Tendonitis or something else?

[Scaldrew]

I got some friendly informal bodybuilding coaching on cable triceps extensions and now my left triceps "hurts" after every squat set the next day. Fucking bodybuilders.

[Moxt]

I'm now convinced it's tendinitis caused by squats. I dropped the weight, put deadlifts first, and a very dull pain on the outside of my left elbow came back during my warmups. I did one set of 5 at 275, and the pain came back much more so, still on the outside of the left elbow. I stopped the workout after that set.

I took video of that set, and I've uploaded that along with my previous videos of my squat from the past month. See below:

10-22-2018 session

275x5 - YouTube

10-01-2018 session

315 x 5 - first set - YouTube
315 x 5 - second set - YouTube
315 x 5 - third set - YouTube

9-26-2018 session

305 x 5 - first set - YouTube
305 x 5 - second set - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcqlDKDo2UM
305 x 5 - third set - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jMKBF2PrHY

Any ideas on what's going wrong with the grip/setup that's causing the issue? I see knee slide in the heavier weights and it gets worse as the sets go on, but I don't think that would put weight in the hands. Outside of that my eye isn't good enough to catch the problem.

[Mark Rippetoe]

I'm sorry your elbow hurts. Your grip is too wide and your elbows are too high, as addressed here:

A Clarification on the Squat Grip | Mark Rippetoe

Fixing the Squat Grip | Mark Rippetoe

As I've mentioned several dozen times, tendonitis does not heal with a layoff. You have to train through it. It's going to hurt. Can you do it or not?

[Bradley Gish]

How to deal with first injury while adding weight?

[Moxt]

Thank you.

I'll get back under the bar tonight after watching the videos.

Will the tendon no longer become inflamed if it's not taking weight from the poor form?

[Mark Rippetoe]

It will heal slowly. It will not heal if it is not stressed and forced to adapt.

[Moxt]

Wanted to follow up on this.

I've tightened up my squat grip considerably -- my pinkies are now on the line of the 32" mark on my bar. I'm dropping elbows down and keeping my wrist neutral.

I dropped the weight down from 345 to 315 with the intention to quickly ramp back up using the improved grip.

I squatted yesterday for 3 sets of 5 reps at 315 pounds. My left elbow (same elbow) started hurting during the warmups and ramped up as I did my sets. The pain stopped completely every time I put the bar on my back.

Immediately after lifting, I took 800 mg of ibuprofen.
For about 20 minutes after I finished my third set, the pain was extreme -- can't think about anything other than the pain, dizzy, would like to vomit, wandering around in a daze. The only time I've felt something close to this level of pain was having my bone marrow sucked out during a bone marrow biopsy or having the anesthetic run out during dental work.
After 50 minutes, there was a dull pain, and my arm was shaky, but just barely.
After an hour and a half, I had a dull ache in my elbow, but the arm was no longer shaking.
Within 4 hours, the pain completely disappeared. I went back to the garage and pressed 3 sets of 5 at 157.5 pounds and cleaned several sets at 165 pounds (the goal was to clean 5 sets of 3, but I had several technique mistakes and kept performing cleans until I had completed 15 total). No pain came after either of these exercises.
Today (the day after), I continue to feel no pain.

My question is this: is my description of the pain within the reasonable expectation for me to continue down this path? I'm willing to train through it and to continue to subject myself to this, but I just want to make sure I'm not doing something obviously stupid.

Thanks again.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Perception of pain is a rather individual matter. I have no idea what is causing this, but if you can train through it, that's what you do.

[Will Morris]

Wanted to follow up on this.

I've tightened up my squat grip considerably -- my pinkies are now on the line of the 32" mark on my bar. I'm dropping elbows down and keeping my wrist neutral.

I dropped the weight down from 345 to 315 with the intention to quickly ramp back up using the improved grip.

I squatted yesterday for 3 sets of 5 reps at 315 pounds. My left elbow (same elbow) started hurting during the warmups and ramped up as I did my sets. The pain stopped completely every time I put the bar on my back.

Immediately after lifting, I took 800 mg of ibuprofen.
For about 20 minutes after I finished my third set, the pain was extreme -- can't think about anything other than the pain, dizzy, would like to vomit, wandering around in a daze. The only time I've felt something close to this level of pain was having my bone marrow sucked out during a bone marrow biopsy or having the anesthetic run out during dental work.
After 50 minutes, there was a dull pain, and my arm was shaky, but just barely.
After an hour and a half, I had a dull ache in my elbow, but the arm was no longer shaking.
Within 4 hours, the pain completely disappeared. I went back to the garage and pressed 3 sets of 5 at 157.5 pounds and cleaned several sets at 165 pounds (the goal was to clean 5 sets of 3, but I had several technique mistakes and kept performing cleans until I had completed 15 total). No pain came after either of these exercises.
Today (the day after), I continue to feel no pain.

My question is this: is my description of the pain within the reasonable expectation for me to continue down this path? I'm willing to train through it and to continue to subject myself to this, but I just want to make sure I'm not doing something obviously stupid.

Thanks again.

You need a competent physical exam....reports of nausea and vomiting from tendinitis is highly dubious. I've never heard of fracture quality pain from tendinitis. As Rip said, pain perception, emotional tolerance, etc is highly variable from person to person, but I wouldn't feel comfortable providing an opinion if you had mental state altering pain.

[Moxt]

I'll go get it checked out. Anyone in Houston you recommend visiting? I generally like my GP but he's not going to be useful on anything related to strength training.