My elbow/shoulder hurt in a different manner

[CoolRunnings]

Hi all,

Using the search function, I located an abundance of threads regarding elbow pain. I've read about the tennis/golfer elbow and it seems the most popular symptoms are pain in the elbow extending to the forearm.

My pain is different and is getting worse. After getting through my most recent squat and getting through my warmup set for bench, I was unable to complete my workset for my bench and I didn't do my PCs because I was in so much pain. The pain extends from my the outermost point of my elbow up through my tricep up to the backside of my shoulder and into my left neck muscle. The most painful part is inside the elbow, and I just sort of have a dull ache and tightness through the rest. I have no pain in my forearm.Today I tried to complete my bench set before squatting. I barely got through my warmup sets and I was already in intense pain. I felt as though my left arm was going to collapse when I unracked the bar to prepare for my set. When I tried to unrack for my workset, I felt a very uncomfortable sensation in my elbow. Almost like a tendon rolling over a bone. Needless to say, I didn't finish anything today and now I'm sitting here frustrated and icing.

My first instinct is to ice/ibuprofen and leave out bench for awhile, but I'm open to suggestions.

Thanks.

[ecj]

Hi all,

Using the search function, I located an abundance of threads regarding elbow pain. I've read about the tennis/golfer elbow and it seems the most popular symptoms are pain in the elbow extending to the forearm.

My pain is different and is getting worse. After getting through my most recent squat and getting through my warmup set for bench, I was unable to complete my workset for my bench and I didn't do my PCs because I was in so much pain. The pain extends from my the outermost point of my elbow up through my tricep up to the backside of my shoulder and into my left neck muscle. The most painful part is inside the elbow, and I just sort of have a dull ache and tightness through the rest. I have no pain in my forearm.Today I tried to complete my bench set before squatting. I barely got through my warmup sets and I was already in intense pain. I felt as though my left arm was going to collapse when I unracked the bar to prepare for my set. When I tried to unrack for my workset, I felt a very uncomfortable sensation in my elbow. Almost like a tendon rolling over a bone. Needless to say, I didn't finish anything today and now I'm sitting here frustrated and icing.

My first instinct is to ice/ibuprofen and leave out bench for awhile, but I'm open to suggestions.

Thanks.

I've fucked up my back/hip, neck, and elbows. Basically, I accumulated every possible dumb newbie injury on my road to understanding the lifts and finally getting strong-ish. The one good aspect of this is that I'm really good at quickly overcoming the results of idiocy. Here's what I'd suggest.

You're going to hate this answer, but in my experience tendonitis is just the worst shit ever. There's no easy way around it. The only thing you can do is rest for a few days while gobbling fistfuls of ibuprofren and wait for the worst to pass. I suggest drinking heavily during this period, as well as it seemed to loosen me up and help me relax during my bouts of injuries. Not kidding.

After the pain is gone (3-5 days likely), you're going to have to figure out what you're doing wrong on the lifts. Post vids for form checks with a light weight and clean it up. Something is irritating your neck, probably the squat.

Some of the foam-rolling, mobility stuff might be helpful, but in my experience the only thing that really fixed my problems was learning the right form on the lifts. Everything else was just masking the issues.

I'd check your diet, too. Are you, by any chance, under eating or trying to lose weight? It's usually easier to hurt yourself when you're not recovering.

[CoolRunnings]

That sounds great I have no problem drinking. In fact I'll start tonight.

Not under eating. I posted a form check in the coaches QA but didn't get any responses as far as my grip. Just need to make sure I keep it tight all the way down.

Thank you for responding. I think my plan of action is going to be to go on a weekend bender and try to hit it hard next week. Drop some weight off and get some videos.

[ecj]

That sounds great I have no problem drinking. In fact I'll start tonight.

Not under eating. I posted a form check in the coaches QA but didn't get any responses as far as my grip. Just need to make sure I keep it tight all the way down.

Thank you for responding. I think my plan of action is going to be to go on a weekend bender and try to hit it hard next week. Drop some weight off and get some videos.

The grip is a really tricky issue. Here's what I do that helped me overcome all elbow/neck/arm related pain:

1) Set up your grip width by spacing your hands and grabbing the bar with a bench-style thumbs-over grip before getting under the bar. I start my first warmup set with my thumbs on the rings, then move to index, middle, ring, and finally pinky for worksets. Anything closer than that is pretty much impossible for me.
2) Get under the bar, and put the bar up against the top of your traps and neck.
3) Now move your thumbs up higher over the bar, and tilt your hands so that the pad of the base of the thumb is up on top of the bar, the bar is pressing against the heel of your palm, and your wrists are straight. I usually try to feel this motion as coming from squeezing the shoulder blades together and creating the "platform" that the bar sits against. Sort of moving from: |_0_| t o \/0\/ where the 0 is your head, if that makes any sense at all. It kind of feels like your whole back bunches up, moving your elbows closer together and your traps higher on your neck.
4) Slide the bar down until it hits the spine of the scapula, then a tiny bit further. You should feel the shelf that everyone talks about.
5) Deep breath, life the bar, and go squat maintaining this position.

Doing this mental checklist before each lift has helped me.