Elbow Pain in Wrestling: Causes, Training, and Prevention Tips
One of the most common injuries you’ll encounter with wrestlers is an elbow injury, to varying degrees of severity.
In the 13+ years that I’ve worked with grapplers of all disciplines, it has always been surprising to me how many more wrestlers suffered elbow injuries than their jiu jitsu and judo counterparts. However, once you’ve either wrestled or watched a few freestyle or folkstyle wrestling matches, it doesn’t take long to understand why. You see a lot of this:
What the above pictures depict are wrestlers posting or basing out to prevent a takedown and keep their balance. Typically, this wouldn’t be a problem, but add slippery, sweat filled mats to the equation, and a simple post can easily become an elbow hyperextension-related injury.
This exact scenario is exactly what many wrestlers training at DiSalvo Performance Training describe to me when they describe how their elbows were injured in training or competition. Sadly, I’ve seen these injuries derail competitor’s effectiveness on the big stage and undermine their ability to compete effectively.
While injuries are a part of wrestling and combat sports more generally, that doesn’t mean you can’t take steps to mitigate your risk while also making yourself a more durable and effective wrestler.
Triceps work
The triceps are often the first place I look to examine and strengthen when I see these types of injuries. The triceps’ primary function is to extend the elbow, but they play an important role in stabilizing the shoulder and arm more generally in these scenarios.
Whether it was weak or obstructed arm extension ability causing the issue or the triceps function becoming impaired after the injury, addressing and training the triceps in a number of ways will help your cause.
EXAMPLE: Skull Crushers
This is a great exercise because it has the triceps moving while the shoulders are experiencing flexion, making it a more complex action. Perform the exercise in the fashion of the image below on the floor or a bench.
Overhead work
In all my years of coaching grapplers, a distinct difference arises within the training plans of wrestlers (and sometimes judoka), and that is the inclusion of overhead work in their program.
This is mostly due to the stance you take in wrestling.
As you can see in the above picture, wrestlers by default stand hinged, with their heads way more forward and closer to the floor. This is because the attacks and defense in wrestling call for this to be the ideal position.
You wouldn’t stand like this in jiu jitsu because you could be guillotined, put into a submission, or have your posture broken easily, among other negative outcomes. Judo would invite a much more postured stance as to engage in grip fighting with the gi.
Because of this stance in wrestling, you’re often using your arms to fight with your hands above your head. It may not appear overhead in a classic sense (think basketball or throwing a baseball), but you’re doing it at the level you created by bending at your hips.
It looks a little something like the image below:
As you can see, the athlete on the righthand side, Arian Carpio (a DiSalvo Performance Training athlete), is engaged in a collar tie with her opponent. Her deep hinge and body position have her arms physically placed overhead. Quite simply, these exchanges are everywhere in wrestling. Because of this, the inclusion of shoulder training in a wrestler’s program is vital and non-negotiable. It takes a much bigger percentage of the overall training load and volume compared to a jiu jitsu athlete for example.
EXAMPLES: Overhead press & incline bench press
Overhead pressing, incline bench presses, and all of their progressions and regressions are some of the best exercise prescriptions, but a comprehensive movement screen should be done first to best identify the appropriate exercises here.
Scapular stability
This ties directly to the point above, as scapular stability dictates how effective you can be with your shoulders, both on and off the mats.
The scapula are the two large, plate-like bones on your back otherwise known as your shoulder blades. How freely the scapula can move dictates how stable and strong the upper back and shoulder can be. By extension, this will also have a downstream effect on the elbows.
The nature of wrestling, neck injuries, concussions, shoulder injuries and more, unfortunately often lead to impaired movement of the scapula.
Much can be written about this topic, and has been on this site. We also filmed and produced a definitive resource on shoulder and scapular health that you can view any time on YouTube by clicking here.
Wrist Care
While not often brought up, the general health and mobility of an athlete’s wrists can also have an effect on the health of the elbow. There are many reasons, but the overall ability of an athlete to support their body with their arms relies on their ability to move their wrist into a position to do so. If that position is impaired, the likelihood of trauma to the elbow or shoulder increases substantially.
Do you have wrist pain or impairment that accompanies or preceded your elbow injury? You’ll likely want to address that during your rehab and strength training.
EXAMPLES: Rotations, Flexion & Extension Exercises
Steel Club or Kettlebell Rotations, or Wrist Flexion and Extension exercises with a dumbbell or EZ Bar are good exercises to experiment with here, as they build the forearm muscles that help to support the wrists.
A Note on Anatomy and Different Types of Elbow Injuries
For most of this article, I dove into the ways training in the gym can help prevent or minimize symptoms related to the specific injuries that come from basing out with your arms and hyperextending the elbow. However, it is important to understand that there are a variety of injuries that are possible in the elbow. While this article isn’t meant to diagnose those injuries, it’s helpful to understand that you may be dealing with different elbow issues prior to your most recent injury, or your injury could look very different.
UCL Strains, Golfer’s Elbow/medial epicondylitis
These injuries are to the lower aspect of the elbow, or the side of your elbow closest to your body when you look at your arm with your palms facing upwards.
Injuries here can happen for a number of reasons, but the typical training methods that aid in performance and return to sport here involve proper movement of the scapula, particularly retraction and protraction.
Lateral epicondylitis, or tennis elbow
These injuries manifest with pain on the top portion of your elbow when you look at your arms with the palms facing upwards. Sometimes you’ll feel this on the outside of the arm in the elbow area.
The reasons for injury here in grappling can vary greatly, but in my experience shows the most pain in making grips on opponents and training partners.
Audit where you’re at in the season
These sorts of injuries inevitably come up most frequently when athletes are either experiencing a high training load, cutting weight, or doing both at the same time. Tournament prep, in season weight management, and high training loads are ripe times for these sorts of elbow injuries because you’re chronically under-recovered. Between the lack of downtime and the lack of calories to aid in a proper recovery day-to-day, you are rarely entering practice fully recovered ready.
Be sure in these times to do everything possible for tissue readiness: from pre-practice myofascial work (foam rolling, massage guns, etc), to proper hydration practices and sleeping enough and well.
IN CONCLUSION
Elbow injuries stemming from basing out or hyperextension from ground contact are unfortunately very common. The injuries can be as simple as a 1-2 week recovery, or they can chronically hinder an athlete for an entire season. Dealing with all the points above will help ensure that you’re mitigating your risk, or zeroing in directly on your source of pain and discomfort.
If you need help preventing your own elbow injuries on the mats, don’t hesitate to reach out to us.
About the Author:
Mark DiSalvo, CSCS
Mark is the founder and owner of DiSalvo Performance Training. He brings over a decade of experience training clients and athletes of all backgrounds and is the strength and conditioning coach to athletes of all levels and disciplines, from youth to professional and Olympic-level.
Mark is currently purple belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, with over 10 years of experience grappling.
A graduate of Northeastern University, he’s an NSCA Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) and Sports Performance Expert. He’s also a Steve Maxwell Certified Kettlebell Instructor (Levels 1 & 2).
You can read more about him here.