Reply With QuoteThere are lots of posts here on the subject. Search is your friend
Random recommendations include ice & massage; cutting volume of things that aggravate the elbows or complete rest; living with pain; making sure you have good technique.
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Elbow Tendonitis
Posted it in the wrong section by accident. This should belong here instead.
Once again i've got some elbow tendonitis that seems to flare up when using my arms for certain things eg: playing tennis for about 30 min, after my heavy set of squats (interfering with my bench or press that is next). This only popped up this week, and it's not too severe right now, but i've had this problem before and I don't want to get screwed by it again. Last time it was a squat form problem and after cleaning that up, and resting my arm from tennis for a week, it self-healed. And since then i haven't had this problem for a good half a year and more. Now i haven't seemed to change my squat form but somehow this problem has returned. I've been thinking its one of these 3 things:
1. squat grip
2. pullups/chinups aggravating it
3. powerclean
I recently (maybe a month or so ago) switched from PCing twice/wk to only on monday and throwing in pullups/chinups on friday instead. So i went from doing pullups/chinups on one day to 2 (i normally did some on monday as accessory exercises). Not sure if this is the problem though because i've changed this for a while now. Anyways anything i could do about this?
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There are lots of posts here on the subject. Search is your friend
Random recommendations include ice & massage; cutting volume of things that aggravate the elbows or complete rest; living with pain; making sure you have good technique.
Member
I have searched. I've re-read Sami's post about the elbow tendonitis resulting from pulling down the bar when squatting. I made sure i wasn't doing this in today's workout. The elbow tendonitis right now isn't that severe as it is only aggravated after intense use of my arms like playing tennis. I read that some people use heavy curls to try and alleviate the pain, and point the finger at chins and pullups. Not sure if i should drop the chins and pulls then..
And would it be possible to cause elbow tendonitis from catching the PC with the elbows not pointing forward (ie. elbows slow coming up in the PC)?
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I found that there was an association with regular chin ups and elbow pain for me. This is proving to be rather complex for me, because I've gotten pain immediately after chins, but they were fine during squats. I stopped chins for a while, and it was fine, then squats would get heavy and the elbow pain would come back. I've even had elbow pain on off days, just from messing around.
I've done the odd chinup here and there, but nothing regular, and it hasn't really caused anything noticeable. Last time a squatted, I was going for PR singles and I got immense elbow pain. This could be due to not paying attention to my elbows during a max lift. I don't know.
I stopped cleaning a few weeks ago, not due to elbows but for other reasons. I did get slight elbow pain, but especially wrist pain, from catching. I fixed this by doing shoulder, elbow and wrist stretches immediately before cleaning and that made catches much easier and pain free.
Curls definitely have helped though. Even when the elbows were hurting straight after squatting, and it felt like I couldn't curl, once I started the pain went almost immediately. In the beginning the pain would come back shortly after curling, but over time the pain-free time period got bigger and bigger. I haven't been doing curls long enough to know exactly how to effectively use them for therapeutic purposes. ie, I don't know what to use for volume/intensity. I've been doing heavy sets of 5-7 so far, for about 3 sets.
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Hmm yeah because the thing is now they don't seem to hurt. I can sometimes feel them ache slightly but not to extent of debilitating pain that i experienced last time i got aggravated elbow tendonitis. It doesn't hurt doing chins for me during or after, so i don't know. Same with the cleans, but i'm wondering if catching them with my elbows not pointed forward could cause this.
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Are you racking the bar evenly after you squat? I had a problem with this recently. When I went to rack the bar, I'd look to the right and rack that side first, which would tilt the bar down and put pressure on my left elbow. Then I'd lift the bar back up to rack the left side, making the pressure worse. In SS Rip advises that you just walk the bar into the rack evenly until you hear the bar hit the uprights, then lower the bar onto the hooks.
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I used to do a ton of rock climbing and have gone through several bouts of elbow tendinitis. If you look on webmd.com, they have a section on self care for various conditions; if you search for tennis elbow, golfer's elbow, or carpal tunnel syndrome, I think it gives you the same basic batch of stretches; I find these tremendously helpful for keeping those joints in check.
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I've never understood why people do this. It just makes sense to just walk into the rack. And it's much cooler to slam it and set it down forcefully after a hard set; well I dunno about 'cooler', but it's easier.Originally Posted by Adam Wood
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Yeah, as Sami said i also don't do what you're describing. I just walk forward, hit the uprights, and lower the bar. I don't slam it down like Sami because I'm not lifting enough weight for it to be cool, so i just sort of try to lower it without making too much of a noise. I'm pretty sure i don't load my elbows in doing that. And considering its on both elbows i don't really think that's the problem.
And thanks for the link Ian, i'll check it out. What i'd like to check though is if anyone experienced elbow tendonitis from catching the PC with lagging elbows ie. they're not pointing forward when i rack, more at a 45 or high angle to the ground.
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I was thinking about this too, except for when pressing, you know, when you lower the weight after lockout to the start position..
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