Let’s talk elbows

[petermg49]

Hi, all, I’m 52F, been weightlifting 10 months. I’m getting to higher dumbbell weights (yay!) but I’m also having some elbow pain. I assume my joints are slower to adapt to the weight training than my muscles. I’m overall conservative/slow paced in my lifting approach because I want to avoid injury: it takes me about one month of increasing reps before I move up to the next dumbbells that are just 2.5 lbs more.

This seems like it would be slow enough to not freak out my elbows but they beg to differ. I workout 3-4 times per week, alternating upper body and lower body. I’ve been substituting machines for some lower body exercises to give my elbows even more of a break on lower body days (e.g. do a machine hack squat instead of holding dumbbells during a squat). I’ve started doing elbow CARS, I try to always include some kind of move that strengthens my forearms.

What else can I do to baby my elbows— and make them stronger / bullet proof? I really don’t want to injure myself, I really like weight lifting but the elbow pain induced from lifting is a real drag during daily life. Tysm for any advice!

 

[steve_yavli]

@petermg49 See a physio. I have something called Golfers elbow, that came from Weight lifting. I just have to work within my limits

 

[petermg49]

@steve_yavli Oh shit. That is so obvious and I didn’t think of it. I will look up physical therapy in my health care benefits and see what I qualify for. Thanks!

 

[pilgrimparson]

@petermg49 Id consider elbow sleeves, SBD is my brand of choice. Personally I just grin and bare it with the use of tylenol when required.

 

[petermg49]

@pilgrimparson Elbow sleeves! Another thing I didn’t know about and need to learn about! Ty

 

[amn]

@petermg49 Certain movements, with a given amount of volume, and intensity, are going to lead to elbow pain. It's a typical part of training. Not something to be ignored though. Persistent and intensifying pain, day after day, week after week, can lead to a more intractable problem that takes longer to correct. There's a happy medium between worrying about every little joint niggle, and powering through. But it's good to change things up before pain becomes chronic.

• A low-stress week (or two) could be on order (across the board reduction in volume in and intensity). NOTE: does not mean a full layoff from training.
• A planned change in intensity (rep range and/or proximity to failure), perhaps with or without a change in weekly set volume. e.g. going from 5-10 rep range to 10-20, or 20-30.
• A change of exercises to stress the tissues in somewhat different ways. This way your elbows have a chance to calm down, while still training the muscles effectively.
• A change in technique / tempo / range of motion that is less irritating to the elbow -- this would frequently lead to a reduction in absolute load (weight of the dumbbells), to accommodate a stricter form or slower tempo.

Just some ideas.

 

[petermg49]

@amn Thank you. I really appreciate your response. I do change my programming every 8 weeks (your 3rd bullet) so I’ll look at scheduling a deload week (1st bullet) and I’ll do some research on changing up the range of motion (4th bullet) since I don’t know anything about that. I’ll also try to read up on different rep ranges (2nd bullet). Man, there is always so much to learn once you get into something.

 

[amn]

@petermg49

Man, there is always so much to learn once you get into something.

Yeah, there can be. Your fund of knowledge will slowly build over time, just like your fitness and physique.

Specifically when it comes to elbows, there can be a few common culprits. Certain barbell squat styles (not keeping your elbows down and tucked, gripping the bar too hard), certain skullcrusher techniques, etc, can lead to elbow flare-ups.

I will say, reducing range of motion is usually my last resort. I would try other technique changes first, and definitely try tempo (slow eccentrics, pausing at the stretched position, and maybe even slow concentrics as well).

Additional nuance on range of motion. If lengthened partials feel better than full range of motion, there is little downside to using these. e.g. if avoiding the lockout for things like bench or triceps extensions feels good, I would lean into this. Most of the benefits and growth happen when the muscle is lengthened / stretched (bent elbow), so if avoiding the last 10 degrees of extension (the lockout) gives you some relief, this is ok to do.

Safety nuance -- if you're bench pressing with a barbell, you should still lockout your elbows anytime you move the barbell out over your face (rack and re-reack with locked elbows)

 

[petermg49]

@amn I’m doing ez bar skull crushers lately—will swap those out and see if it helps. Will pay attention to elbow position and be sure to lock out. Ty!!!

 

[amn]

@petermg49 You could try neutral grip dumbbell skulls instead, or just change the touch point. Here’s a handy video that might generate some ideas:

 

[rapture99]

@petermg49 I get elbow pain on tricep exercises if I don’t fully isolate my triceps. I find you really need to build a good mind muscle connection and have the tricep do the work. Put your non working hand on your working tricep and feel it extend out. Doing this helped eliminate elbow pain for me.

 

[petermg49]

@rapture99 NOTED! I will pay more attention to form on triceps. I’m doing ez bar skull crushers at the moment so both hands are working. Will see if I can tell if that’s a problem and maybe sub out single arm triceps exercises. Thx

 

[petermg49]

@predrag TIL that skull crushers might be my elbow nemesis. Super appreciate everyone who mentioned skull crushers to me!

 

[shirl]

@petermg49 Couple of suggestions. Your hand and wrist position can aggravate your elbows, but this should be easy to experiment with since you said you are using mostly dumbbells. So during a bench press, for example, people typically hold the dumbbells at basically 9 and 3 so they form a straight line just like if you were using a bar. You don't have to do that. Twist them slightly to 10 and 4 and see if that helps.

Second, you may just need to reduce volume as you get older. You can start by eliminating isolation lifts such as tricep extensions. The compound lifts are far more important, so if you body is saying lets do a little less, keep those and scrap one or two of the lesser lifts.

 

[petermg49]

@shirl I like the 10 and 4 suggestion—had not considered the wrist position. I will dial down accessory moves and focus on compound lifts. Thanks for taking the time on these involved recos

 

[shirl]

@petermg49 No problem. Also, that's just one example. You'll see you can play with hand positioning on most lifts. Pull downs can be done with hands closer or farther apart and with palms facing towards you or away from you. Hopefully you can isolate what's been causing the pain.

 

[jbrad01x]

@petermg49 Elbow pain is likely due to forearm weakness, especially since you said you’re increasing dumbbell weights. Do some forearm and grip strength training. There’s a sub fully dedicated to grip training that has routines on it. Your forearm is getting exhausted before the target muscle and the tension ends up on your elbow — it’s how tennis elbow occurs.

 

[contentwithgod]

@jbrad01x I second this, I was having some elbow pain myself but after adding some forearm work into my routine the pain gradually disappeared. And you don’t need that many exercises for it

 

[jbrad01x]

@contentwithgod Yeah. Because your forearms already get a lot of work in, your volume tolerance is probably pretty low for any direct work. Dedicated routines are usually like once a week or twice at most.

 

[petermg49]

@jbrad01x Thanks for the sub recommendation—I’ll look for it now