Keys, I'd slowly get back with strictly bodyweight movements (pushups, burpees, pullups, abz, air squats, etc) for your first few times back, for nothing else besides re-familiarizing yourself with the gym. Maybe after the BW stuff, move into some light isolation stuff for your arms, as some layperson's rehab. Doing the up-down planks might give yourself a barometer of how much your rehabbed elbow can take; alternate from a plank where your elbows are on the ground, to a pushup position, then back down, and repeat. Nice core move, as well.
I took three weeks from any heavy barbell stuff, because of the cortisol shot I took in my knee (minor tear in meniscus); mainly swimming for cardio, but still doing upper body stuff. The past two days I did some barbell stuff without stressing my knees:
-1000m row, 8 strict press 135#, 750m row, 10 strict press, 500m sprint row, 12 strict press: No issues in knee, as long as I maintained good form on the rower; all presses were unbroken
-Hang Power Cleans x3: made it up to a couple sets of 225#, which I was happy with; nothing with knees, but I didn't catch the cleans in a squat.
I'll probably introduce more air squats next week, and then some deadlifts to the week's programming. So far, so good.
I missed out on the CanAm Firefighter games coming up this weekend, because I didn't want to push it too hard after my first cortisol shot. So I am focusing more on diet/prep for the FL Masters Track & Field championships next month. If I want to have a shot at going sub 12sec, which is what I'll need to win the 100m, then I'll need to be under 240# (currently around 255ish). My shot/discus throwing have been pretty solid this year, but I really want to do well at the hundo. Since I don't like baseball and my birthday/4th of July has passed, there really isn't any real reason for my to drink too much until football season; thus me not drinking will lead to less DC girth. Still, I have substituted veggies for fries and fruit for sweets, so that will give me a head start.
