Part of Golfer's elbow
Gym, lifting and grip work with golfer's elbow
Warning signs, and when to get help
Can you keep lifting with golfer's elbow?
Most people can. Lifting with golfer's elbow is usually a problem of a few specific movements rather than of training as a whole, and the lifters who do worst are the two extremes: the ones who carry on unchanged, and the ones who stop for three months and come back to a weaker arm and the same tendon.
The reason the middle road works is in the mechanism. OrthoInfo, the patient site of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, says the muscle most often injured in this condition is the pronator teres, the one that turns your forearm palm-down, along with the muscles that bend the wrist, and Konarski and colleagues describe the tendon being overloaded by chronic repetition of forearm turning and wrist bending (Konarski and colleagues, 2023). None of that is about how much weight is on the bar. It is about how hard the hand is gripping while the wrist and forearm are doing something at the same time. That is why a heavy leg day can pass without comment and a few sets of rows can light the inner elbow up.
Why gripping matters more than weight, and how elbow pain sorts out by side, is covered in elbow pain when lifting, which is the page to read if you are not yet sure which side of the elbow is the problem. This page goes narrower: the inner side only, which lifts provoke it, what to change first, and how the three stages of the program fit around a training week.
One thing to set straight early, because it is where lifters most often get the wrong advice. A neutral grip is the change lifters are most often told to make for outer elbow pain, and it can help there because it asks less of the wrist extensors. It does not reliably help the inner elbow, because it does nothing about grip force, and grip force is the main driver on this side. That is reasoning from the mechanism rather than a finding from a trial, and it matches what we see: people arrive having swapped every bar for a neutral handle and wondering why nothing changed.
Which lifts load the inner elbow, and why
Look for one combination in your program: a hard grip at the same time as a bending wrist or a turning forearm. Once you can see that pattern, you can find the culprits in your own session rather than working from somebody else's list.
The usual offenders, in the order we hear about them:
- Heavy holds. Deadlifts, farmer's carries, loaded shrugs and heavy dumbbell work. The bar or handle tries to roll out of the fingers and the wrist flexors fight it, which is exactly the tendon in question working at close to its limit.
- Pulling with the elbow bending. Rows, pull-downs, chin-ups and pull-ups. The grip is firm, the elbow is flexing under load, and on a mixed or supinated grip one forearm is held turned as well.
- Curls of every kind, including the neutral-grip ones. The hand is gripping while the elbow bends, and a thicker handle or a nervous squeeze loads the forearm more than the set is meant to.
- Direct forearm work. Wrist curls, pronation and supination drills and wrist rollers go straight at the tissue, and reverse curls and other extensor work still ask for a firm grip, so they usually come out early as well.
- Kettlebell cleans, snatches and bottom-up work. The bell rotates around the hand and the wrist has to control it, often fast.
- Leaning the elbows on something. The bar, a preacher pad, your knees between sets. This one is not the tendon at all: OrthoInfo's cubital tunnel page says leaning on the elbow for long periods puts pressure on the nerve behind it.
That last point is worth separating out properly. The ulnar nerve runs just behind the bony lump that hurts, so curls, pull-ups, dead hangs and leaning on the elbows can produce nerve symptoms rather than tendon pain, and cubital tunnel syndrome is where that side of it is covered. If the fingers tingle or go numb, that stops being a training question. It is in the warning list below.
What to change before you drop anything
Here is the order that gets lifters the furthest, and it deliberately puts load last. Most people reverse it, take weight off everything, keep gripping just as hard, and end up with an elbow that is no better and training that is a good deal worse.
Grip first. How hard are you squeezing, and what are you squeezing? The Royal Orthopaedic Hospital leaflet gives the same two ideas for everyday life: use the smallest amount of force the job needs, or make the grip larger, and spread the load to the larger muscles of the shoulder and upper arm. In a gym that means chalk instead of a death grip, straps on the heavy holds, a handle that is not so thick your fingers cannot close round it, and a double overhand hold instead of a mixed one so neither forearm is held turned under load. Handle thickness and strap use in general are covered on elbow pain when lifting.
Tempo second. The sore part of a lift is usually the fast part, where the wrist snaps to stop something moving. Slowing the lowering, stopping the bar from swinging and keeping the wrist quiet through the whole rep takes load off the tendon without taking anything off the bar.
Range third. Pulling from blocks rather than the floor, shortening the bottom of a row, or stopping a curl short of the position that hurts are all smaller changes than they sound, and they usually let you keep the exercise.
Load last, and only for the lifts that still hurt after the first three. When you do reduce it, reduce it on the lift that provokes the elbow rather than across the whole session.
Equipment deserves one honest sentence. Nothing you can buy has been shown to treat this condition: the main page states plainly that research on straps for golfer's elbow is limited, so a strap, a sleeve or a particular bar may make a task more comfortable today and is not a substitute for loading the tendon.
Which gym exercises should you avoid with golfer's elbow?
There is no universal list, and anyone who gives you one is guessing. The same exercise can be fine with a strap and a slower tempo and miserable without. What follows is what we usually park for the first few weeks, on the basis that these are the ones that cannot be modified much.
Timed dead hangs, max-effort grippers and thick-bar holds. These are maximal grip by design, which is the one thing the inner elbow tolerates worst early on.
Direct forearm training as training. This is where the distinction matters: a wrist curl with the forearm supported, at a rehab load, is part of the golfer's elbow program. A set of wrist curls taken toward failure as forearm hypertrophy work is not the same exercise even though it has the same name. Keep the first and leave the second.
Anything that is reliably worse the next morning after you have already changed the grip, the tempo and the range. One flare tells you nothing; the same flare three sessions running tells you to leave that movement out and come back to it from the program's stage 3.
What stays in is most of your training. Lower body, pressing, machine and cable work that does not demand a hard squeeze, and conditioning. An elbow is not a reason to lose your whole week, and losing the week makes the arm weaker without making the tendon any happier.
Does grip training help or make it worse?
Both, and the difference is effort rather than the exercise. This confuses people because the same action appears on both sides of the ledger.
A controlled squeeze is treatment. The hand grip squeeze sits in stage 2 of the program, firm but well short of your hardest, because gripping is what those forearm muscles do and rebuilding them is the point. OrthoInfo describes strengthening for this condition as focused on wrist bending and turning the palm down, and adds that slow lowering work is thought to be particularly useful.
A maximal squeeze is provocation. A spring gripper and a timed hang both ask for everything you have, with nothing in the movement to warn you that you have overdone it until the next morning. That is the same trap the main page flags on the static holds and the grip squeeze, where effort rather than position is the usual mistake.
The other half of the question is whether grip is a target at all. OrthoInfo lists weak grip strength as a symptom of this condition, so a weak grip is part of what you are treating rather than a separate problem to attack. In practice it comes back as the tendon settles, and pain-free grip is one of the things worth watching to tell whether the program is doing anything.
Putting the program's three stages into a training week
The golfer's elbow program owns the stages, the exercises and the numbers. What it does not say is how they sit alongside training you are already doing, so here is how we usually arrange it.
While you are in stage 1, the gym work is where the changes happen and the elbow work is small. Isometric wrist flexion and the gentle stretches go in on their own, and the training week keeps everything except the grip-heavy lifts, which get the grip, tempo and range treatment above. This is also the point to stop any direct forearm training.
In stage 2 the elbow is taking load deliberately, through the wrist curl, forearm pronation with a band and the grip squeeze, and the lighter grip work can start coming back into the session. Rows and pull-downs before heavy holds, straps still on, and one lift added back at a time so you know what caused a flare.
Stage 3 is where the heavier gym work returns, and the program already points that way: it adds forearm rotation with a dumbbell, the biceps curl and a band row, and it says to practice what you need to get back to at a lighter load and for less time than usual. Heavy holds and maximal grip work are the last things in, not the first.
Timing matters as well. Do the elbow loading after your session or at a different time of day rather than immediately before a lift that needs grip, because a tired forearm grips harder to compensate. And keep the elbow work going once the gym lifts are back, because that is the point people stop and the point the pain tends to return.
On numbers, the main page's wording is the dose this site gives for the strength work, and there is no separate gym version of it: many programs use 2 to 3 sets of 10 to 15 slow repetitions for the strength exercises, once a day, with a weight light enough that the last few repetitions still look controlled. Your physio will adjust the exercises and the numbers to your elbow and to what you need to get back to. The rules for coming back to training in general, including what has to be true before you load an injured area and how to run the first session back, are on returning to the gym after injury, and gym and lifting is the hub for the rest.
How to judge a session, and what the next morning tells you
A little discomfort at the inner elbow during the exercises is common. Many programs accept mild discomfort that settles within a few hours and is no worse the next morning. Sharp pain during a repetition means stop that exercise. If the elbow is clearly worse the next morning, the load was too much, so drop back a step rather than stopping altogether.
That rule is the one to apply to your training as well as to your rehab, and it is why a single sore set is not a verdict. Base progression on pain-free grip and the 24-hour response rather than a fixed sheet. The longer explanation of judging load by the response rather than by the sensation at the time is in the pain monitoring model.
Two things make this easier to read in a lifter. Keep one everyday task as your gauge, something like carrying a full bag by the handle or turning a stiff tap, and check it the morning after a session rather than checking the elbow while you sit still. And change one variable at a time. A week in which you added back rows, dropped the straps and tried a thicker bar tells you nothing about which of the three your elbow objected to.
If the elbow is not improving at all despite weeks of this, the reasons a medial tendon stalls are set out in why golfer's elbow is not getting better, and if you are still not sure the pain is coming from the tendon, where golfer's elbow hurts and where it spreads maps it. The outer elbow version of this condition has its own program at tennis elbow.
When pain in the gym is a reason to stop and get checked
Some things that happen in a gym are not load management questions, and a lifter is exactly the person who will try to train through them.
Tingling, numbness or pins and needles in the hand, a grip that is getting weaker rather than sorer, fingers that feel clumsy, or a muscle in the palm that looks thinner than on the other side: these point at the nerve behind the elbow rather than the tendon, and each has its own time frame in the warning list below. Stop the exercise that brings them on.
A pop or a sudden snap at the front of the elbow during a heavy pull or curl, or a muscle at the front of the upper arm that changes shape, is a same-day warning sign below and not something to finish the session on. Elbow pain when lifting covers that injury and the window in which it is repaired.
A pop on the inside of the elbow while throwing is a same-day sign in its own right, and in a child or teenager it goes to urgent care or an emergency department the same day. An elbow that locks, catches or gives way, and an elbow that is hot, red and swollen or comes with feeling feverish, both need checking before you load it again.
Chest symptoms during training belong here too, because arm pain and chest pain can arrive together. If chest pain, pressure or tightness does not ease quickly when you rest, spreads to your arm, neck, jaw, stomach or back, or comes with sweating, feeling sick, feeling light-headed or being short of breath, call emergency services straight away, as this can be a heart attack. If it eases quickly and none of these happen, get medical advice the same day, and do not exercise again until you have been checked. If you faint while exercising, call emergency services, even if you feel fine again quickly.
Arm pain itself can come from the heart, with no chest symptom at all, and a gym is where that pattern shows up. Arm pain that arrives when you exert yourself and goes once you rest is on the warning list below with its own timing, and it is worth reading even though it will not be what is happening to most people on this page. If you have high blood pressure, breathe steadily through every repetition and never hold your breath, which is easy to forget on a heavy hold.
If you have had surgery on the elbow, follow the program your surgeon or physio gives you rather than this one. If you already have a program and it is not helping after several weeks, a physio can check the diagnosis and change the load. The warning signs below need prompt medical attention. In the United States that assessment usually comes from a physical therapist or a PT; elsewhere from a physio or physiotherapist, and either way it is worth bringing your training log, because the lift that did it is usually in there.
Related exercise programs
Warning signs
Get emergency help now
- Emergency: any sign of a stroke, even if it goes away. That means a face that droops on one side, an arm you cannot lift or keep up, slurred or muddled speech, weakness or numbness on one side of your body or face, sudden blurred vision, double vision or loss of sight, trouble swallowing, sudden dizziness with unsteadiness or falling over, a sudden severe headache, or a sudden fall where your legs give way but you do not black out (a drop attack). Call emergency services straight away.
- Jaw, neck, shoulder or arm pain that comes with chest pain or tightness, sweating, feeling sick, feeling light-headed or being short of breath, or that comes on when you exert yourself, feel stressed or go out in the cold and does not ease within a few minutes of rest. Call emergency services straight away, as this can be a heart attack. If it eases quickly with rest and none of these happen, get medical advice the same day, and do not exercise again until you have been checked.
- Emergency: after a fall or a blow to the elbow, the arm has changed shape or sits at an odd angle, a bone is showing through the skin, a cut is bleeding heavily, or the hand has gone numb or tingly or turns cold, pale or blue. Go to an emergency department or call emergency services straight away, and do not drive yourself.
- Your arm, hand or fingers turn cold, pale, blue or gray compared with the other side. Call emergency services or go to an emergency department straight away, and do not drive yourself. The blood supply to the arm may be blocked.
- The pain started with a fall or a blow to the elbow, and the pain is severe, you heard a snap, the elbow is swollen or bruised, or you cannot bend or straighten the arm. Go to an urgent care center or emergency department the same day.
- A sudden pop or snap at the front of your elbow, sudden sharp pain there, or the muscle at the front of your upper arm bunches up or changes shape. Stop and go to an urgent care center or emergency department the same day, even if you can still bend the elbow, as this can be a torn biceps tendon.
Get help today
- Same day: you throw, and you heard a pop or felt a sudden snap on the inside of the elbow, followed by pain, a throw you could not finish, or an elbow that feels loose or unstable. Stop throwing straight away and get the elbow checked the same day, because the ligament on the inner side of the elbow (ulnar collateral ligament) may be injured, and in a thrower who is still growing the same pop can be a piece of bone pulled off the inside of the elbow. If the thrower is a child or teenager, go to an urgent care center or emergency department the same day, because that needs an X-ray.
- Pins and needles in your arm or hand that do not go away after you stop, or part of your arm or hand goes numb. Get medical advice the same day. If one side of your face or body suddenly goes numb or weak, or your speech becomes slurred or muddled, call emergency services, even if it goes away.
- The elbow is hot, red and swollen, or you have elbow pain with a high temperature or feel hot, cold or shivery. Get medical advice the same day, and go to an emergency department if you feel very unwell. This can be a sign of infection in the joint, which needs treatment quickly.
- The pain is there at night or at rest and keeps getting worse. If you are being treated for cancer now, contact your cancer team the same day.
Book an appointment
- Your hand is getting weaker, you keep dropping things, your fingers feel clumsy, or the web of muscle between your thumb and index finger, or the little finger side of your palm, looks thinner or hollow compared with your other hand. This can mean the nerve behind the elbow is being squeezed. See a doctor within a few days. If the weakness is getting worse from day to day, get medical advice the same day.
- You have numbness, tingling or pins and needles in your hand or fingers, most often the ring and little fingers. Stop any exercise that brings it on and see a physio or doctor. For the ring and little fingers, OrthoInfo advises seeing a doctor if the symptoms are severe, or if milder symptoms have lasted more than 6 weeks.
- Pain spreads from your neck down the arm, or turning or tilting your neck brings on the arm pain. See a physio or doctor, because the problem may be in the neck rather than the elbow.
- The elbow locks, catches or keeps giving way in everyday use, without a pop from throwing. See a physio or doctor rather than pushing on with the exercises.
- The pain is there at night or at rest and keeps getting worse. If you have had cancer, now or in the past, or are losing weight without trying, see your doctor sooner, within a day or two, and mention it. This applies even if the pain is not getting worse.
- The pain is there at night or at rest and keeps getting worse. See your doctor within a few days.
Common questions
Can I lift weights with golfer's elbow?
Usually yes, with changes, and OrthoInfo lists weightlifting among the activities that cause this condition in the first place, so the training itself is worth looking at rather than ignoring. The order that works is grip, then tempo, then range, then load. Change how hard you are squeezing and what you are squeezing, slow the part of the lift that hurts, shorten the range at the painful end, and only then take weight off. Keep everything that does not need a hard grip, because there is no benefit to the elbow in losing your squats and your pressing. Then give the tendon something to adapt to through the stages on the golfer's elbow program, and use the next morning rather than the set itself to tell you whether you got it right.
Can I deadlift with golfer's elbow?
Often, and the grip is where the answer lies rather than the weight. A heavy hold is close to a maximal grip with the bar trying to roll out of your fingers, so the wrist flexors work hard to stop it, and those are the muscles whose tendon is sore. Things that reduce that demand without reducing the lift much: a double overhand hold rather than a mixed grip, which keeps one forearm from being held turned palm-up under load, straps on the heavier sets, a bar that is not excessively thick, and chalk so you are not squeezing to stop a slip. The general gym changes, including handle thickness and straps, are set out on elbow pain when lifting. If the elbow is still sore the next morning after all of that, the honest answer is that the hold is more than the tendon can take today, and partial-range pulls from blocks for a while cost you less than a flare does.
Does golfer's elbow affect grip strength?
Yes, and OrthoInfo lists weak grip strength as one of the symptoms, alongside pain or burning in the inner part of the elbow and occasional shooting pain down toward the hand. Two things are going on. The tendon of the muscles that bend the wrist and help you grip is sore, and a sore tendon does not produce full force. On top of that, gripping hard hurts, so you stop before you reach your limit. The practical consequence is that your grip numbers are a symptom rather than a target. Pain-free grip is also the thing we watch to tell whether a program is working, which is why it tends to recover alongside the tendon rather than ahead of it.
Is a grip strengthener good for golfer's elbow?
It depends entirely on how hard you squeeze it, and a spring gripper makes it very easy to squeeze too hard. A controlled squeeze is part of the treatment: the golfer's elbow program includes a hand grip squeeze in stage 2, firm but well short of your hardest, because the same forearm muscles are the ones you are trying to rebuild. A max-effort gripper, a timed dead hang or a thick-bar hold is a different load altogether, and in the clinic those are among the commonest things we take out of a lifter's week early on. If you want to train grip, treat it as rehab first and as training later, with the numbers from the program rather than from a grip routine.
References
- American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. Medial epicondylitis (golfer's elbow). OrthoInfo. https://www.orthoinfo.org/en/diseases--conditions/medial-epicondylitis-golfers-elbow/
- Royal Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. Golfer's elbow/medial epicondylitis. https://roh.nhs.uk/services-information/therapy/golfers-elbow
- Konarski W, Poboży T, Poboży K, Domańska J, Konarska K. Current concepts of natural course and in management of medial epicondylitis: a clinical overview. Orthopedic Reviews. 2023;15. https://doi.org/10.52965/001c.84275
- American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. Cubital tunnel syndrome (ulnar nerve entrapment at the elbow). OrthoInfo. https://www.orthoinfo.org/en/diseases--conditions/ulnar-nerve-entrapment-at-the-elbow/
- NHS. Elbow and arm pain. Page last reviewed 26 January 2024. https://www.nhs.uk/symptoms/elbow-and-arm-pain/
- NHS. Chest pain. Page last reviewed 8 August 2023. https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/chest-pain/
- NHS. Septic arthritis. Page last reviewed 3 September 2026. https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/septic-arthritis/
- NHS. Symptoms of a stroke. Page last reviewed 12 September 2024. https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/stroke/symptoms/
Written and checked by the PocketPhysio editorial team. Last updated 2026-10-18.
This page is general education, not a diagnosis or a personal treatment plan. See a physiotherapist or doctor for advice about your own situation.