still feel it in gripping actions. Just the last day I started doing some ROM and stretching on my hand/forearm,elbow. It’s tight. I’m trying to go easy but telling it to ‘hey, we still got things to do so remember to stay loose’.
In my workouts over the last 8wks I did farmer’s walks and standing bar grips in my rotation. I’ve never incorporated those into my strength workouts ever before. These are the exercise movements that most resembles what hurts.
P2V, you know with few things that have come up over the past year or two that have got me to began wondering if I need to lower my expectations. But I don’t think I’m ready to do that. I’ve always been all out, I don’t know how to not.
Ever tried yoga? Or even Pilates?
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I get it, I tend to go all out. The problem is the older I get the longer it takes to recover from injury. By backing off a bit you lessen the chance of injury and loss of training time. Sometimes we are our own worst enemy.
I think so. I’ll make some adjustments to my workout and give it a run again. I use to joke this bod is a finely tuned machine. Now it seems I’m gonna have to be :sarcastic:
My elbow feels like it’s turned the corner. Not much pain anymore, just feels a little stale. Grip is coming around too, less pain in my upper forearm/elbow when I hold/move objects. Strength is returning. Last night warmed up the shoulder and elbow with some band work then played some basketball. Nothing strenuous, it was with the 9yo team I help coach at the Y.
Time to get back to it.
Shorts,
I currently have tennis elbow in both arms. I was off and on at the gym for over 8 weeks. My grip was just about non existent. I’m pretty sure dumbbell curls are what caused the injury.
I’ve been taking turmeric supplements to help with the inflammation and at the gym, I have found that more cables and less free weights seem to help bridge the gap between staying fit to my standards and healing. I’m at the point now where I can pretty much ignore the pain. The massive amounts of preworkout help too! Good luck!
You guys need to do less bicep curls or do lighter ones. Overload and improper grip is probably the cause of your pain. Here’s a good video on the subject.
https://youtu.be/XXjaCsUlrZs
Not sure how much you are benching and with what, but you should probably consider wrist wraps especially if going heavy. I’m in the same boat (39 years old), but still move heavy weight. I bench with bells due to shoulder pain with a bar. Anyway, I started to get a bunch of elbow pain and found information that said I was probably rolling my wrists back when pushing. I bought wrist wraps last year and all my elbow pain subsided within a few weeks. Cheap enough solution to give it a try.
It does suck getting older. There was a time I could cleanly pull a 545# deadlift… then came the hip surgery…
Tried some moves in the P90X workout years ago. I despised it as a stand alone workout type, I prefer dynamic workouts. However, I have kept some moves that I liked. I incorporate them for the benefits of balance, stretch and ROM.
Hmm thanks for the ideas. I’ll see what I can incorporate exercise wise to keep it variable.
Will scrutinize my grip and see if that’s contributing. I watched that video (I like the Athlean channel) but my pain isn’t on the inside/flexor. It’s on the extensor side of the forearm. My curls aren’t many or heavy but the amt of pulls on the weekly basis could be a factor?
I had tendinitis for two years. Eased up until it was gone then focused on grip and not overloading myself, and no problems for this last year.
That’s a big reason to use an EZ-Curl bar instead of straight bar and also to wrap your wrists.
OP- again… I would try wrapping your wrists before modifying your workout. If you are in fact rolling your wrists as your weight increases, then you can mitigate a lot of that with wraps. Keep the ever-increasing strength that you’ve worked hard for.
I don’t necessarily think it’s worth a whole lot for a workout, but the older and more injured I get, the more I realize that yoga, stretching, foam rolling, etc, directly reduce my pain.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
“Soft form” WuShu; Bagua, TaiJi keep me going. Low impact, requiring strength/balance.
Weapons forms are good too; Jian (straight sword), Dao (broadsword), Staff/“whip” appeal to my “martial sense”.