Golfer’s elbow follows the same rules as tennis elbow with the muscles reversed: the tendons that bend your wrist and fingers have degenerated where they anchor on the inner bony point, and they rebuild under gradual load rather than under rest.
One difference matters clinically — the ulnar nerve runs directly behind that bony point, so a proportion of inner elbow pain is nerve rather than tendon, and the exercises below will not help that version.
Check that first. If you have tingling into the ring and little fingers, this is likely cubital tunnel syndrome and needs a different approach.
The main exercise
Eccentric wrist flexion. Forearm on a table, palm facing up, wrist over the edge, light weight in the hand. Lift it with the other hand, then lower it slowly with the affected side over three to four seconds. Three sets of ten to fifteen, once a day.
Start lighter than feels worthwhile. A 500g tin is a reasonable week one. The progression over eight to twelve weeks is what produces the result, not the starting weight.
The rest of the set
- Wrist flexor stretch. Arm straight, palm up, gently pull the fingers and hand back with the other hand until you feel the pull along the underside of the forearm. Thirty seconds, three times, before and after loading
- Forearm rotation with a light weight held at one end. Elbow tucked at your side. Slow turns palm up to palm down, two sets of fifteen
- Isometric holds when it is too sore to load. Push the palm gently against a table without moving, hold for thirty seconds, repeat five times. Useful in a flare when the eccentric work is too much
- Grip strengthening from about week four, not before
The inner elbow is where grip force lands. Every heavy grip during the day is another set you did not plan.
Dosing it correctly
Discomfort during the exercise is expected and acceptable up to roughly 4 or 5 out of 10.
The measure that matters is how the elbow feels the next morning. Worse than the day before, and the weight was too high — repeat the previous level for another week. Same or better, and you are in the right zone to progress.
This is the whole method. People fail at golfer’s elbow far more often through inconsistency than through choosing the wrong exercise.
What makes it worse
- Continuing the aggravating grip at full intensity. Wringing, heavy carrying, tool use, pull-ups, heavy deadlifts held to failure
- Stretching hard and often instead of loading. Comfortable, ineffective
- Doing it twice a day to speed it up. Tendons need the recovery between sessions more than they need the extra volume
- Abandoning it at week four. Six weeks is the earliest honest assessment point
The timeline
- Weeks 1 to 6. Daily loading, light, plus changing whatever grip is driving it. Little visible change
- Weeks 6 to 12. The improvement usually appears here
- Months 3 to 12. Full resolution for most. Slower than people expect, and not a sign of failure
For the condition, how it presents and what separates it from the alternatives, see golfer’s elbow: symptoms, treatment and recovery. If you play or lift, golf injuries and gym and weightlifting cover the loads behind it. The outer-elbow version, which is far commoner, is in tennis elbow exercises.
A tendon that hurts under load is asking for less load, not none.
Every article on this site is written using the Closing Window Method: name the window your condition runs on, find where you are in it, and act while it’s still open.