Elbow injury and bench pressing

[Judochris]

I have a recurring injury in my left elbow that some times prevents me from benching, and cleaning, kitchens a mess lol. The pain happens as i get to the bottom of the bench. It goes away in a a day or so I kind of tweak it training every so often. Should I stack a press and bench day if i miss the bench day of programing? Is there any thing I can replace these with on a "sore day" I found that pendaly rows don't bother it. I just don't wanna miss a day in the gym when I'm already squeezing in so much during the day already.

[Andy Baker (KSC)]

I think the best course of action is to try and get an accurate diagnosis of what the problem is.

But if you are having recurring pain and can't bench for a day, then you just skip it I guess. Rows are fine as an exercise but not really a bench press sub.

Does it ever hurt when you Press? Have you played with your grip? Perhaps widening your grip a little might help in this situation?

[Judochris]

Never really hurts during the press. I stopped by the gym tonight and I did notice that my elbow angle was past 90 degrees, so my forearms where not where they are supposed to be the wider grip helped, but I could not finish my missed day sets then again I was beat from grappling for three hours, pretty beat.....elbow felt good but like I said it comes and goes and did not bother me all day. And I can tell you exactly what is causing the pain, slight hyper extension from inexperienced people doing arm bars lol.

[Andy Baker (KSC)]

Just start benching with that wider grip and see if it helps. I guess if you are getting arm barred every day you are gonna have some elbow pain when you train.