If you have elbow pain with CrossFit, you are not alone. It’s very common. It often happens due to mistakes in Olympic lifts, pull-ups, or general overuse.
Pain on the inside or outside of your elbow is usually related to irritated muscles in your forearm. In CrossFit, gripping is life. So, it’s no surprise that we see elbow pain with CrossFit all the time at our Delafield clinic.
Whether it’s medial or lateral elbow pain, understanding why is the first step toward fixing it.
Elbow Pain with CrossFit: Olympic Lifts
An early pull in Olympic lifting puts a stupid amount of stress on your grip muscles. Instead of using your arms to guide the bar (as intended), you end up lifting it with your arms. Guess which tiny muscles in your forearms suffer for it? Exactly. Hello, elbow pain with CrossFit.
The hips are the MVPs of Olympic lifting. If you’re not driving with your hips, your body starts improvising — and not in a good way. Your poor forearm muscles will have to generate the force instead. If you’re hearing the term “muted hip extension” tossed around, that’s what’s going on.
Your lats should keep the bar close to you. If they’re not working hard enough, your forearms pick up the slack. They grip tighter, stress builds, and… you guessed it: elbow pain with CrossFit.
The lats guide the bar close and assist with the pull. Then — super important — you drop under the bar. You do NOT muscle it overhead — big difference.
If you’re holding the bar like you’re trying to crush it into oblivion, that’s a huge part of the problem. You need to guide the bar, not battle it. Also, if you’re not using a hook grip, you’re asking your forearms to do way too much. (Hook grip = less forearm strain = less elbow pain with CrossFit.)
Elbow Pain with CrossFit: Pull Ups
In pull-ups, your lats should do the majority of the work. If your biceps and forearms are doing too much work, odds are you’ll end up with elbow pain in CrossFit.
Not sure if that’s you? Widen your grip. If you crash and burn, your lats aren’t as strong as you think. Good news: now you know what to work on.
Programming matters. Some gyms vary movements well; others… not so much. General rules of thumb:
- 100+ pull-ups in one workout = a lot.
- 50ish = reasonable for regular programming.
- 2x/week on the rig (pull-ups, toes to bar) = usually fine.
- 3x/week = maybe okay, maybe too much.
- 4x/week = your elbows are waving white flags.
If you have inner elbow pain from pull-ups, there are other things to keep in mind. Check out this blog post or this video for more on that.
Elbow Pain with CrossFit: General Overuse
CrossFit = grip, grip, grip. Kettlebells, dumbbells, barbells, rig work, jump ropes… your forearms rarely catch a break.
Some quick rules to stay healthy:
- No more than 5 days a week of CrossFit.
- 1–2 days avoid heavy gripping.
Sometimes, elbow pain with CrossFit isn’t just about CrossFit. It’s about life. If your pain popped up after you painted your whole house, did major yardwork, or learned a new hobby that uses your hands (hello, cross-stitch?), that’s a factor.
Sudden spikes in hand use = unhappy elbows.
Fixing Elbow Pain with CrossFit
If you’re dealing with elbow pain with CrossFit, the good news is it’s usually very fixable.
Start with the adjustments listed above. Need more help? Check out this article for common ways to treat pain on the outside of the elbow. If your elbow pain is on the inside of your elbow, this article will be more helpful.
Still stuck? Still hurting? We’re here for you. Reach out to us here. We see elbow pain with CrossFit all the time at our Delafield clinic. You’re not the first. You won’t be the last. And we’re pretty darn good at helping you get back to WODs pain-free.
If you found this helpful, you might be interested in these other CrossFit articles:
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