Upper Body Strength Training With Injured Elbow

Jason Zielke

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Hi Dr 8a, In 1993, when i was 16, i had an excision of the radial head in my left elbow as a result of a motor vehicle accident. My problem is that when i do any load-bearing exercises like push ups for example, i get moderate to severe crepitus since all the weight is being carried by the ulna and humerous only.  As a result my upper body has always lagged in general strength as i do not want to do any exercise that will do more damage that what already has been done. So my question is this, can you (or anyone else reading this) advise me of any type of upper body workout (chest and shoulders mainly) that doesn't put any loads through the elbow.  Basically i want to know if there is an exercise which will work the same muscles as a push-up or bench-press but without the elbow loads. Thanks for reading. Jason

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Bjoern Alber

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Hi Jason Tricky but possible. First of all the muscle will develop pretty symetyricall even if you work out unevenly. that is train your right side maxmally hard with one arm exercises or doing twoarm exercises but in a machine where it is possible to use only one arm. There are ; for example int the Nautilus new ONE series, several machines that will work chest, shoulder and arms separatedly. Here you will also find machines that puts load on the upper arm while working the shoulder . In generall all pulling exercises should be OK but most pushing will be akward and here you should favor the machine approach and use the fact that training one side will give allmost the same effect on the oposite side Best of luck with your training Björn

Bo Thomsen

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i can think of 2 chest building exercises: "peck deck" and "Flyes". these two, can be varied also - peck deck/bent-arms and "almost stretched" arms. both is being don on a machine(fitness gyms). and "Flyes" can be done with dumbells or cables. with dumbells, you can do it on a horizontel bench or on an inclined bench(30-50degrees). both exersizes are being done with a minimum of elbow movement, and both of them will not put stress on your triceps - mostly on the biceps.( but offc. it's the chest and delts thats doing the job.)

Jason Zielke

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Thanks guys for both your input. I'll give your suggestions a try, and hopefully i can reach my goals without any increased trauma. Thanks again.