How do you avoid pain in the joints when lifting heavy weights?
I find myself unable to increase the weight of my lifts because a particular joint (left elbow) acts up as soon as I go beyond a set weight in my lifts.
My right arm isn’t troubled by this and can easily handle heavier weights, but in the interest of symetry, I find myself unable to progress because of my left arm.
As far as I know I am not injured (X-rays showed nothing wrong) nor am I suffering from arthritis or similar conditions.
Any advice would be helpfull.
Be sure to train both muscles at a joint (flexion AND extension) about equally, often joint pain comes from imbalance in a muscle and its antagonist.
Also, be sure to let the joint heal up completely and start very slowly with heavy weight work.
Avoid sharp angles, try some partial ROM work.
Also, eating fish regularly (or taking fish oil supplement if you don’t like fish) helps for some people with joint problems.
Also, if the problem persists be sure to talk to a specialist (preferable a sports physician)
Techniques I’ve come to embrass over the years involve non-lockouts of my presses, and pre-exhaustion of larger muscles with an isolation exercise. As your strength catches up it won’t make a bit of difference.
I always start my shoulder workout with dumbell laterals, and sometimes even front raises before I get to any pressing movements (and I still can press the 110’s for strict, non-lockouts). I imagine if I didn’t I could move much more weight, but my joints would be a horrible mess.
-S
Concentrate make sure your left arm technique is correct. Like someone else said make sure you don’t hurt it for a while, say 2 weeks. For that time lighten the load slightly and up the reps. Also add in some reps for just the left arm.