Hello there. Thank you for all the high-quality support.
Not sure if any of this info is relevent
Age: 22 y/o
Height: 5’10.5"
Weight: 82 kg
Program: Beginner Template-Week 6 (Squat 220>270, Bench 175>205, Sumo DL 290>385); I sort of did Starting Strength for 2 months before the beginning of the pandemic last year.
I’ve developed symptoms of what I think is a tennis elbow. I think it was from holding up more than a fair share of weight in my arms while squatting. Following this, I started wearing cotton t-shirts (it was harder to prevent bar slip with an elastane t-shirt), and focused on loading the weight on my back before I’d unrack it. The pain subsided really quick, until I did Pendlay Rows with body English. It really bothered my elbow and I had very sharp pain during the session and after. It’s now tolerable but still noticeable when I’m resting. A few points to note:
Rowing movements seem to aggravate it (I’m yet to try any light tempo work)
OHP seems to aggravate it to a lesser degree (I did ~90% of my usual work weight today at a 3-pause-3 tempo today, there was still some pain but I could tolerate it well)
Bench Press doesn’t bother me, although there is very slight instability when my elbow is bent at 90 degrees (this gets better and vanishes towards the end of the warm-ups)
Triceps isolation either overhead or pushdowns with a cable cause discomfort
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Reverse biceps curls feel better than regular curls
I’m able to induce the pain just by flexing my arm muscles at a 90 degree elbow angle. The brunt of the pain seems to be around the lateral epicondyle, and I’m able to feel some slight pain (not sure if it is just radiating, but feels like it) while touching and probing around the entire elbow joint as well, but mostly on the lateral side. And a little bit at the very end of the triceps. I’ve sort of marked the pain location in this image.
Hey - thanks for the questions and sorry to hear about the situation. It is reasonable to adjust dosage of activity to help with your pain experience. The variables that can be altered to affect dosage include: mode (exercise selection), frequency, volume, intensity, and duration. We talk a good bit about modifying in these situations in these two articles:
Otherwise, we’d be happy to consult with you to provide individual advice and guidance. Just complete our intake paperwork here: Pain & Rehab Consultation
Hello again. I wanted to update that my elbow pain is now gone.
Not sure which of the modifications I did over the last few weeks contributed positively to the recovery, but here they are:
During low bar squats, I ensured that most of the weight was held on my back/rear delts, and I did the minimum with my arms to keep the bar from rolling backwards.
Replaced explosive Pendlay rows (aka with more body English) with a slower tempo at lighter weights.
Did slow tempo on OHP with light weights (didn’t alter the bench since that didn’t bother me).
A fair amount of warm-up sets.
Light hammer curls on GPP days. I must say that it was very daunting to be in pain during those initial couple of weeks, but reading the free resources from the BBM crew and anecdotes from others gave me confidence that sticking to the plan would give me the best chance at healing and returning to baseline.
Thanks to the entire BBM crew, now I have a few tricks up my sleeve to manage such situations in the future ;).
