WTF-Now Elbow Pain!!

[tzan]

I swear to god if it's not one thing it's another. Over the past couple weeks my right elbow has started to hurt me more and more. It's not that bad, I mean I just did my chest/tricep workout pretty good, but it's more of a nuisance than anything else. It sems to hurt the most on pushing exercises, but in particular on tricep pushing exercises. What the hell is this from, and how can I help heal it?? I mean I can't really stretch my elbow that effectively. Please help, I just started my cycle and don't want anyhting to be wrong with me.

 

[Zyglamail]

Is this pain kind of on the outer knob of the elbow? If so it likely tendonitis(often referred to specifically tennis elbo). I had it so bad last winter in my left elbow I couldnt curl a 20lb dumbell. I figured it would go away but it just kept getting worse and worse.

The bad news is there is no fast fix but the sooner you get treatment the sooner it will get fixed. The good news is it is easily fixed. First things first, the pain is often due to minor tears in tendon/ligament fibers, this irritation causes swelling and in turn pain. Most peoples (including most doctors) will tell you to ice it and rest it as well as take NSAIDS. While these do work to releive pain I can speak from experience they do nothing to heal the injury and more often than not actually prevent healing. The inflamation is an essential bodily function in repairing damaged tissue and when you circumvent it with medication you greatly slow or even prevent healing. For the average person this may not be a big deal but for those of us that push iron preventing the healing from taking place only means that in future workouts we are likely to cause yet a little more damage and the viscious circle progresses and things get worse from week to week.

Head over to prolonews.com and see if you can find a prolo doc in your area. It worked wonders for my elbow. Since then my back has acted up as well as the opposite elbow so I am getting them treated now.

 

[icelandic]

I'm begining to feel that dumbbells are to blame for alot of elbow and shoulder injuries. Especially if you train using low reps, you're pretty much forced to jerk the db into position for the lift unless you have insane rotator cuff strength. It's a shame too, becuase db movements are arguably more effective than their bb counterparts, but the connective tissue damage is real. I know one guy who was a former strength coach at the college level who blames heavy db presses for his degenerated rotator cuff. According to him, it isn't so much the movement itself as the act of getting th db's into place.

It might be a little late now, but my joints feel alot better in the morning now that I use flaxseed oil religously.

 

[Zyglamail]

I'm begining to feel that dumbbells are to blame for alot of elbow and shoulder injuries. Especially if you train using low reps, you're pretty much forced to jerk the db into position for the lift unless you have insane rotator cuff strength. It's a shame too, becuase db movements are arguably more effective than their bb counterparts, but the connective tissue damage is real. I know one guy who was a former strength coach at the college level who blames heavy db presses for his degenerated rotator cuff. According to him, it isn't so much the movement itself as the act of getting th db's into place.

It might be a little late now, but my joints feel alot better in the morning now that I use flaxseed oil religously.

Heavy dumbells could play a large roll in damaging the connective tissue, but thats something that can easily and effectivly not only be repaired through prolo but actually strengthened to boot. So many people have shoulder surgery where cartiledge is removed from the joint. Now why in the hell would you remove cartiledge? Because its rubbing and causing pain? Thats like having a door where the hinges have come loose and instead of tightening the hinges, you simply make a bigger opening for the door so it will close. A simplistic representation for sure, but tearing out cartiledge does not FIX the underlying problem and hence the joint will never heal and why so many people never actually have a full and painfree recovery.

If you have aching joints etc, I highly recommend an alternative method of treatment before going under the knife.

 

[icelandic]

Alot of times surgery is done when damaged cartiledge is floating around inside a joint after being detached by an injury. Yeah, you're right about going under the knife, only do so after all other options have been exhausted. I find it rather odd that someone can injure themselves in the weightroom bad enoungh to require surgical intervention. Thats one reason why I strongly oppose explosive movements in the highschool athletic setting. BTW what is "prolo" ?

 

[Zyglamail]

I can understand having floating debris removed but I still think surgery is an uneeded approach. If the stability of the joint gets repaired the body will take care of the loose tissue on its own over time.

Many cartiledge injuries are due to joint laxity. Strains and sprains to tendons/ligaments cause joints to become sloppy and this allows for improper joint movement and wear and tear. Many injuries the body will heal on its own. The most common exceptions are athletes who dont want downtime and thus always under stress due to theri activity. Or those that simply are looking to stop the pain and in doing so stop the healing.

Prolo=prolotherapy. Its a treatment used to stimulate the healing process of tendons/ligaments by injecting a solution into the damages tendons/ligaments and in turn promotes the bodies natural healing process. After treatment you can usually get back to normal exercise schedule within 2-4 days. For example for my severe tendonitis which drastically affected all my lifts it took 4 treatments, usually 4 weeks apart. During this time I only missed a couple workouts immediatly after treatment and the injury that didnt heal on its own was goaded into healing with minimal down time. Often time with surgery or other means you miss weeks on end and then still never fully recover.

Visit prolonews.com for a lot of helpfull articles specific to certian areas as well as a Dr locator.

 

[b fold the truth]

ZostrixHP applied 4x per day every day
Warm up A LOT
ibuprofen 4x per day (keep inflammation down)
widen your grip on your squats
ice
heat
rest

B True

 

[PatBateman]

when doing presses with db, I simply rest them on my knee in a hammer position and kick the knees up to get the db in place. HAven't had any rotator problem so far.

 

[Zyglamail]

ZostrixHP applied 4x per day every day
Warm up A LOT
ibuprofen 4x per day (keep inflammation down)
widen your grip on your squats
ice
heat
rest

B True

I can gurantee if you keep inflamation down with ice and ibuprofin you will be hampering the healing process greatly, sure you will feel better but your just masking the pain and if you continue to lift hard and heavy with injured tendon/ligaments your just doing additional damage and futher masking of the problem which will sooner or later result in amuch more serious injury.

For such a bunch of big tough guys I find it rather ironic how many cant handle a little pain from inflamation, expecially when that pain is the road to healing and recovery. Instead far too many people today seek to cure the symptom (ie pain) and ignore the underlying problem(ie tendon/ligament damage).

 

[b fold the truth]

I can gurantee if you keep inflamation down with ice and ibuprofin you will be hampering the healing process greatly, sure you will feel better but your just masking the pain and if you continue to lift hard and heavy with injured tendon/ligaments your just doing additional damage and futher masking of the problem which will sooner or later result in amuch more serious injury.

For such a bunch of big tough guys I find it rather ironic how many cant handle a little pain from inflamation, expecially when that pain is the road to healing and recovery. Instead far too many people today seek to cure the symptom (ie pain) and ignore the underlying problem(ie tendon/ligament damage).

Hmmmmm...come train with me for a few weeks...hard, heavy, intense, always...and then choose to never use ibuprofen and ice.

I can't imagine any doctor who would suggest that you NOT keep inflammation down to help the joint heal quicker. Just let it be inflammed??? You can't be serious...it is NOT going to heal while it is inflammed. I can't imagine you or anyone else just training through pain...and if you have I highly doubt that it was any kind of SERIOUS pain. Who knows though...you may be one of the tougher men on Earth and I may be a big wuss...

I am a competitor who can not take time off for a small injury. I find a way to keep training, work around the injury, and be smarter in the end...till then...ice, ibuprofen, icy hot...and I will keep getting bigger and stronger.

B True