Golf can be a strenuous sport on your body. It’s common for golfers to report pain or soreness in their elbows and wrists from the golf swing motion and contact with the ground.
To help you avoid damaging your elbow further, you should avoid certain exercises during workouts.
Here are common workout exercises that can damage your elbows.
#1: Bench presses:
All these exercises place pressure on the flexors of your elbow and can further irritate your elbow’s lateral tendons.
When you do bench presses, your upper body holds the entire weight.
For this, the pressure of the bench will worsen the elbow symptoms of the lifter by requiring higher forearm pronation, adding tension to the inner media of the elbow.
#2: Wrist exercises:
Any bracelet exercise, particularly bracelet curls or barbell extensions, should be avoided.
These movements will add tension to your elbow and forearm and may cause chronic pain and exacerbate your tennis elbow damage.
#3: Straight-arm exercises:
Straight-arm exercise takes your arms up and your elbows up will make your wrist extensor muscles strained.
Repeated elevations or movements based on repeat elevation or repeated elbow and wrist motions can agitate your injury.
In straight-arm exercise, you blend your elbow and then straight up. For this, your elbow pain can get worst, so try to avoid the exercise.

#4: Repetitive lifting or motions:
Exercises that rely on the repeated lifting of your elbow and wrist or repetitive movement can agitate the injury.
Do as few repetitions as possible while you are suffering from this condition.
Repeated movements or tendon sprains typically cause Elbow pain.
When you lift exceedingly high weights, practice the same routine in the gym and fail to exercise each muscle group, muscle imbalances will inevitably develop, and stress in your joints will increase.
#5: Weight lifting:
Elbow pain is usually caused by lifts, grips, or pinches which can be deactivating enough to make exercise harder and even impossible.
We have this discomfort, I think because we grip the bar too much.
Weight workouts usually involve repetitive movements and those involving a bending of the elbows, which put undue pressure on the flexors of the elbows.
Work best to strengthen your legs while waiting for the healing of your elbows.
#6: Chin-ups:
This arm-reinforcing exercise places a lot of stress on your elbows, as your whole body weight is pushed upwards.
Chin-ups stress the flexors of the elbow and can cause further inflammation of the elbow’s lateral tendons.
#7: Push-ups:
Push-ups exercise is for transferring your body’s weight into your elbow joints. Better to stop before your elbow gets back.
The problem with this exercise may seem ridiculous and pointless, but pushups may lead to serious damage to your joints and muscles around the shoulders and elbows when it is performed improperly.
#8: Over-gripping:
It is humiliating to throw away golf or tennis racquets when you swim, but it is possible to exert unreasonable stress on your arms and tendons if you maintain a tight grip on a piece of equipment.
Tennis elbow is another name for lateral epicondylitis.
It happens when the sinews that bind the muscle to the bone swell or tear outside of the elbow. This weakens the bond of the elbow and stresses the area greatly.
When you use muscles to lift, grasp or twist, tennis elbow also causes pain.
#9: Improper load carrying:
It is best if you stay away from heavy lift if you can, but it is often important in our daily lives. Therefore, you pick them up by bending down with your feet, then you go up with your right arms instead of bending up the elbows if you lift other heavy items.
#10: Rowing:
This sport involves the constant movement of the elbow and the strain of the oars.
Rowing causes discomfort and swelling in the forearm, which worsens with rowing and decreases when rowing is stopped.
In the rower, lateral epicondylitis (tennis elbow), due to its repetitive nature and pronounced location, can also be normal in the wrist.
Avoid Golf If Your Elbow is Injured
The aim of rest during the recovery of your elbow is to avoid any acts which make your injury even worse.
Therefore, don’t hurt your arm or elbow if any workout, stretching, or motion hurts.
Other pointers from golfer’s elbows are to use lighter weights during strength training and braces to alleviate some of the stress at the arm joints during training.
Also, you should stop bending elbows over a 90° angle, much like the recommendation for leg stretches, to prevent undue stress on the tendon.
Finally, bending the wrist may also put pressure on the injured tendon, so try to avoid any activity including repetitive movements of the elbow or wrist, especially when you bend the wrist downward from a neutral position.
Other Sports and Activities to Avoid
Tennis elbow acquired its name because the injury is quite common among racquet players.
Other athletes – like swimmers and golfers – risk however also exhausting their elbow muscles’ lateral aspect. Stop all of these sports if you have lateral epicondylitis.
Not only workouts and sports can agitate the symptoms of tennis elbows and extend the period of recovery. A variety of activities depend on repeated arm movements, as these can lead to reverses for tendon healing, for example:
- Slicing and preparing food
- Painting
- Using a screwdriver
- Excessively using the computer
Check out our Golf Training System with programs, video lessons, worksheets, and more!
General Q&A:
Is it OK to work out with a golfer’s elbow?
You should continue the aerobic exercise if you have Tennis Elbow or Golfer’s Elbow. It is not only appropriate, but also highly beneficial from a healthier perspective for your cardio and lower body workouts to continue, and also to maintain good circulation and cure in your wounded upper body.
Does the golfer’s elbow ever go away?
Often a tennis elbow or golfer’s elbow can go away by itself, but if the condition gets worse or doesn’t improve, you should see a health care provider.
Does a brace help golfers’ elbow?
The elbow of Golfer resembles the “tennis elbow,” which is the same disorder as the outer (lateral) part of the elbow and affects the muscles of the forearm and finger extender. A golfer’s elbow strap will help ease the condition as well.
Should I lift weights with a tennis elbow?
The muscles in the elbow are used to encourage circulation to the whole arm through a good strengthening exercise. This speeds up the cure of the inflamed tendons affected.
Golf Practice System for Lower Scores
Learn the exact golf practice routines thousands of students at Foy Golf Academy are using to lower their golf scores.
Follow these step by step practice plans and watch video lessons to learn how to improve your golf swing, chipping, and putting fundamentals.
Get access to hundreds of golf drills to practice as well as content on the mental side of golf, fitness plans, worksheets, and many more resources. This is a complete golf practice system.
Start Following These Practices —> Nick Foy Golf Practice System
Work hard,
Nick Foy, Instructor