Battered Left Elbow after Squats

[Sami]

I may left elbow is getting very painful during squats. I've searched to find tips already. I've widened my grip quite a lot; hands on the rings of the bar. I'm trying to actively keep my elbows up. It's done this before when I was last at this weight. I did a reset and now it's doing it again. Last session was fine, only a little sore. The only difference was I forgot my neoprene sleeve this session, and it's very sore right now. I can barely curl my arm and I can't push off with it that much.

Here are my squat videos:

Set 1
Set 2

I think I see why my left elbow is getting raped. Does anyone else see anything suspect? I want to see if I'm seeing the same thing.

[Paul Sousa]

Not sure if it's what you are seeing, but it looks like your arms are moving alot during the set. One thing I noticed is it doesn't look like you are really holding the bar, more just resting the bottom of your palms on it. Possibly the bar is a bit unstable causing it to wiggle some, and causing your arms to move? Just guessing really.

[Sami]

Not sure if it's what you are seeing, but it looks like your arms are moving alot during the set. One thing I noticed is it doesn't look like you are really holding the bar, more just resting the bottom of your palms on it. Possibly the bar is a bit unstable causing it to wiggle some, and causing your arms to move? Just guessing really.

Yeah, I think the moving arms is part of it, but to me there is something specific that it looks like I'm doing. I want to see if anyone else sees it and it's not just my imagination.

And no, I'm not holding the bar at all. My thumbs are over the bar and the base of my palms are on the bar. I'm sure this is textbook SS, but I may need to re-read the chapter to see if I'm doing something wrong.

Another issue I realised I was doing was I perpetually having the bar about 1-2 cm (at least) to the RIGHT. After my training partners realised they now shift ME over to the right so that the bar is centered. But this still hasn't fixed the issue.

It's ALWAYS the fucking left elbow. Always.

[nisora33]

Sami, I see nothing wrong with your elbow position here. As for the way your palms are pressed against the bar: I've seen a lot of folks, most notably Uncle Rippie himself in his now famous squat video, doing exactly the same thing. Go and watch it and see for yourself.

But I'm afraid I'll be of little help suggesting alternative methods of getting the bar where you want it, or rehabbing this particular type of injury, because both of my elbows, AND my shoulders--in spite of efforts to increase flexibility and rehab around the shoulder girdle--always hurt me once I got to a certain weight, same as you. I eventually switched to high-bar squats due to months of trying and trying to make the low-bar position work for me. FWIW I had Rip himself evaluate the way I was supporting the bar in person at one of his certs, along with the other coaches at my platform, and my grip and bar placement appeared fine for the low-bar squat.

-Stacey

[Dwayne_KONG_Wint]

My left elbow is still trying to heal from this injury. I carry the bar pretty much the same way that you carry it. When I got up to 365X5X3, my left elbow hated my guts and would make the rest of my arm hurt along for the ride...which would throw off my entire session...except for Deadlifts ironically.
I'm squatting with a safety squat bar for now..which pretty much takes the arms out of it but its like a high bar in that it sits right on your neck and you can't use as much weight which is very frustrating to me. I have been able to make progress with it though but I'd rather be low bar squatting.
I think the key to avoiding this in the future would be to stretch out the shoulders so tha tyou can get your elbows up much higher. That's what I was told and I won't know if it works until I switch back to low bar squatting again.

[Phil Stevens]

You need to address the bar. Your simply letting it rest on you. You need to grab the bar thing white knuckle it and wrap that damn thing around you which will further activate the upper back including flexing your lats and scapular retraction. If need be throw on some elbow sleeves to get the elbows warmed up. and ice them after if your getting a constant ache in them. most people get an ache due to again letting the bar push them around and not activating enough musculature. Tightness is stability and safety as well as strength.

[Sami]

Thanks Stacey.

To me, it looks like I'm pushing my left palm down when I'm on the ascent. It looks like my left elbow is tensing and shaking around more than the right. I might have some other imbalance that's causing me to push down on the left. Is the left side of the bar higher than the right? I think I'll record square on from the back.

Perhaps I'll try to narrow my grip again. With the wider grip, pressing down may putting more of a torsional stress on the elbow.

I've got a NSAID topical cream that I'll smear it on there and remember my neoprene next time.

[IWillLiveFreeOrDie]

I'm having a similar issue though I don't think the pain originates in my elbow. It feels more like the bottom of the medial deltoid, and radiates down towards my elbow.

Phil, I used to grip the bar really tight, and thought that may have been the cause of my problems. This pain has screwed my last 3 weeks of progress up. I'm doing shoulder dislocates to try and stretch my shoulders out. Have you tried that Sami?

[Paul Sousa]

You need to address the bar. Your simply letting it rest on you. You need to grab the bar thing white knuckle it and wrap that damn thing around you which will further activate the upper back including flexing your lats and scapular retraction. most people get an ache due to again letting the bar push them around and not activating enough musculature. Tightness is stability and safety as well as strength.

This is what I was getting after, I just didn't word it well. I know there are people who use your grip with success, but to me it seems the lack of tension in your forearm due to not gripping the bar tightly, combined with the movement of the bar, could be the culprit. I use a thumbless grip as well, as prescribed in SS, but I squeeze the bar tight and pretty much press the bar into my back so it doesn't move. Could be worth a shot.

[nisora33]

Here's Rip demonstrating the same set-up as Sami:



Now, his is not the only way, hence Phil's suggestion that you actually GRIP the bar. You have to ask yourself at this point would you be better served addressing the bar differently. If you absolutely can't get the SS way of placing the bar to work for you without pain, then it would be stupid not to alter how you address the bar as Phil's suggesting.

Also, Wendler et al. claim that gripping the bar tightly in your fist will make the rest of your body tight by extension.

-S.