so I’ve got a meet next month and my fucking elbow is killing me. I know it’s some sort of tendonitis. I’m opening up for some tips to get me through this meet. After that I can recover/lay off it and shit. But I’ve got 2 more heavy bench sessions and then the meet I need to get through first.
Here is what I’m doing so far:
heat & ice at night (when heating pad and ice packs are readily available)
daytime I put muellers liniment oil (like extreme icy hot) on it with an ACE bandage holding it on there with a small amount of compression.
taking more fish oil and upping my overall fat content
just ordered a joint support supplement too.
but what I need to know are things to help me when I’m actually training! last night I was aiming for 305x3 and couldn’t get past 280 due to the pain. I don’t flare my elbows at all either.
this is a USAPL meet that I am doing in the RAW category so I can’t put any shirts or wraps on my elbow.
i feel the paid a lot on the decent when benching, and then right off my chest where i typically explode off.
i’m tapering now, so i’m going to nix any tri work and add in some band work (light band, high rep) and do some pressdowns/curls as suggested by cressey. maybe 1-2x a day.
i’ve got until march 26th to get things feeling better without losing any of my bench strength. i’m open to anything at this point.
Two different places? Have you tried NSAIDs (Advil, Alleve, etc)? Also I would drop extensions for tricep work in favor of reverse grip bench in the smith, pullovers, or pressdowns, and start squatting with either a manta ray, a giant cambered bar, or a safety squat bar. All relieve stress from the elbows compared to a low bar back squat.
For your heavy benches consider benching off of foam, with light reverse bands, or possibly against chains to remove some of the load off the chest, where this tends to hurt the worst (right?).
You can and should ice for 15 minutes every hour. Dunking your whole arm in an ice bath is more effective than just laying an ice pack on the skin, so consider that as well.
If you have access to a tens unit they seem to work well for this problem. Seeing a physical therapist in the short term might be worth it because they tend to have cool gear like that.
Not 100% sure exactly what your pain is like, but these are measures guys at my gym and I have used in the past to combat elbow pain.
[quote]B rocK wrote:
i feel the paid a lot on the decent when benching, and then right off my chest where i typically explode off.
i’m tapering now, so i’m going to nix any tri work and add in some band work (light band, high rep) and do some pressdowns/curls as suggested by cressey. maybe 1-2x a day.
i’ve got until march 26th to get things feeling better without losing any of my bench strength. i’m open to anything at this point. [/quote]
OK, so when you’re lowering the bar you feel it mostly on the inside crease of your elbow? If that is the case it’s almost definitely caused by back squatting with a low bar position. Squat with a Manta Ray, cambered bar, or SSB and it will just about go away.
[quote]B rocK wrote:
I’m taking advil 400mg x2 a day and have been for about a week.
[/quote]
You can probably up that to 800-1000mg before your workout. I’ve gone as high as 1200mg. I wouldn’t want to take that much long-term but to get you through to the meet it will be ok.
I was going to also ask about squatting. I always get that pain when I’m squatting heavy, I wrap a wrist wrap tight around the top of my forearm when squatting and that sometimes helps.
I had that problem too for a while, and it fixed itself from forcing my elbows up during squats. Higher rep squat sets seemed to aggravate it the most.
Doing some self massages on the area seemed to alleviate a lot of the pain.
I first went in 2004 and have gone back several times since. The guy here in NY uses some sort of lube, and it really sorta sucks that way. I like to be in pain during, it makes me feel 100x better after.
