Golfer's elbow can make pulling movements and chin-ups feel sharp and unreliable, and even gripping a steering wheel gets a second thought. If you have been avoiding rows, changing your grip at the gym, or wearing a brace and hoping the tendon settles, you are in familiar company. Like its lateral cousin, we rarely see this one come from golf at ActiveX Physio in Singapore; it belongs to lifters, CrossFitters, climbers, and anyone whose week is full of gripping and pulling.
What causes golfer's elbow in lifters?
A medial forearm absorbing more load than its share. Rest and ice lower the pain for a while and rebuild nothing, so the question worth asking is why the overload happened: training volume, poor force distribution through pulls, the way you grip a paddle or a barbell. Desk workers can build the same pattern from sustained mouse and keyboard hours without any sport involved. We assess wrist flexor and pronator capacity and forearm endurance, and how the shoulder and scapula distribute pulling force, then treat the chain feeding the tendon rather than the sore centimeter at the end of it.
How do you treat golfer's elbow?
On a progressive loading model. Isometric holds build tolerance first, then slow eccentric wrist flexion and pronation work takes over. If chin-ups, rows, or cleans are in your training, we adjust grip width, volume, and intensity so you keep training while the tendon adapts. Shoulder internal rotation range and scapular control get built alongside, because limited overhead mobility forces the forearm to compensate. Manual therapy to the forearm and elbow can calm acute irritability, and shockwave therapy may be layered in for tendons symptomatic past three months that have plateaued on loading alone. Progress gets retested against grip and pull strength, so you watch the tendon recover in numbers.
Who can help
Any of our physiotherapists can assess and treat golfer's elbow. If your pain is tied to pulling movements or barbell work, TJ Chen can assess how your training program is loading the medial forearm. If it shows up during paddle sports, Nicholas Ho brings experience with grip and stroke demands specific to paddling.