#183: Elbows hurt from lifting? Here's why & 3 ways to avoid it

Midlife women are really susceptible to tendinitis, and this is because of the decline in estrogen that happens in perimenopause and menopause.

Estrogen has been there keeping our tendons and our ligaments in good shape.

and cutting down on inflammation making sure that things work properly so it is really no wonder that when we hit this point in our lives we start noticing more problems with our tendons Strength training is excellent for making your tendons stronger and building them back up.

But our tendons respond to strength training and get stronger more slowly than our muscles do.

And so because of that, we can end up with these tendonitis issues.

So this kind of elbow tendonitis, I got it when I had been strength training about half a year.

So I started out training at home with dumbbells in my basement bedroom.

And then when I had built up some muscle and built up some confidence, I needed heavier weights.

So I moved into the weight room.

And of course, when you have all those toys to play with in the weight room, you start going harder.

You know, you're really excited about getting stronger.

You're feeling good.

And then I started noticing that my elbows were bothering me.

And it was mainly on pulling exercises.

So when I was doing rows or pull ups or pull downs, those were the times when I was noticing my elbows were hurting.

And then they were hurting like even just in normal life.

So I unfortunately waited a little too long.

I wish I had gotten on this a little bit faster, but I went to see a physical therapist and I definitely recommend that as what to do when you have elbow tendonitis.

So that you can be evaluated because it might be tennis elbow, could be golfer's elbow.

So it shows up a little bit differently in different people.

And the physical therapist can give you particular exercises to do to help you in your particular type of tendonitis.

So I had these various exercises that I was doing at home, which was my physical therapy.

But in addition to that, I had other things that I did.

And I will explain them after I first go over, like, what is the thing that is causing the tendonitis, right? So in addition to the fact that our tendons are a little bit weaker and all that from being in midlife, There are certain things that you're kind of doing wrong or that you could do differently that would help you to avoid getting this in the first place.