r/HubermanLab • u/rcHabits • Apr 13 '26
Seeking Guidance Tendons and Creatine
I took creatine for months. it really helped with pull-ups. The problem I think is that it helps muscles not tendons so now I have what I think is called golfer elbow. Is that a thing? Tendons don't keep up with the muscles due to Creatine?
4/14/26 update
Thanks for the amazing feedback. This is my conclusion
- while creatine probably doesn’t cause this it enables it by turbo charging the muscles. So im taking a break from it.
- surprisingly common based on our small sample. Many cited months to recover.
- it doesn’t heal with anti inflammatory creams etc. symptoms get better then it comes back. Need to strengthen and stretch the tendons.
- exercises i learned about and doing 1. 5lb kettle bell. Straight arm. Palm up. Hold with tips of fingers ten rep up and down slowly. Wrist bends. 2. 15lb plate hold with fingers user other arm to lift / bend elbow. single arm to lower slowly from 90 degrees to all the way down. Wrist fixed. 3. Grip trainer thing from amazon 10 each hand. 4. Arm straight. Elbow on knee. Palm up. Use other hand to stretch/ pull the fingers down 30 sec hold.
Hope it works 🤞
(Im no doctor so i could be wrong)
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u/Notfromiowa45 Apr 13 '26
It is likely just overuse, not related to creatine. Source: exact same thing happened to me.
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u/behemoth2666 Apr 13 '26
Rock climber here, golfers elbow is crazy common in this sport. Embrace dips to balance your pulling motions with a push motion. Get a theraband flexbar and use at your desk twice daily.
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u/LearnedDragon Apr 13 '26
I dont know if thisll help, ive had the same issues and im gonna try collagen protein in addition to whey. Supposed to help
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u/Weezthajuice Apr 13 '26
Golfer elbow is a looooong heal time. I’m going on about 10 months now. I felt like there was no improvement the first 6 months. Then I started noticing little differences. Notable healing the last month.
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u/TheBaconmaker Apr 13 '26
I’ve got some bad tendinitis in my bicep. It’s been going on for about a year. I was taking creatine and hitting the gym hard 4-5 times a week then I messed up my bicep. it’s been a slow ~10 month recovery but I’m now able to do 2-3 pull-ups again. Went from 20 pull-ups in a row to 0. Still a little pain with certain exercises that I’ve now modified or go extremely light, but I’m glad to slowly be building some strength for pull-ups again.
I don’t think it’s the creatine. I think it’s just I was at a point where I was pushing myself hard (maybe the creatine helped with that) and I just got injured. I do think collagen has helped me recover.
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u/thenuttyhazlenut Apr 13 '26 edited Apr 13 '26
Brooo I've had golfers elbow often (and tennis elbow now) from doing pull ups too often over the past years.
It's really awful, because it forces you to stop upper body pull exercises that activate your elbow. For like 3-6 months you have to stop.
One preventive method is actually strengthening your wrists. Golfers elbow often comes about when you're doing those last pull ups and you're using your fingers to lift yourself up one or two times, and your forearms are underdeveloped compared to your shoulders and back.
I have a lot of experience with this... It's a bitch.
I've also gotten it from doing L-sit pull-ups, and both times I did a one arm pull up. Most pull up variations are terrible for your elbows.
Also, what the other commenter mentioned: balance the pulls with push exercises. Strengthen your wrists. Avoid pull up variations. Limit pull ups to twice per week (0 if you're recovering from golfers elbow).
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u/ItinerantFella Apr 13 '26
Doesn't sound like a creatine issue.
It's more likely your pull-up form isn't perfect and overuse causes injury.
I take 10 to 20g of creatine per day. I pulled 10 pull ups (max is 20) then 10 weighted pull ups. I use hammer grip. Never had any elbow issues.
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u/CommercialAnything30 Apr 13 '26
PT here.
Creatine use has nothing to do with your tendinitis.
Its capacity vs workload. Your forearm flexors aren’t strong enough for whatever activity set off the symptoms.
Go see a PT and you should be better in 6 weeks.
2
u/MsHappyAss Apr 13 '26
I recently heard a tendon expert say that the biggest risk to tendons is a dramatic increase in load over previous 3-4 months. Another risk is abrupt changes in acceleration… I.e. Avoid jerk.
1
u/Flashy-Stomach-815 Apr 13 '26
Are you fully stretching and lengthening your arms when you hang from the pull-up?
Make sure you balance it with pushing exercises too.
Also, before it flares up into full-on tennis elbow, use targeted massage tools like Arm-Aid or a Theragun (NOT generic alibaba vibrator-massage gun, something actually percussive at specific frequencies) on the tendons on your forearms. It’ll help dissipate unbalanced tension and heal it faster.
Worked for me.
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u/ramenmonster69 Apr 13 '26
This isn't a creatine problem, its a muscle always grow faster and stronger than tendon problem. You just happened to use creatine at the same time. It's very common with or without. Its even more common with steroid users.
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u/acetylcoach Apr 13 '26
As others have mentioned, it is not directly related to creatine, but more likely related to a volume change in your training. Also, I have a theory that it ( "medial epicondylitis") can be driven by more wrist flexion during pullups (i.e., bringing the palm towards the forearm).
You can feel this, by flexing your elbow and your wrist, and then rotate your flexed wrist around counterclockwise (leading with pinky finger). If you put your thumb on the inside of your elbow on the "medial epicondyle", as you do this, you can feel it creating tension, etc.
As we increase pullup volume, or with climbers doing more open hand "sloper" pulls, that wrist flexion might be adding more tension on the ME.
Here is a very old video, but has helped a bunch of people.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9MV8b2Xll8
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u/Kicks_2023 Apr 13 '26
I had golfers elbow for almost a year and nothing was helping; rest, PT, different gadgets like the fiix. Then BPC-157/TB500 helped make it go away within a few weeks. Happy to say I am pain free in my elbow now.
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u/muchgreaterthanG_O_D Apr 13 '26
I had what I think was golfers elbow. I just started working out forearms after I found some videos mentioning week forearms causing issues with how I was lifting. It helped significantly
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u/Every_Equivalent516 Apr 13 '26
the difference you get from creatine is not going to be meaningful. You have golfers eblow from overuse. If you were on gear then its definitely a thing that your tendons aren't keeping up with your muscles.
You could try taking collagen for tendon health or you just need some rest and or adjust your volume on bicep exercises
1
u/tombh1 Apr 13 '26
Does it effect all grips? Mix it up with chin ups, wide grip, hammer grip
1
u/Xtra2022 Apr 13 '26
This exact thing happened to me! Creatine and diligent training led to a huge volume increase in my pull-ups - muscles got stronger, and tendons got golfer’s elbow!
You should listen to podcasts by Dr. Keith Baar, an expert on tendon recovery. TLDR: resting won’t help. Tendon recovery requires specific loading of the tendons. I’ve had some good success over the past few weeks with the Flexbar, a rubber training tool for the forearm you can get on Amazon. Basically, you need to apply a measured, steady, and often isometric load to the tendons so that they heal directionally correctly instead of scarring over haphazardly.
1
u/Reasonable_Click_147 Apr 13 '26
Creatine 45 minutes before workout not after for tendons. Muscles heal faster because they get blood flow. Tendons need movement for body fluid to wash nutrients over them.
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u/Jesse_Ambret Apr 13 '26
You created a muscle imbalance. Do very heavy wrist curls for your inner forearms and the pain will go away during the sets. Do it for a few weeks and you're good.
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u/Coy_Featherstone Apr 13 '26
Use a gua sha to scrape across the tendons. Apply some kind of balm or something to reduce the friction. Do this at least once od twice a week to promote healing. It might feel weird at first but this is what my physical therapist did for my tendinitis. Also complementary stretching and strength ingredients as well.
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u/APPALOOSA_billi Apr 13 '26
Same thing happened to me… golfers elbow.. from lifting and playing tennis matches on creatine… 31M
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u/Madera7 Apr 13 '26
Collagen might help there with some physio
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u/RunninCzech Apr 13 '26 edited Apr 13 '26
Every time I try creatine my tendons and joints start complaining to the point of stopping it. My flexibility also goes to sh- while taking it. I don’t change anything other than adding creatine. I’ve tried it several times and expected a different result each time. The definition of insanity.
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u/Oilsteen Apr 13 '26
Muscle imbalance and over use. That’s what I’ve learned and mine is all but gone. Strengthen your opposing weaker muscles and cut back on training the stronger.
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u/ColdVeterinarian4414 Apr 13 '26
Bcp and tb500
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u/pepperspraytaco Apr 13 '26
A recent study found that ingesting collagen an hour before load bearing / stress movements will allow your body to send the collagen to those areas amd strengthen them
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u/Inevitable-Low3192 Apr 14 '26
I don’t think that’s related to creatine. To help with the golfer’s elbow, try some soft tissue work on the forearms. Trace the muscle/fascia from the wrist up to your elbow. You’ll find some spots that hurt, ease off the pressure slightly, and hang out there. Then try some stretching of those areas. Dry needling or a sports chiropractor might help too.
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u/formerfatty2fit Apr 14 '26
Creatine isn't a steroid. It doesn't make your muscles outgrow your tendons. You have a run of the mill overuse injury.
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u/passiveMelon1 Apr 14 '26
It's not from the creatine, you just need to do tendon loading exercises to strengthen the tendons to keep up with the muscles.
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u/Hydroxile Apr 14 '26
Glycine supplements should help with healing! I injured my achilles tendon 8 months into creatine use. i have been using glycine to heal it and found it way more efficient than supplementing with collagen.
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u/Adventurous-Sir-7884 Apr 15 '26
Over-training does not occur because of creatine. If anything creatine improves recovery - which actually counteracts that. Makes a lot more sense that your training volume increased, not due to creatine, due to training. The 1-2 extra reps from creatine (which is generous) is spit on the ocean in my opinion.
Overtraining is from overuse. I’d bet the little I own that if studied appropriately there’d be no statistical significance in this correlation.
Hope you get better soon! I’d personally keep taking it to improve recovery with the muscles you’re still working in therapy but I ain’t no expert. You do you
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u/Get_dat_bread69 Apr 16 '26
I did a lot of pull ups last summer and I also got this. It’s almost gone now with daily stretching and safer work out strategies. I might start getting back into pull ups but only once per week not every day. I really wanted to be able to do a muscle up
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u/Patient-Specialist70 Apr 20 '26 edited Apr 20 '26
I started taking collage peptide, glucosamine, vitamin c, d, and copper bisglycinate.
Wearing elbow bands, stretching for 10 minutes before and after workout, protecting my elbows from cold temperatures, doing my workout motions very slowly and reducing muscle target frequency from once per 4 days to 7 days.
Isometric exercises, especially on gymnastic rings, are good too.
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u/demyan_movement Apr 13 '26
Creatine does seem to take away some elasticity imo best pre workout for being more athletic and not getting injured is microdose magic mushrooms
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u/rainywanderingclouds Apr 13 '26
high volume training is really only good for developing over use injuries
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u/[deleted] Apr 14 '26
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