Pain in the elbow
 

Over the past few months, I have gradually increased pain in my elbow when doing many exercises. It feels like a tendon and is at the upper part of the inside of my forearm, right at the elbow joint, but when bad I can feel it down the upper half of my forearm. I'll try to include a picture if my description is as terrible as I think it is.

It is especially bad when I'm gripping something and my wrists are bent slightly back (which would cause the forearm to stretch) - when OH pressing is where I feel it most but more and more in BP as well. I really feel it during chin-ups, and it gets bad mainly when my chin is about lined up with my hands. It feels like it's exacerbated by grip when my forearm / wrist are at the right angle.

I took a few weeks off earlier and it seemed to have no effect, and it's slowly getting worse. Any ideas on diagnosis / rehab?

Maybe the bar is too far on your hands and not over your wrists on your pressing?
In the past with similar sounding elbow issues i have found success by avoiding the pain inducing movements, esp chin ups and pullups, and rehabbing with moderate intensity db curls.

Sounds like you are describing Medial Epicondylitis, aka "Golfer's Elbow" or "Suitcase Elbow"?

IMPO - The best treatment is ice massage around the epicondyle, deep tissue massage distal to the epicondyle including the wrist flexor tendons/muscles, stretching and (after the acute symptoms subside) direct strengthening for flexion (& extension).

Deep tissue work to the wrist extensors is also a good idea.

It does sound a lot like medial epicondylitis....

Read these
http://www.eatmoveimprove.com/2009/08/on-tendonitis/
http://www.begin2dig.com/2010/04/ecc...-ideas-as.html

Steve, I will read those.

Thanks everyone for the replies.

agree with the medial epicondylitis diagnosis.

I had this and it sucked. Mine got so bad that squeezing shampoo out of the bottle hurt, as did blowing my nose. Don't let it get that bad.

I went thorough around 15 PT sessions with an ART (active release technique) doc to get better.

Not sure if it will help as your condition sounds pretty severe, but along with rest you could try massage the area of your forearm. After a warm shower I like to feel along the bicep and forearms for tight areas and massage the area with my fingers, it can make me sore soon after but it does help to alleviate the pain. Hope this helps.

What kind of exercises did the PT have you doing? I'm not getting terribly effective results from icing and SMR/massage, probably because it's such a common tendon in everyday stuff.