Hello everyone. I am new here and also not very experienced in PL. I started switching from BB to PL 1 month ago so I bought 7 weeks Hypertrophy + GPP template.
My problem is pain in Biceps/Brachialis area while preforming Bench Press and even OHP, pain is not very strong while working woth lower weights but it gets very painful at like 70-80% 1RM and makes BP/OHP unperformable. I guess pain started when I forced myself to get into low bar SQ position, because it was very hard to even reach the bar.
How does it affect my BP? It is completely painless untill I reach last 1/3 of negative movement, there it get very painful and I feel like body just “turned off” my pressing power.
Anyone had same problem? Maybe someone have something that could help me? Thanks in advance.
Hi Christian,
I had the same issue when I first switched to low-bar squats from high-bar squats. The pain was debilitating - I couldn’t do bench presses at all after squatting. In my case, the problem was that I wasn’t flexible enough for the squat grip I was using, and I ended up carrying a lot of weight on my arms instead of my back. Switching to a wider squat grip with thumbs over the bar Starting-Strength-style solved the problem completely.
Good Video on the SS-style grip https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8b6KzyuKaE
Squat University video on the issue: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PxpAxqU1UE
Thanks, the thing is I already switched to wide grip and it is better but now it takes just a small wrong move and I end up being unable to BP for weeks. Is there any good way to treat that kind of injury?
I’ve experienced this problem as well. A few things I’ve done that helped were:
Press or Bench before I squat, as I found that performing these lifts was painful after squatting.
Adjusting my grip to a more comfortable position, and making sure that my back is carrying the weight of the bar and not my hands, as I found myself doing this when my arms started to get sore.
Reducing the load to what I can tolerate without exacerbating the soreness in my biceps.
I’ve recently switched to high bar, and I have no issues with my arms/elbows. This may also be an option for you if you can’t seem to get comfortable with the low bar position.
I have experienced the exact same issue as some have already mentioned after starting with low bar squatting and doing the bench press on the same day. The recommendations so far are very similar to what have solved this for me as well so I’d like to just give out some further ideas and maybe additional tips.
Squat grip. You’re probably not setting up correctly as some have mentioned (and depending on anthropometrics, e.g. longer forearms than upper arms, this will cause pain for some more than others). My suggestion: try to widen your grip just a bit by one or 2 fingers width for now. At the same time and probably more importantly, as some have also mentioned already, try not to raise your elbows too high. If you do this it’s probably caused by an incorrect grip altogether, which doesn’t transfer enough pressure into the bar, forcing you to compensate by lifting your elbows. Try not to hold the bar in your hands but push onto the bar with the heel of your hands. If your wrists are allowed to bend, you will automatically raise your elbows to compensate, so fix this here. Also try to push out your chest more… the bar needs to ride on your back and your hands are just there to keep it from rolling down.
It will take time… depending on how inflamed your elbows are at this point it can take weeks to months to fully resolve so don’t expect things to get better right away, even if you start doing things correctly now.
While it resolves try something like a 4 day upper / lower body split and avoid squatting and benching on the same day until you can tolerate doing so again.
Wear elbow sleeves for squats and benches to keep your elbows warm and to add some support (I advise not using them for the press though as the material will bunch up on the inside of your elbows and fuck things up further). This has helped me a lot and I was able to stop using them after my pain subsided.