The Power of a Press Up

Recently, I won a press up competition at my gym.  95 in 4 minutes.  I'd got a bit sluggish after xmas and this was a great way to kick me back into gear and so since then, I've been really pushing my arms and doing a lot more pull ups, chin ups, shoulder raises, shoulder presses etc. than I normally do.  Within a week, I was noticing a difference in my shoulders.

And then couple of weeks ago, my elbow became uncomfortable - I can't quite call it painful as I've given birth three times, ha ha ha but it wasn't nice and it felt like worse was to come.

I'm really lucky at my new gym to have PTs there who are extremely helpful, friendly and approachable and one of them told me I had tendonitis.  He said to rest it completely for two weeks, ice it several times a day and take ibuprofen.  He said it was probably pull ups that did it.

I also went to see the doctor as the thought of not training for two weeks kind of freaked me out!  My doctor said pretty much the same thing but said I didn't need to rest for as long.

Impatient as I am, I stopped the pull ups but continued with deadlifts and all my other leg work and still did shoulder presses as I couldn't bear to stop completely.  Silly, I know.  It started to get better, so I added in some rows and it stopped getting better.  Doh.

I carried on with the ice and the ibuprofen.  And then I decided to have a move around and clear out in my garage gym.

That was foolish.  My arm was proper painful.  Lifting a cushion hurt.

I felt stupid and cross and pissed off!

Then my husband remembered what his physio had told him when he had the same thing - compression exercises!

Press ups.  Do press ups, he said.

So the next day, with a really painful elbow, I did 200 press ups over the course of the day in sets of 10 or so, so as not to push it too much.

By the evening, the pain had gone.  Completely.

The next day I did 350 and today I did another 350.

I'd say my elbow is pretty much completely better.  I'm still going to take it easy but not only is it good to feel it better but it's good to know there are still exercises I can do with tendonitis.

And you don't get much better than a press up!  I can do 102 in 4 minutes now.  

I'm keeping going.