Elbows and squats

[DV]

Sorry to bother you about the same subject we covered a while back, but:

I'm on SS (again), still making good progress, and feel like I have a month or two more of linear progression left in me. However my elbows, always a weak point, have started becoming inflamed from squats (and exacerbated by bench/press). It's gotten to a point where I had to abort my last Press workout.

I know of, and have used, the ibuprofen+chins protocol. Unfortunately I was recently diagnosed with Crohns, so no anti-inflammatories for me. This makes it even more important that I get this fixed, as I cant work around/through it.

Problem is - I can't really see what the hell I am doing wrong: Here is a recent workset of 325. In my eyes there isn't much wrong with my hand/arm position?:



Do you see anything regarding bar position I dont? I'd hate to stop squatting heavy 2xweek, but if I dont get this fixed I'm gonna have to.

If it matters my latest lifts are:

SQ: 3x5x325
DL: 1x5x355
BP: 3x5x220
PR: 3x5x157.5
Hi-Pulls: 5x3x165 (bad wrist)

As always thanks for all the free stuff on this site, the books etc. Just turned my brother on to them as well.

[Mark Rippetoe]

It may be that you need to narrow your grip. If your grip is too wide, the tension provided by the forearm angle against the bar is diminished, and this may be causing you to squeeze with your grip too hard. The narrower grip supports the bar by jamming your ulna/radius into it braced against your ribcage, taking the stress off your grip.

[Jeffrey]

I know of, and have used, the ibuprofen+chins protocol. Unfortunately I was recently diagnosed with Crohns, so no anti-inflammatories for me. This makes it even more important that I get this fixed, as I cant work around/through it.

Try megadose fish oil as an anti-inflammatory substitute if it's not a problem with Crohn's Disease.

I have found that Hammer Chins are better than regular chins for elbow rehab. They place the elbows in a more neutral position. I have experienced seemingly miraculous cures of elbow tendonitis on two occasions with hammer chins+fish oil. Now I just keep Hammer Chins in my program.

[Viktor]

Eccentric training is also very effective against tendinitis and tendinopathy

[Mark Rippetoe]

How precisely would that work for quadriceps tendinitis?

[Viktor]

Exactly like this
http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/39/11/84...0-92aecfd8f81c

And I know the study isn't that big, but tell me how many more you want me to dig out for you and I'll do it.

Similar studies on Achilles tendinopathy have proved even more successful.
Same goes for triceps tendinitis and I've myself gotten rid of my triceps tendinitis in this way. I had a thing, similar as the OG poster describes.

[Mark Rippetoe]

A link to an abstract hardly qualifies as precision. I am aware of the theory. Do you actually know what they do and how they do it?

[Viktor]

Well straight up, the only thing I've done is read up on the research.
And I've read quite a few studies.
From what I could see, no one has really figured out why eccentric training is so good.

This guy has "dedicated his life" (or at least a web page) to quadriceps tendinopathy.

I can't see the benefit of me copy pasting his program because you can just click on the link and see it in first hand yourself.
Since it's just a theory and they don't teach it in university's (or do they?), I don't think there is an official way of doing it, at least what I know of.

With my right triceps, I did 3*15 with an elastic band, 1 or 2 times daily, about 4sec eccentric and helped out with the other hand on the concentric part.

[DV]

Thanks alot for the advice Mark, and others. I've upped my fish oil dose, and will play with narrowing the grip. Narrow grip and bent wrists what was brought this on in the first place a few years back, so perhaps I've gone overboard with widening it. My flexibility sucks, and I have long forearms, but I think I can work something out.

I didn't respond back before, because I was trying my hardest to understand this sentence: "The narrower grip supports the bar by jamming your ulna/radius into it braced against your ribcage, taking the stress off your grip".

If I understand this correctly, it means that a narrower grip will have the forearms be less parallel to the bar, compared to my superwide grip. This in itself, due to the angle, will jam the bar into the shoulders lessening the amount of active force I need to use to keep the bar in place. That about right?

Again, thanks a bunch.

[Mark Rippetoe]

That's about it. Good luck.