Grip Width and Elbow Tendonitis Fixed? + General Squat Form Check

[John Fioravanti]

Hi all,

My name is John. I am a new member here and a novice doing the LP. I am in week 7 and am seeing great progress, but have developed what I believe to be a case of tendonitis (left elbow, lateral) from having too wide a grip on squats. I am trying to solve it (somewhat) early by following the protocol published on this site by Nick Delgadillo. I'd like to know if I've fixed the grip width problem and would also appreciate other criticisms of my technique. "Story," videos/pictures, and questions below:

"Story"

• On 10/29/21, I started to have left shoulder pain that ran down to my left lat and that radiated posteriorly and laterally down my left arm. The pain resulted from squats [200 x 5 x 3]
• A coach at my gym analyzed my posture and told me that strengthening my back would help and suggested I do dumbbell bent over rows for 3 sets of 12-15 reps as a warm up (to engage the muscle I think?). I started doing this protocol. I didn’t see any noticeable effect (and dropped this after learning about the tendonitis/grip issue).
• As the weights were getting heavier, the pain evolved into more acute elbow pain. It would radiate down my arm into the lateral side of my elbow. I began to wonder if the problem was with the rack position.
• Aside from one session (where I tried engaging more with my chest and back muscles to support the bar), the pain continued. At 225 lbs, I realized I had a problem that I couldn’t ignore. Thanks to the Starting Strength site, I discovered I probably have tendonitis due to too wide a grip.
• On 11/11/2021, I decided to implement Nick’s elbow tendonitis protocol. However, I rushed resetting my grip trying to do it while warming up. I also hadn’t done enough homework to properly self-correct. I flared up my elbow worse than ever before and struggled to work through it. I called it quits after wasting a ton of time and re-evaluated for the next session.
• On 11/15/2021, I had the print outs of Nick’s and of Jordan’s articles and implemented the protocol. I reset my grip moving my hands in about 4 finger widths (from my ring/middle finger placed on the 32 inch ring to having my pinky finger ~2 finger widths inside the 32 inch ring). This resulted in a somewhat uncomfortable rack position that I had to work to get into; I could feel my shoulder blades pinched together. Moving narrower than that, I was unable to get the barbell below the spine of my scapula. Even if I really forced it, it felt wrong and the bar felt like it was slipping above the scapula when I squatted down.
• On the whole, I experienced a bit less elbow pain; however the pressure and pain I was experiencing was—this time—medial and bicep pain instead of lateral elbow and shoulder pain. (Why?)
• The new rack position feels weird, but I was able to train and did all three sets. Overall, it seems like a step in the right direction.
• I implemented the tempo bench after squatting. Each set temporarily alleviated my pain accumulated from squatting.

Videos and Pictures:

Video 1/Photo 1 (11/3/21): Wearing black shirt. Pre-adjustment squatting 210 lbs. Notice chest down, head down position and over-extended shoulders with elbows too high.

Video 2/Photo 2 (11/15/21): Wearing red shirt. Post-adjustment squatting 230 lbs. Notice chest higher up and elbows further down.

tendonitis_Photo 1_(11:3:21).jpg

tendonitis_Photo 2_(11:15:21).jpg

Questions:

• Is my grip width adjustment appropriate? Is it narrow enough? Can it be too narrow? I can still have neutral wrists at this new width. Can I expect for my tendonitis to resolve in this new position?
• Is the bar placed too high or low?
• Should I go ahead and implement the pin firing protocol or just stick with the tempo bench? (I need to start doing chins anyways)
• Do you have any other form tips/criticisms (e.g, get more parallel?)

Hope this level of detail is helpful and not overkill,
- John

[John Fioravanti]

Update: 11/17/21 Squat 235x5x3 (Video here). I think back angle may be too vertical and not enough hip drive.

[Pete Troupos]

Please read the sticky at the top of the forum about filming angles and high squats. You're not getting to depth.

[John Fioravanti]

My mistake about the filming angles. Thanks for the feedback, Pete. I will address those issues.