I get asked a lot about joint pain and if the cause is due to exercise injury or from over-training. Overtraining comes from long-term lack of ability to recover properly. This may be due to too much training but it is really a recovery issue. The more acute version is called staleness which involves both psychological as well as physiological breakdown. Besides declining performance, the individual may often feel whole body pain or flu like symptoms including loss of appetite, indigestion, weight loss, or inability to sleep properly as well as chronic fatigue. These are all factors affecting your recovery.  Over-training occurs because of an imbalance between the load placed on the body verses its ability to cope with it adequately.  The result is often a body in a chronically inflamed state.  It can easily be rectified with 3-5 days of rest or a lower amount of work.  New Crossfitters can often overdose on their new found love for training which may lead to a lack of proper recovery.  I stress the fact that when you perform high intensity routines like we do at CrossFit you will become keenly aware of your environmental factors that affect your recovery.  You will begin managing your diet, sleep, stress, alcohol and activities to maximize your ability to perform in your next workout.  When you don't you will notice the results quickly as these routines have a tendency to magnify how well you do at your recovery efforts between workouts.

Joint pain from over-training and pain such a muscle or tendon tear are very different .  Most athletes develop common forms of tendonitis in the joints such as the shoulder, elbow or knee. Pain from over-training is caused by inflammation in the actual joint itself as well as a breakdown in the Central Nervous System.  Tendonitis occurs due to the inflammation surrounding micro-tears in the muscle attachment to the bone.

I have noticed that most new Crossfitters develop some form of inflammation of the elbow from trying to learn the mechanics of the kipping pullup or any pullup for that manner while utilizing a weak forearm that has not yet been fully developed to handle the full complement of heavy loads that we use in our routines.

This happens very frequently when individuals start doing a lot of pull-ups.  The constant full contraction of the forearm muscle especially if the bar is small in diameter causes micro tears in the tendons that attach to the Humerus, Radius and Ulna . Chin-ups are more likely to irritate the inner forearm or medial epicondyle from the inside elbow joint down the forearm to the wrist. More properly known as Medial Epicondylitis, the injury is caused by repeated forceful flexions of the elbow such as the fully extended whole body kipping pullup. Pain happens during forceful wrist flexion such as a tight grab of a pullup bar and may radiate down the arm. As you can see, the smaller the bar diameter the tighter the grip, the more the pain. Typical treatment includes rest, cryotherapy (ice) initially for swelling and then heat later for blood and healing nourishment. Analgesics and anti-inflammatories will help with pain management. In addition for Medial Epicondylitis, a counter-force brace like an armband with a Velcro wrap located just below the bend of the elbow reduces elbow stress. Normally, 7 to 10 days of rest is recommended but I have seen cases of this drag on for 6-9 months in a very slowly declining level of pain.

If the pain is in the outer forearm or lateral epicondyle, (also commonly known as tennis elbow) or Lateral Epicondylitis you will notice the pain with repetitive extension of the wrist which can also happen during the force full initial movement of the kip as the body swings forward like a backward “C” and the wrists extend into position before flexing back into the “C” for the pull-up. Treatment is similar to Medial Epicondylitis except that the armband below the elbow will not help here. You should avoid pronation or palm down movements such as a Pull-up. In fact wrist pronation, palm up movements such as the chin-up are recommended for rehabilitation.