Elbow pain following a bad power clean

[Ian Claudius]

I made a silly mistake a couple weeks ago: near the end of a training session, I caught a power clean low, with my forearms in a vertical position. There was immediate, sharp pain in my left elbow (but no pop or anything, insofar as I noticed).

The pain isn’t constant, but resurfaces during a few exercises:

Bench press: sharp pain, mostly on the descent. (I’m substituting presses as a result, which are fine.)

Squats: mild discomfort, not enough to avoid squatting. I don’t believe I’m cranking my elbows in the way Jordan talked about in his article, but nonetheless this might be a compromising position for the current state of my elbow (perhaps preventing it from healing properly?)

Power cleans: a properly-performed clean might actually be fine, but I’m worried about doing them at all and potentially making the problem worse.

Anyway, I realize this could probably be any number of things, just wondering what next steps I should take.

Thanks guys.

[Michael Wolf]

Amazingly groundbreaking post, from Michael Wolf: if it were me, I'd avoid doing stuff that pisses it off right now. This may involve adjusting the squat grip. If it doesn't begin to improve within a week or so of refraining from doing anything that pisses it off, I'd get it checked out. Note: "Improve" does not mean it's 100% better. But that it's trending towards better in a clearly noticeable way.

I am neither PT nor MD, I do not give medical advice. But that's what I'd do.