If you've got pain on the inside of your elbow, stop stretching and do these five exercises:

• Wrist flexion
• Pronation with control
• Bicep curl
• Pronation drop catch with dumbbell
• Pincer grip carry

You can either Google them (look for a demonstration by a qualified health professional) or check out our complete arm care program, which has these videos and dozens more with relevant commentary by us).

Why are these exercises more effective than stretching? 

It's all about tendon health.

We could go into the nitty-gritty about the physiology and anatomy of a tendon, but for all intents and purposes, there's really one thing you need to know when it comes to tendon health: tendons love loading.

Soft tissue like muscle will respond better to stretching, but the thing that changes tendon health for the better is applying some load, like a resistance band, dumbbell or some form of weight.

For many years down at the field, in warm-up and preparation for games, I would always focus on a dynamic warm-up. This included things like walking lunges, side shuffles, resistance band exercise for the upper body and some light weights, like a plyo ball or a dumbbell, for exercises to do right before the game.

This was not only to stretch and get my body ready, but also to prep my tendons, as they are such a key player in shock absorption and transfer of force when we throw. 

Tendon pain is a continuum

Another key thing we understand after being in the clinic day in, day out, is that we know tendon pain as being a continuum. You can have a healthy tendon, an overloaded tendon or an underloaded tendon. Yes, you can do too much, but you can also do too little, and that's where stretching becomes a less impactful method for getting your tendons ready to play.

Have you ever been on holiday, stopped going to the gym or doing certain types of exercises, and you felt pain get worse in areas like your Achilles, knee hip or shoulder? In many cases, this is because the tendon is not being loaded like it normally would be at home, as part of a better routine, so the underload is contributing to pain rather than helping it.

Start loading those tendons if you want to reduce elbow pain

For all the same reasons, this is why we encourage players not to simply rest for weeks to get rid of their pain. Rest needs to be used in conjunction with tendon loading, before a gradual return to whatever it is you were unable to do. 

Have a go at these top 5 exercises for elbow pain and let us know how your arm feels.

Or better yet, build the strength, resilience and knowledge you need to avoid the most preventable arm injuries in baseball. Check out Arm Care Fundamentals.