I’m 9 months into my training, and for the past 2 months, my press has largely plateaued. A few weeks ago I started the BBM press-focused program, and whilst my other lifts have been improving, the press has stubbornly refused to improve. This week I started getting elbow tendon pain when pressing, and I thought “oh great, now I’ll have to rest if for a few weeks”.
During press warmups today I was experiencing the elbow pain again, and I decided to change my grip. Until then, I had used a grip which involved me placing the heels of my palms onto the barbell, with my elbows flared outwards at about 30 degrees. I’d then grip the bar tightly, and crank my elbows under the bar, by my sides. This seemed to create a good amount of tension before I would unrack the bar and perform the lift.
I changed my grip by grabbing the bar with my elbows by my side, bar positioned into a bulldog style. I unracked the bar, pressed and whaddya know, there was no pain. I was very happy with this, but I was even happier to find I was about 10% stronger with this grip too, and I performed my best ever press workout!