possibly tennis elbow?

[kiki123]

I was recently living in canada and whilst there was restricted to using only dumbbells. Well long story short, the only triceps exercises I was doing were basic dumbbell movements and dips + the lying 2 arm dumbbell parallel Extension (that's what I think its called anyway) like a skull crusher with dumbells with palms facing each other.

Now I did this exercise even though the angle seemed to put a lot of stress on the elbow joint. I was naive and kept on working through it even with a reasonable amount of pain that seemed to get easier to cope with the more I went though the sets. I must have done this exercise and worked through the initial pain about 7 or 8 different occasions over the period of about 2 months before I stopped doing them.

Now fast forward to present roughly 6months since doing that stupid exercise I go to do EZ bar skull crushers and the area around the elbow joint will not allow me to go to a heavy weight without doing at least 6 or so light sets and eventually I can lift (just) what I was when I had absolutely no pain there.

The feeling is also there when I do hammer curls, It just doesn't feel like I can work the S***T out of my forearms because I feel weak in the joint area. It also effects the control I have over my brachii, brachialis and brachioradialis so I cant work them as hard.

Sorry for the big write up but If anyone can tell me what I've done or possible rehab options that would be great. Much appreciated.

[kiki123]

anyone? I suppose I will have to go see a specialist. My arms are shrinking sigh.

[sean_holland]

Its tendinitis, I have it too. Its in the inner and outer of my elbows. I do skull crushers.....I just power through it.

Some night I can't sleep cause it seems to bother me more laying down. Take Ibuprofen and wrap it, ice it if you need too.

Do some forearm work and strengthen the muscles around it. It'll get better if you make sure you strengthen the muscles surrounding the elbow that are lacking, and its in your forearms for sure.

[j4ever41]

i would suggest working around the pain and not thru the pain,if a movement causes pain /to much pain do not do it,have you tried ez curl bar skull crushers on decline? i see that you have been doing dips,do they cause pain? have you tried close grip bench press? you might have to back down on the amount of wt that you are using,you can try ib and ice to see if that helps,i had inner and outer elbow pain bad for 4 years,i tried all types of therapies and had minimal improvement, i did not improve until i started ART,
if your condition goes on to long it will become tendonosis,i made mine much worse in the beginning by working thru the pain.

[The Titan99]

Not trying to hijack here, but I and having some elbow/lower biceps pain the last week or so. I can also work through it but it really hurts when I turn my wrist to the inside (checking the time on my watch) or during the rotation on a Zottman curl-type movement. I've got one more week of high volume work and then two weeks of lower weight/high rep weeks in which I usually heal up quite nicely. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[kiki123]

Thanks for the info guys. I went to the physio twice already. He says I have a minor tear in the triceps tendon at the back of the arm. But he's a young guy straight out of med school so I'm not going to take every word he says as gospel. He did ultrasound and recommended I massage the tendon (laterally and vertically) where it inserts at the back of the elbow. He says its not a bad tear but could be a little deeper than usual. I might add he didnt focus any ultrasound/massage on the front of the arm around the bicep insertion where i also get the pain.

I have been working around the pain and also focusing on forearms. Static holds on chinup bar, captains of crunch hand grippers, wrist ext/curls etc. Cant do heavy hammers for obvious reasons.

j4ever41 I have been doing dips on the edge of a bench with my feet raised. Doesn't cause pain even with a couple of plates on my lap. I have been doing light sets of EZ bar skull crushers on flat bench but just to warm up, I will try decline next time. I have been doing close grip bench press's off the floor and this causes no pain. I have substituted heavier sets of skull crushers with overhead extensions with the rope attachment on the weight stack.

And what is ART??

Thanks.

[bigslick7878]

Avoid the movements that cause the pain.

If it is a small tear it will heal over time, but it could get worse if you try to push through it and ignore the pain.

I had tennis elbow for a while, stopped all triceps and forearm exercises and while it took a long time to heal (like 2 months) it went away eventually.

[maxdose]

OK from what you have explained and a couple others in this thread let me explain from an old guy whos had elbow problems bad.

Elbow issues that involve the forearms are usually one of two ailments-medial or lateral epicondylitis (golfers or tennis elbow) ghey right?

The problem is usually tennis or lateral-its caused by weak extensor muscles in the forearm and strong flexor muscles in the forearm- this imbalance is the issue.
A simple test is to see if you can do pushups (palm open) vs bench (palm closed) if it hurts doing closed you more than likely have lateral.
There are some other simple tests like does it hurt to make a tight fist?

The trick is to do extensor only forearm excercises- like reverse wrist curls thumbless. Also I like to wrap a couple rubber bands around my second sets of knuckles and open my hand against the resistance while watching television.

The bottom line is in everyday use we close our hands around things with some degree of tension- however we almost never open our hands against any resistance.
In weight lifting we grip the shit out of heavy objects all the time but again neglect the extensors- if you correct the imbalance and get the etiology of the problem in check you will be able to have a more permanent solution.
Ice, Ibuprofen and rest will help but they are temporary fixes.
Also make sure to keep your biceps stretched as they can contribute to the problems as well.

[kiki123]

Thanks maxdose you seem to know what you are talking about. I was afraid I would go to the physio and he would approach the problem from a theoretical point of view and not a bodybuilding point of view. He did however confirm it was not tennis elbow after doing the rudimentary tests. I tried the clench fist technique you talked about, and although it was not painful at first there is slight pain in the area afterwards. I would definitely agree with you about the over emphasis on flexor exercises and having weak extensors.

Genetically, I was born with skinny forearms and did go through a phase of working on them every week and put some mass on them. But lately I havent been doing this and I'll put all my effort into upper arms and I'll neglect the forearms which have noticeably shrunk. And yes, I use a very light weight on extensor exercises and they get burnt out quick!!

[JAMIE07652]

KIKI, Im in the same boat as you , I worked past the pain for the last two months . Last tuesday I gave in , saw my doctor and he gave me a shot of steriods in my elbow . Not sure that it helped much though , pain is still there . I have not worked my arms in 10days and will be doing some curls and tri work in the morning and after reading your replies , ill be taking the advice being offered by the other memeber ( thx for that guys ) and I hope we both feel better soon . This really sucks !

[kiki123]

Yeah its not fun JAMIE. I have been getting better over the last few weeks. Basically any form of hammers I've been staying away from. As j4ever41 recommended decline skull crushers and those are great! definitely helps focus all your effort on the muscle and less on the elbow.

I've been doing reverse preachers or reverse barbell curls to hit that part of the forearm but nothing compares to some heavy ass hammer curls but I'll have to wait a while before I get back into those again.

[KeyMastur]

Not trying to hijack here, but I and having some elbow/lower biceps pain the last week or so. I can also work through it but it really hurts when I turn my wrist to the inside (checking the time on my watch) or during the rotation on a Zottman curl-type movement. I've got one more week of high volume work and then two weeks of lower weight/high rep weeks in which I usually heal up quite nicely. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

sounds like flexor tendonitis - rest. trust me. let yourself shrink while your tendon heals itself.

[kiki123]

Just an update, I still can't do hammers without agrivating the joint. But skull crushers are no problem now. Ever since I went to decline skulls instead of flat there is no pain to speak of.

I do very narrow grip barbell curls as a substitute for hammers. I haven't worked through any pain for at least 3 months but I can tell the pain is still there. What should I do? See another specialist? continue to rest it? The physio I saw a while ago told me it should be ok within a few weeks, that hasn't happened.

One other thing, I'm training forearm extensors every arm day.