Tendonitis or something else?

[Moxt]

arm_contracted.jpgarm_extended.jpg

I've had problems with tennis elbow in the past from squats, and I've made some adjustments to my squat grip that I'd thought had fixed the problem.

Over the past 8 days, I've done the following lifts:

Weight x Sets x Reps

Monday 10/8/2018

Squat 330x3x5 - some left arm pain after squats
Bench 210x3x5
Deadlift 400x1x4; 400x1x1
Chins 2 sets to failure - 3, 2

Wednesday 10/10/2018

Squat 335x3x5 - some left arm pain after squats
Press 152.5x3x5
Power Clean 160x5x3

On Friday, I went to the shooting range and my left arm started to hurt after 200 rounds or so, arm hurt for several hours

Saturday 10/13/2018

Squat 340x3x5 - some left arm pain after squats
Bench 215x3x5
Deadlift 405x1; 405x1 (failed on second rep on both attempts)
Chins 2 sets to failure - 2, 2

Monday 10/15/2018

Squat 345x3x5 - extreme pain in left arm between sets 2 and 3 of the squats. Extreme pain lasted for about an hour. Pain was barely noticeable after 3-4 hours.
Stopped due to pain

The attached pictures show where it hurts -- there's general pain in the circle, and very sharp pain at the X. To me, this doesn't look like a tendon, but instead looks like something on the tricep itself.

If I'm getting arm pain after squats it means something is wrong with my squat grip. That being said, with tendonitis, I try to train through. Does this injury look like something that would have a different prescription? Any advice on how to handle?

[Mark Rippetoe]

Will?

[Will Morris]

Will?

How strong is your wrist extension right now?

[Moxt]

I'm not sure what you mean by strength of wrist extension -- I'm attempting to keep my wrist neutral on squats; in the past I've had it (incorrectly) in flexion rather than neutral.

[Mark Rippetoe]

It's quite possibly Tennis Elbow, lateral epicondylitis, the origin of the wrist extensors, and you are misidentifying the point of the pain. Happens all the time.

[John Petrizzo]

I'm not sure what you mean by strength of wrist extension -- I'm attempting to keep my wrist neutral on squats; in the past I've had it (incorrectly) in flexion rather than neutral.

I think Will might be implying that you could have some radial nerve entrapment which could potentially lead to weakness in your wrist extensors. As Rip noted, the location you circled on your picture is not the typical location for pain associated with lateral epicondylitis.

[Will Morris]

If you have pain with wrist extension, Rip is right. If you have weakness in wrist extension, you have radial nerve pain. If neither of these are issues, but you have pain with resisted shoulder abduction, perhaps it is referred pain from the supraspinatus.

I would really be able to give you more finely tuned education if you would look to see if resisted wrist extension hurts, is weaker than the other side....and if neither of those seem an issue, try doing some lateral raises and see if it hurts.

[Brodie Butland]

I’d follow Will’s advice because this is his wheelhouse. But FWIW, I had similar symptoms to you a few years ago that gave me debilitating pain in nearly the same location, both arms but more severe on the right arm. Turned out it was a strained tricep, which was worked out after a few sessions with a dominatrix-y massage therapist (yeah, sessions, plural...I let the problem fester for a few months) and working hard on not using a flexed grip on the squat.

[Nick D'Agostino]

First, do what Will said. Also we need to see your squat grip to make sure something funky isn't going on so post a video either here or in the staff coaches forum. While you are in the process of figuring this out I would reverse the order of the exercises so you can keep training. Deadlift first, then bench or press, then squat. Prob need a slight reset on deadlift (refer to Rori's article for how). Some other pertinent information may be does this hurt during warmups or only during work sets? Is the area still painful the next day or is it completely resolving in that 3-4 hour window? If you can make the pain tolerable by taking 10-20% of the weight off the bar do it for now.

[Moxt]

I did some resisted wrist extensions and did not notice any difference in strength between my left and right wrists. There is a small amount of pain in the left side of the left elbow after performing the resisted wrist extensions. Hard to tell if it's there or just in my head.

Nothing unexpected from lateral raises -- no pain, both sides seem to work the same.

From this, based on the above, it seems like it's tendonitis.

I'll head to the gym to do some more squats and see if it flares back up, then re-perform the resisted wrist extensions and see if my results are the same.

Thanks for all the help on this.