Elbow pain, Rows, and more Pain

I had some short questions concerning injuries I’ve accumulated quite rapidly over the past few training sessions (~1 week).

Left Elbow Pain (inside, just below bicep): I believe it came from heavy benching with a slightly bent bar. The bent side was the left, and it felt like my elbow would pop out of its socket the entire working set. It was certainly a lot harder than it should have been. It affected my squat today, obviously, as I could not tighten up my upper back significantly without aggravating it in some way. I focused on the lift, and got my training done. In your opinion, does the bent bar have the ability to cause this minor injury?

Or, could it be a simple matter of not enough bicep work? I do rows 2x a week, but after the aggravation of my elbow, I tried curls. Amazingly, the pain subsided. More curls, less pain, perhaps?

Stalling on Rows: I’m beginning to stalk on barbell rows from the floor with a supine grip at 225lbs. I barely got the last rep of the last set today. I implemented a 3x8 earlier in the week with 185lbs. I believe my deadlift would benefit from more pulling volume, as I have run out increasing my deadlift rep scheme to 1x1 per week for the next ~2 weeks. I have added a 3x6 deadlift day to correct my posture, I have a tendency to lose tightness in my upper back. Any thoughts on the BB rows rep scheme?

Major Wrist/Forearm Pain: This coincides with benching and pressing only. I am having tremendous pain in my wrists and forearms during my reps of both. As soon as I release the bar, the pain shoots up to my elbow then dissipates within the following few seconds. I believe my wrist is too far in extension, but when I take my grip I have the bar going across the meat of my hand. Any thoughts on a solution?

Thank you B-Bell Medicine!

  1. Maybe? We can’t really give you a confident recommendation here. Anecdotally, curls can help with elbow pain, so if they help, go for it.

  2. Your deadlift programming is the priority here. Training the deadlift at 1x1 per week is a terrible idea. Focus on getting your DL up, which will do more for helping you row heavy weight.

  3. Try some wrist wraps, and fixing your wrist extension. This requires actively maintaining a neutral wrist.