Hi, about ten days ago I started suffering from pain on the inner side of my left elbow while bench pressing. Since then, I have had frequent pain in this area, particularly during bench press and on days after I bench. Going heavy on OHP seems to aggravate things a little bit, but not to the same extent as bench press. After doing a bit of research, I think this may be medial epicondylitis, also known as golfers elbow. I was following an NLP program that had me benching 3x per fortnight and have decided to cut the benching back to 1x per week. I have also reduced the weight I am using and doing more reps to make up the volume, as lower weights don’t seem to aggravate the condition as much. I am hoping to get some advice on the best way to deal with this issue going forward so that I can get back on track with using heavier weight as soon as possible. I did some reading and purchased a couple different sizes of a product called the Theraband FlexBar; there seems to be a bit of research supporting the use of this product to treat tendon issues in the elbow. Does anyone have experience with this product, and is it an effective treatment for medial epicondylitis? Is there anything else I should be doing to manage this condition whilst continuing with my NLP program? Any comments and advice would be greatly appreciated!
Hey @RelevantLogic sorry to hear about the elbow issue. What has training for the provocative movements looked like recently? I don’t typically recommend the Theraband FlexBar for this issue. Rather, find tolerable loading to the area and then dose in isolation movements to the area - example biceps curls or wrist flexion with tempo work.
Hey Michael, thanks for the reply!
On the first workout after the issue arose, I deloaded the weight by 20% or so and increased the amount of reps and sets I was doing (from 3x5 to 4x8). On subsequent workouts I have increased the weight a bit and am doing 5x5. I also bought an elbow brace which I use when benching. I am still getting some pain, but it is not as bad as it was before and I am managing to work through it.
Do you think it would be detrimental to use the FlexBar? I have been using it for a bit under a week, and if pressed I would say that it is helping - though it is still a bit early to be certain.
How often should I be doing bicep curls and wrist flexion work? And can you recommend a set/rep/RPE scheme?