Elbow pain on 1st commute
 

I started my bike commute for this year yesterday, and after I got to work, my elbow hurt all day. It still hurts a bit today, I didn't ride in because of the pain.

This isn't my 1st ride of the year. I mountain bike and have been riding my trainer. I have never had this problem.

My ride to work was only 17 miles, so not too far, but my guess is I may have had my elbow locked out most of ride because of the pain. Is this correct, and anything I can do to prevent this in the future.

Drops or straight bar? Also, you should never have your elbow locked. You were doing a classic compensation for pain or injury which only compounds a problem. Athletes are notorious for this when they come back from an injury too soon or try to play through an injury. An example is compensating for a knee or ankle injury and what that does to your entire gate. This can cause hip problems on the other side, etc.

It was drop bars. I mostly rode on the hoods or on the flat part. It was my left elbow. On the way home I switched up the riding position and did a bunch of pushups and dips when I got home.

I had bad elbow pain that just arrived one day after a long ride and lasted for several months- on the inside point of the bone. It was tendonitis ("golfer's elbow") from gripping the bars too tightly on a flat-bar mountain bike. Bar ends helped a lot, since I could change hand position occasionally. The road bike with drop bars helped more. Stretching after riding helped a bunch too, fingers back.

Well all bets are off now. That little factoid is a game changer. There's a whole lot of things that could have occurred here. Question, if you were already in pain, why go home and do a "bunch" of pushups and dips? You should have iced your elbow right away and rested it.

I relate big time to the discipline of working out, but that was a little reckless considering. Train your core and legs for a few days and let your upper body rest so you can sort this out. Right now we don't know if it's the fit on your bike or your workout that is the cause.

give up the pushups. there comes a time in life when certain exercises need to be stopped. sometimes forever. sometimes for 6 mos. I no longer do curls due to wrist pain but I still do pullups. when i was younger I had a very aggressive pushup regime. now I only do elevated pushups for the upper pecs as part of a 5x5 program twice a week (but at the the pushup station I do 10). I alternate them with an elevated bench press for the upper pecs. gone are the days of hundreds of pushups. give your elbows a rest. try giving them up for 3 weeks at least. if the problem persists give them up for 6 mos. don't worry there are lots of other exercises you can do! also, exercising an area of discomfort after the onset of a sports injury is just asking for trouble. you can't work through all sports injuries. in fact, most require rest.

I guess looking back, it was not a good idea for the pushups. I don't do that many. 5 sets of 20.

I don't believe that it is the bike fit, as I have had the same setup on that bike for about 6 + years. So, I guess I will rest the elbow and do core and lower body work.

So looking on how to heal, RICE. I see all the different solutions. Some of them are pretty spendy. Does anyone have experience with these, or is it just as effective to just ice it at night and rest the elbow?

You need to find out what caused the problem. From your posts it sounds like having your elbows locked on your ride is the culprit. Doing pushups afterwards only exacerbated the issue further.

Why were your elbows locked? It could be from a number of factors including saddle tilt, reach, or relationship between saddle height and handlebar height. Try to find out what the problem is and see what adjustments could be made.

I'm not sure they were locked, but I am just guessing with the pain after.

I have had the handlebar / seat setup for quite a while. So, I'm guessing that it was the bike or how I was riding the bike that caused the problem. It was really cold, so maybe there was some discomfort that I did not notice.

So, to get the elbow, to heal, should I also stay off the road bike and mountain bike, or just lay off the pushups / dips.

Elbow pain was my main problem when I first started riding more frequently. I would focus on not locking my elbows, but would still get it. After a while it just went away. In my case, I think it was just a matter of my body adjusting to something new. YMMV...

rest and a regular low dose of ibuprofen. take 2 initially, then 1 every morning for a week

I've been doing the ibuprofen route yesterday and today. I iced it last night, and I was very careful to make sure that I did not lock out my arms on the ride in today.