Inner elbow cramps - seizing up?

[Blake]

Sometimes after a long day of climbing (or a moderate day of climbing in hot weather) I get a strange thing in my inner elbow, where the muscle seems to "seize up" and basically gets very tight and hard and holds my elbow at a bend. It is painful/diffcult to straighten it out.

 

I can see the inner-elbow muscle bulging and it feels sore when I touch it on those days.

 

Any ideas, advice, input? Is it a muscle imbalance I can train to avoid?

[catbirdseat]

Sounds like part of the bicep. You ought to try some of Tvash's miraculous salt pills. Those things work.

[tyree]

It sounds like it could be not enough electrolytes. If you are drinking alot of H2O or not enough and sweatin alot for a long time you can get cramps.It could also be muscle imbalance too.

This used to happen alot to me a few years ago on long routes; especially ones with long approaches. It was a bit different though. My middle finger would curl up and cramp. I would not be able to extend my fingers on thier own. If I was on lead I had to scrape the palm of my hand across the rock to get it to flatten out and wait for the cramp to subside. This usually made for some tense situations on the sharp end. I attribute this not happening any more to the developing of my forearm extensors (back of the wrist).

Sounds like you could benefit from some tricep development if it is indeed bicep, also, it wouldnt hurt to develop extensors if it is forearm flexors, it will improve your crimping power too!

Good luck!

[dmuja]

In addition to above advice..

 

my "cure all" for elbow/forearm pain (muscle and tendon "soreness "- not torn btw).

 

 

 

Stop, adjust around, or cut back on the weight lifting if your doing any. However, I don't like to be sidelined and have found that rest alone will not improve my elbow/arm pain.

 

Before training/gym climbs, soak arm in hot water, apply tiger balm (not essential but I like the stuff), massage, do easy warm ups, stretch.

 

After climbing, soak it in hot water, intense massage, more hot water, stretching, more massage. Apply Tiger balm and massage in and then use a vibrate thingy (the sort of thing girls might own but claim its only for their sore shoulders or something). Wash off the stinky T balm and then do the RICE treatment. A Frozen wet sponge with an ACE bandage rap for 30 min works great. You can toss in a Ibupro or Naproxin if you wish.

 

If Im in pain , I do this treatment whether or not I climbed that day. Ive found that a good time to do the above is right before I go to bed. After a few days of "treatment", my pain will often go from an 8 down to a 1 or 0.

 

Now add some light therapeutic weight lifting of various types into the mix...

 

When you feel up to it again continue climbing and training as usual.

 

-

 

I make no claims of effectiveness other than what works for me. If youve got something more seriously damaged then thats another story.