Dr. Squat - Dr. Fred Hatfield

You're squeezing the bar! Let up! Hold the bar as though it were a newborn babe!

Meantime, ice it aggressively. 5-6 times a day for a couple of days.

Do NOT squeeze the bar! Ice the elbows! Ice/heat is a therapy that I used to recommend because of research. Now, I say ice it because of more recent research. Do it. Frequently.

Sounds like tendonitis to me...If you flair your elbows you put more demand on the shoulder and pecs, which may be ideal from a bodybuilding perspective. bringing the elbows in will allow you to use more lats in addition to the pecs, and for most people will allow them to press more weight. For me, I press best raw with my elbows at about a 45 degree angle from my body, careful not to "tuck" the elbows and keep forearm perpendicular to the ground. With a shirted bench press, tucking the elbows will help make it easier to touch, but will also beat up the tendons in the elbow.

If I were you I would ice the elbows frequently, take a break from anything that irritates them, and after a few weeks come back focused on trying the 45 degree angle with no tucking of the elbows.

As far as gripping the bar, a tight grip seems to help me stay tighter all over, and trying to "pull the bar apart" lets me really engage the back and lats. I try to envision myself wrapping the bar around my chest.

Just my thoughts, take em with a grain of salt.

I have also found that putting a rubber band around your fingers (with all five fingers touching), and then spreading the fingers as far apart as possible and stretching the rubber band has helped my tendenitis in my left elbow. Has not gotten rid of it, but the pain is much less and is decreasing everyday. Also, I am able to lift normally if I do this.

I have found that, for me and a few others at least, the recipe for fighting back elbow tendonitis is ice (as others have suggested), ibuprofen (up to 2400 mg/day, which is prescription strength but can be reached with over the counter brands), and (probably most important) pumping blood into my forearms with wrist rollers done with the arms hanging down and working up slowly to heavy weights. But do not use so much weight that it hurts. The forearms should feel really pumped when you finish. I have had success with other lifters and even non-lifters with this approach.

Jim

Hi Kid

Elbow tendinitis will be an imbalance somewhere between the muscles acting on the elbow joint.

How much of the linked thread applies to you?

http://drsquat.com/content/main/training-and-nutrition/tendinitis-bench-...

My elbows are fine now. Hope yours are soon.

Nick

Ok, I tried the ice-several-times-a-day thing and it worked amazingly well. Had no idea... guess it really is tendinitis. I had also thought about doing curls a few weeks ago. My elbow was REALLY bad... when I started doing curls it got a lot better. Curls + ice means its tremendously better.

I was doing no direct bicep work for a while, just lots and lots of pull ups. Ok guess that's over with now... I'll start doing the ABC routine on my biceps but sticking with power work for most other stuff.

I've been doing wrist curls like crazy. In fact been doing them more than my biceps... starting to look like Popeye.

I decided to give the aggressive ice treatment a try after spending a few hundred dollars with my ART specialist with no results. After 3 days of constant ice, my elbow is finally feeling better. The last 2 years have been very painful for both of my elbows. But, I am finally on the right track.

So, for pain in the inside forearm just below elbow - Thor's hammer and finger extensions help. For pain above elbow in tricep tendon - icing and curls helps.

So, for the young powerlifters out there, there is a reason to do curls. Man, it's hard to believe that I said that.

Willis Lewis, Jr.
"The man that dreams success is already successful"

You can say that again. We have 3 racks in the gym I lift at now. One day all three were being used for curls. Not one of them were even curling much over the bar and they were at it for about 10 minutes. Cheat reps, forced reps, and assisted reps with 65-80 pounds is a funny sight.

Willis Lewis, Jr.
"The man that dreams success is already successful"

Quote:

Curls? Are'nt those a waste of time if you do heavy rows?

***Not at all! Personally, I like to finish my workouts with concentration curls using the pink dumbbells for an extra pump - sometimes I have to grunt to get thru the last reps, but it's OH so worth it!

Pete,

The curls will ensure structural balance between the biceps and triceps. I have always done a ton of chins and rows and still developed elbow problems.

Willis Lewis, Jr.
"The man that dreams success is already successful"

Assuming that 2 sets of 22 reps was all Chet did. Arnold's physique continued to improve. WHat happened Chet? And there's no indication of Arnold adopting the "good ole" 2by22 method.

Nothing wrong with a routine like that for a short microcycle, but as a way to train it's a joke.

besides, Arnold was 18 or 19 then.

"To really appreciate just how strong this man was, consider this: Chet Yorton did 22 reps with 225lbs for his first set of bench presses and 22 reps with 325lbs for the second set."

Not bad!

Thor's hammer fixes problems in the forearm.

You need to undergo aggressive ice treatment as Doc described for pain related to tricep tendinitis.

Willis Lewis, Jr.
"The man that dreams success is already successful"

Well my arm is almost 19 inches in this pic (drug free) so I do not think it should be the loser geeek doomed to skinnydom, but that is the verdict for some folks true.
http://imagenic.net/viewer.php?file=z95a9pbpuoebuht02jbn.jpg

Bear in mind, I am so focused on remaining injury free that I take note of the slightest asymmetry, ie. left elbow feeling a bit more taxed than the left one.

Todd I DO think I have an issue. Because doing preacher curls as well as "preacher" curls with the resting pad more vertical I found that my RIGHT arm tended to be 1 rep stronger or so. Meaning I started with the left one. How to address this problem specifically?

Btw, how do you feel about Arnold's trick of making the DB slightly heavier in one end, thus adding weight to the supination when doing DB curls?

If there is a unilateral imbalance, use dumbbells for everything, start with the weakest side, and never perform more work wih the strongest side.

As for Arnie. Ok for variation, you achieve essentially the same effect by gripping the DB with either your palm or thumb against the plates. Effectively off-setting your grip. Use such a grip with Zottman curls.