I got a great question from a fixing elbow pain customer, and they asked:
“What is a quick warm-up that I can do before my workout to warm up my elbows and get them ready for the workout?”
1. Arm Curl
You will start with your fists closed. Then you will curl the elbows and lift them elbows.
Hold the end position for a second, lower the arms, straighten the elbows, and open up my hands. (Do ten repetitions.)
This is what it looks like:
What I am doing is warming up the hands, warming up the wrists, and I am warming up the elbows because when it relates to the elbows, there’s a big influence from the shoulder, and there’s a big influence from the wrist and the hand on the elbow.
2. Wrist Rotation.
I have my elbows straightened up, rotate my wrists in one direction, and then rotate the wrists in another for ten repetitions.
The key thing I want to remember is to have my elbows straight when going through the rotation. And the second thing is I want to rotate my wrists through all ranges of movement, so I get as much movement happening in the different parts of the wrist. I am not just going at the end range of motion. I want to go through little circles and bigger and bigger circles so I can warm up the whole wrist joint.
3. Arm Cross
To do this, I will get the arms just below shoulder height, bring them across, and then bring them out ten times.
The key thing that I remember is I want to move the wrists in and out. When I am coming in, I move the wrist bringing the thumb in and then bringing the pinkie out. I want to go through the radial and ulnar deviations related to the wrist because there’s a big link between the wrist and the elbow.
4. Arms Overhead
I bring my arms overhead and back down to fully loosen up the shoulders, work on that thoracic movement, and loosen up that thoracic spine.
5. Push-Up Movement
Try to focus on being square in the shoulders, solid in the back and the chest. Make sure to bring in those lats to have a solid upper body and then go through that push-up movement. Do ten repetitions.
6. Rowing Movement
This can be done with pulleys or tubing, or I can even go with bodyweight.
Once again, I try to have good posture because if I end up having poor posture, that will put more stress and strain on the wrists and the elbows. If I have good posture, the shoulders take the bulk of the work, and the wrists and elbows can go along for the ride.
There you go, give those 6 Exercises ago. If you have any elbow pain or elbow sensitivity, give those exercises a go-to warm-up of your elbow and get your elbow ready for the workout you will put them through.
If you are looking for a program to help you overcome elbow pain, swing by FixingElbowPain.com. That’s a program that Jedd Johnson and I have created to help you and your clients overcome elbow pain.
Take care and bye-bye.
Rick Kaselj, MS
