Golfer's elbow and squat form

[Calvo]

Thanks for the Q&A, thought y'all might be able to help me with this.

I was progressing nicely on everything after a squat reset when I noticed some golfer's elbow in my right elbow. Nothing really painful, but it wasn't going away, so I took slightly over a week off squatting. Here's a video of my last heavy set before I took the break.

Pressing feels fine and I've been pushing the chins hard as per Rip's advice (hammer grip/neutral grip chins, because my gym, believe it or not, does not have a single straight chin bar.). After talking to Josiah Moye and watching the bar position video, I thought I might have had the bar too low, so I went in today and tried setting up with a slightly higher bar position and a wider grip, pictured. I separated my right shoulder a little over a year ago--just a grade 1, but it may have something to do with my right elbow being higher/farther back than my left.


I tried a few triples with 275 using this setup, and they felt a bit off. Vid here. I'm just now noticing that my left wrist is crooked in these, which I'll correct next time. Are there any other cues you would recommend?

[Steve Hill]

Believe me, I've been there. The problem with any sort of tendinitis is that it takes forever to go away, and the slightest little mistake will bring it right back. Looking at your video, my only criticism is not one of grip width, but of stance width - your stance is about 2" too wide, and it's affecting your ability to get your knees out.

Your bar position looks OK from here, but trying to diagnose that in a video from waaaay over here, and at that viewing angle, is hard to do. What I tell all my trainees to do is to put the bar right on top of the scapular spine at its distal end and then roll the bar down until it just comes off, and then it's in the right place. Not sure if you'll be able to do this with your shoulders / traps.

[Calvo]

your stance is about 2" too wide, and it's affecting your ability to get your knees out.

Thanks, will implement. For the bar position photo, would it be easier to tell from the side? Or just a better shot from the back?

[Steve Hill]

Thanks, will implement. For the bar position photo, would it be easier to tell from the side? Or just a better shot from the back?

It's easier when I'm standing behind you in a gym with a bar on your back and can feel where your scapular spine is. Diagnosing this via video / photo is hard, esp. when the person has largish shoulders obscuring a lot of landmarks. But when someone who keeps their hands as wide as you are has elbow problems, my money is on the bar being too low on the back.

[Calvo]

Fair enough, thanks. I should note that the pictured grip is about 3-4" wider than the grip I was using when the elbow started hurting. Not sure if I'll need to do that permanently or if I just need to baby the elbow for a while.

[Jay Mund]

We need to be able to see where the bar is on your back, as everyone has said, and we can't from your video. But, like Steve said, its' almost without a doubt too low given your symptoms and what we can see from the video.

[Calvo]

Bumping with new vids using narrower stance.



I cut the last set short because the bar was starting to roll, so I think it was too low there. Apart from that, these felt pretty easy. Looks like I could maybe get some mileage out of TUBOW with the narrower stance; thoughts?