Karate, pushups and tendonitis

[shorinryu912]

Hi all. Hoped the title of my post would attract the attention of anyone who has experience with a combination of the above.

My dojo has a very slanted emphasis on upper-body strength relative to other schools which I have visited. We do MASSIVE numbers of pushups. I consider it a lucky night if we get away with only doing 50 while warming up. For my green belt test a year ago we had to do a total of 500 in sets of 50 and 25, inbetween 5 forms, 6 walking sets, 15 ippon-kumite drills, and 25 2-minute rounds of jiyu-kumite. There are a lot of senior level students who have less flexibility and less stamina than I, yet I am probably the weakest adult male there. The other adult male students can all bench 300 lbs plus easily, while I struggle to bench 200 for more than a few reps.

I don't MIND all the strength training, but I developed a severe case of tendonitis in both of my elbows about a year ago that has not gone away yet. Aggravating it further is the fact that my occupation is a typing clerk and I type all day long at work. I have modified the way I do my pushups, I used to straighten my arms too much, I have brought my arms in closer to my body and keep them bent at nearly a 90 degree angle, and the pain has gone away a little but it will not heal completely. The pain is still great enough that I cannot condition or train without wearing an NFL-style heavy-duty rubber elbow brace sleeve over both my arms (which restricts my mobility and is very uncomfortable). Has anyone else ever struggled with chronic, never-healing tendontis before???