Hey guys, first post on the site, Ive noticed a very large disparity between my left medial and right medial triceps, i do all the regular exercises, dips, skull-crushers, close grip, Tate, rolling dumbbell extensions, everything.
The left one just doesn’t seem to grow and I am having a problem with the stability of the elbow now when I am doing dips or any triceps exercise when the arm is straight and has weight on it such as the top of the dip exercise. It’s starting to really piss me off because I don’t know what to do, i went to the doctor and was diagnosed with bone spurs, but it looked like they would more likely affect my bicep instead of tri. Any suggestions are really appreciated, thanks alot guys.
I wasn’t diagnosed with anything, but I do know about the pain you are talking about. Don’t do anything a doctor would tell you not to, but what helped me was warm ups. You could try rope pull downs with a few sets of 20 reps with light weight to get the blood flowing. Over extending is a bitch on the elbows too.
Not trying to nit-pick but I imagine you mean the long head of the triceps. The medial head is fairly small and more limited in function, the long head is the one that gets thick and strong from heavy pressing.
You can pick-up the elbow sleeves from EliteFTS, too. As far as the size differences, it’ll even out eventually, do one or two extra sets on something relatively light on the lagging side per week, doesn’t sound like much but it’ll add up.
And for that matter, make sure you’re not doing silly shit like setting your arms up unevenly on the bench, if one arm were getting a lot more weight than the other it would have a tendency to be a little bigger.
And stop jacking off with the same arm every time.
[quote]Ghost22 wrote:
And for that matter, make sure you’re not doing silly shit like setting your arms up unevenly on the bench, if one arm were getting a lot more weight than the other it would have a tendency to be a little bigger.
And stop jacking off with the same arm every time. [/quote]
yeah doc was a dick, said not to worry about them and stop lifting heavy, i obviously did not pay him any attention. ghost, ive got the elbow sleeves, but it’s definitely the medial head, its almost non existent on my left arm. it feels like the elbow is really lax and almost hyper-extends.
i have no idea what the hell is up i rolled it out with a tennis ball yesterday all around the top of the elbow, it felt like it was really shitty quality of tissue, ill get some of the blue heat, but what elbow sleeves do you recommended that can be worn the whole workout? i have the super heavy ones and i need to take them off between sets because of how tight they get
[quote]joehammer10 wrote:
yeah doc was a dick, said not to worry about them and stop lifting heavy, i obviously did not pay him any attention. ghost, ive got the elbow sleeves, but it’s definitely the medial head, its almost non existent on my left arm. it feels like the elbow is really lax and almost hyper-extends.
i have no idea what the hell is up i rolled it out with a tennis ball yesterday all around the top of the elbow, it felt like it was really shitty quality of tissue, ill get some of the blue heat, but what elbow sleeves do you recommended that can be worn the whole workout? i have the super heavy ones and i need to take them off between sets because of how tight they get[/quote]
I’ve really grown to dislike doctors over the past decade.
I don’t think your triceps have much to do with your elbow feeling lax unless you’ve had a tear and that head isn’t fully attached anymore?
Are you doing any tri-extension variations with a neutral or reverse grip? Lying neutral-grip tri-press works all three heads equally, and any reverse-grip movement (except overhead) focuses tension on the medial head by putting the other heads at a mechanical disadvantage.
I believe the medial head is supposed to get a lot of stimulation from heavy pressing movements (more accurately, heavy elbow extension), board presses and the like, might try that and continued tennis-ball rolling.
I use an XL pair of these for my knees and elbows (pretty tight on the knees, snug on the elbow but not uncomfortable), putting the blue heat on first, then putting the sleeves on ensures warm and toasty elbows your whole workout. You could probably just call up Elite and ask them which size to order for a more relaxed fit, they’re supposed to be pretty helpful.
I usually take them off when I’m done with my heavy pressing, though. They kinda get in the way during chins/rowing/curls etc.
JayPierce ill have to try fooling around with some reverse benching, it could absolutely not be the medial head that is the problem, it just isn’t there on my body, so i figured that it was the problem, ill focus on hitting my tri’s up, and try the left one for a few more sets and see how i fare from that.
I really appreciate all the input you guys are giving me
I’ve really grown to dislike doctors over the past decade.
[/quote]
I think docs get a bad rap here because they aren’t well prepared to handle people in our situations. Most people they see are average and get hurt doing hobbies instead of something we consider a way of life. Telling some scrub to stop doing what hurts is good advice normally but is obviously insufficient and they don’t have the info to make a more informed recommendation. I think that the various injury threads on T-Nation are a gold mine. I’d love to see more doctors with the knowledge and experience to help out serious lifters but you know how it is.
[quote]joehammer10 wrote:
JayPierce ill have to try fooling around with some reverse benching, it could absolutely not be the medial head that is the problem, it just isn’t there on my body, so i figured that it was the problem, ill focus on hitting my tri’s up, and try the left one for a few more sets and see how i fare from that.
I really appreciate all the input you guys are giving me[/quote]
Not sure if reverse-grip benching will give you the same results. Reverse-grip one-handed triceps pressdowns or skull crushers (maybe a DB variation) would be the best route.
I’ve really grown to dislike doctors over the past decade.
[/quote]
I think docs get a bad rap here because they aren’t well prepared to handle people in our situations. Most people they see are average and get hurt doing hobbies instead of something we consider a way of life. Telling some scrub to stop doing what hurts is good advice normally but is obviously insufficient and they don’t have the info to make a more informed recommendation. I think that the various injury threads on T-Nation are a gold mine. I’d love to see more doctors with the knowledge and experience to help out serious lifters but you know how it is.[/quote]
Yeah, I understand their situation. The thing that bothers me is that they can’t admit they they’re not equipped to answer the questions I have or instruct me on what I need to do.
I mean, I work on aircraft. I’ve worked on aircraft as small as a Bell 206 on up to big boys like the Airbus 310. I’ve been in my field for well over a decade. But if you ask me about fighter jets, I’m gonna have to defer you to an Air Force technician or something. I’m not going to tell you “you shouldn’t fly your F-15 because it’s dangerous”.
Doctors seem to think there’s some sort of shame in uttering the words “I don’t know”, and get just shy of fucking pissed if you demonstrate a knowledge of something ‘doctor-ish’ they don’t know.
[quote]joehammer10 wrote:
yeah doc was a dick, said not to worry about them and stop lifting heavy, i obviously did not pay him any attention. ghost, ive got the elbow sleeves, but it’s definitely the medial head, its almost non existent on my left arm. it feels like the elbow is really lax and almost hyper-extends.
i have no idea what the hell is up i rolled it out with a tennis ball yesterday all around the top of the elbow, it felt like it was really shitty quality of tissue, ill get some of the blue heat, but what elbow sleeves do you recommended that can be worn the whole workout? i have the super heavy ones and i need to take them off between sets because of how tight they get[/quote]
I think you got the right idea. You should probably do frequent rehabish sessions like you did with the tennis ball. Don’t always use the tennis ball though, try rhythmic poses to grease the groove so to speak around your elbow joint, do intense wrist rolls to loosen your wrists while your at it. You should be aiming to pump some blood through the area so s to cleanse it of the junk, debris, and sludge.
thanks jay, ill try them this weekend, the reverse benching is different, feels very good, just different. but yeah the rehabbing with the tennis ball and traction?? with a band seem to be working great