Your grip is too wide and your elbows are too high. The TUBOW is too far from your knees, and you're not standing up straight between your reps. Fix this, take another video at 100kg, from a better angle, and post it.
Member
Tendonitis causing crooked bar path?
Hi coach
About a year ago I started reading SS and cleaned up a lot of my form issues I dare say fairly well. The squat grip had me in agonising pain, though, and was the deciding factor in my botched attempt in SS that started in January of '16 and, well, is still somewhat running now (though with advanced novice squats, pulls and TM presses; switching to 5RM with back-off sets and triples really only lasted 2-3 weeks). The reason being that I can't seem to get my head (or body) around the squat. Though I'd say it's mostly ok or good enough, I've recently run into the problem of twisting my left side forward during the eccentric phase and twisting it back only when I remember to do so on the concentric or at lockout.
Skip this: (My brother first noticed this problem in July, but he phrased it as "your left side is hanging lower", so I didn't think it was that big a deal. I tried to pay attention to it and moved on. Later a friend would let me know I'm twisting in all kinds of painful looking ways and I'd review a video to come to the same conclusion. If it weren't for the fact that every single one of my squats at "PR intensity" is a grinder, I wouldn't pay this much attention to it; I'm mostly-if not completely-without pain in my back, so I'm not really alarmed. I am, however, concerned about the long term and obviously having one side drift forward of mid foot is going to hamper strength gains and maybe even recovery.)
Here's the video I took today with a foam roller acting as TUBOW.
I thought using a TUBOW would reduce the twisting or even solve it in the long run, but it actually didn't do much at all. It did make me feel as though I was squatting asymmetrically (something I otherwise don't feel) and caused some serious cramping in my back on the right side from the shoulder blades down (but only on the first set with the empty bar).
My question isn't "is my left leg shorter" or something like that, but "can tendonitis in your arm cause you to literally train around your injury as your body contorts in some way to prevent certain muscles/tendons/bones from supporting weight and, thus, causing pain"? My PR squats have been grinders since before my serious run of SS in January and I've been struggling with the grip for ages, only recently having fixed it by simply taking a wider grip and ensuring the bar is in the right place on top of my posterior deltoids. Additionally, the right side drifts forward ever so slightly on the press and the left side is lower on the bench when I touch the bar on my chest. Performing these lifts used to be painful, but hasn't been even uncomfortable for a while now (maybe 6-8 weeks). Chins still hurt a little and these are performed symmetrically.
I dunno; I'm probably overthinking this. I wish I had a coach, but I'm poor and won't be able to afford one for years.
TMPHBITEU
Your grip is too wide and your elbows are too high. The TUBOW is too far from your knees, and you're not standing up straight between your reps. Fix this, take another video at 100kg, from a better angle, and post it.
Member
I'll get it done. Would the preferred angle be a rear side view?
TMPHBITEU
Member
Thanks. Sorry for being lazy.Originally Posted by Mark Rippetoe
Starting Strength Coach
Scaldrew, watch this:
Starting Strength
and read this:
The Elbow Problem | Jordan Feigenbaum
Member
Don't worry Scaldrew, the coaches and community here are very helpful.
The coaches can verify once a better video is uploaded (or now), but the first thing I saw was extensive lumbar flexion. Straight back is a must. This could be related to you leaning forward instead of not standing up fully between reps.
HTH
Member
I'll review these. Thanks.
In the meantime, I have two more videos (well, three, but I'm still trying to rotate one of them; I used to have great video editing software and now not being able to use it is really pissing me off). I decided to squat today for the sake of expediency. They all felt really slow and hard and the area around my posterior delt (which my helpful friend identified as the rotator cuff) felt like it was being stretched out after every set. This feeling was almost painful and lingered for only about several minutes. I wasn't as efficient with the TUBOW stand-in as perhaps I should've been in hindsight and I tried to keep everything else in mind, but 100x5 definitely seemed too heavy for these form corrections to take immediate and lasting effect, but I'll let you be the judges of that. Sorry for portrait mode; I hope the angle is better.
video 1:
video 2:
All in all, my grip width was maybe 3 fingers narrower. I tried to narrow the grip one finger at a time during the warmup sets, but my hands would widen out beyond a certain point, so I just took that as my new grip and squeezed the bar tightly. My elbows flare up still on many of the reps (especially during the last set) and the bar felt really unstable and "loose" with my elbows lowered. Maybe I lowered my elbows too much causing the posterior delt to relax; the videos don't show that. The bar definitely felt like it was resting on the middle of my back and in my hands.
Thanks, dean. I agree this is a great community. I'm somewhat cautious about posting too much or asking too much because I'll get chewed up by Rip. I'm not so much scared he'll call me an idiot, but scared that I'll deserve it. It's a necessary evil, but nobody wants to look stupid (never mind act or be stupid).
Thinking about standing up alongside using the TUBOW and changing the grip was definitely challenging. I know you shouldn't activate the glutes to achieve this, so I used my (lower) abs to pull my sacral area forwards just a smidge. I hope that's ok. I keep forgetting to do this after a rep, though, and only stand up before beginning a new rep. Something to work on from here on out.
Member
video 3:
Right as I posted the reply, my cameraman/makeshift coach came through and told me he could flip the third video if I asked, so I did.
Starting Strength Coach
Watch the two videos Rip made about grip in the squat. The first one is from 10/19/2011 and was made specifically in response to the issue you are having - elbow tendonitis, because people were getting tendonitis, like you, from gripping the bar incorrectly. We can't see your grip in these videos. Have your camera operator get a view from higher up than where he is here so we can see where you are placing the bar exactly on your back and exactly what your grip looks like.
As far as standing up all the way, you are doing better with that, but if you don't have the bar held in place securely on your back, you will continue to lean forward to compensate for it. So, watch those two videos before you make another one of your own.
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