Bicep work--Why are my elbows sore?

kellymom

kellymom

Cathlete
Hi all,

I posted this in Ask Cathe, but I know there are many of you out there with great knowledge....so, I hope you can answer my question!

I've noticed lately that when I'm doing heavy bicep work (currently using the Gym Styles) my elbows start feeling sore and achey. It's particularly on the inside where the arm bends. It's not a muscle pain, I know that. Is this just par for the course when trying to increase strength, or am I harming something? It seems worse with a barbell than with dumbbells of the same weight. It was bad enough today during the slow count barbell curls that I had to skip some exercises even though my biceps weren't at failure yet. Any thoughts would be appreciated!


Thanks, guys, and have a great New Year!

Kelly
 
Might want to get that checked out. Sounds like it could be a tendon - and you do not want to work through tendonitis.
 
There is a muscle there known as the anconeus. It would make more sense if it was bothering you during triceps work, but since the biceps opposes the triceps, it could be that muscle. It is only an assistor meaning that it does no primary work in any way. It assists with "pronation" (when you have your palm facing the ceiling and then turn your hand down or inward from there) so maybe your hand positioning is incorrect while performing biceps work...? Just a thought.

Clarissa ;)
 
Not an expert, just my own personal experience here, but I sometimes feel pain on the inside of my elbow (not muscle "burn") when doing bicep curls with a barbell. When it happens, I back off the barbell and do hammer curls with dumbbells. For me, that does the trick. I also have problems with lying tricep head bangers using a barbell. Again, I switch to dumbbells with palms facing each other and I'm fine.

I think it's some weird structural issue with my elbows or the connective tissue there is just really slow to adapt to higher weight loads. HTH.

Jonahnah
Chocolate IS the answer, regardless of the question.
 
Thanks, guys!

I've had tennis elbow before and it's not that kind of pain--I only feel it while working the biceps and then it goes away after I'm done working out. It actually hurts at the crease of my arm where the bending takes place, not the outer edges where you feel tennis or golfer elbow--am I saying that clearly? I was surprised I had to modify the workout because it bothered me so much yesterday. I'm starting to suspect it's just something weird with me :)

Thanks for all your help!

Kelly

BTW--The poster who mentioned having to switch to hammer curls--I've found that I don't get the pain with those, just like you said.
 
Kelly, I've also been experiencing bicep and elbow pain the past week. It started with an itchy burn on the outside of my elbow and progressed to real pain to all the bicep tendons. In my research, I have discovered that when lifting barbells (especially), that one should never go beyond 90 degrees. Knowing this, I now see many instructors lower the barbell beyond this...clear down to a 180. The injury doesn't come from the flexing up, but the lowering down. There is an exercise one instructor has in their workout called "round the world" this too puts a big load on those biceps as you are extending beyond 90 degrees, even though you are laying on the bench.
Another cause of the pain is we may be gripping the weights too tight with the hands as opposed to having them just lay in our hands. I discovered this in Kelly Coffey Myer workouts as she mentions this a lot. The gripping is putting too much pressure on the forearm. I experimented with gripping the weight and just letting it rest in the palms...makes a world of difference.
What I found on the internet was the suggestion to use a forearm band with an elbow strip during exercise. Another cause is the rough texture of the weights themselves that are sending inflammatory signals through the nerves...again because of too tight a grip. In looking under tennis elbow, I found a link for new grips,which I just ordered. www.newgrip.com These are to work like the above suggestion and keep the weight distributed where it is supposed to go and not to the forearms and elbows. The testimonials mentioned some were able to lift 5-10 pounds heavier while wearing these grips.
I think Cathe gave you some excellent advice to your question as to how to proceed with the injury. Thanks for asking her this question as I am a fellow partner with you in this sort of injury.
 
Hi, Wanda-
Thanks for sharing all of your research with me :) I'm definitely going to pay close attention to how I grip the barbell/dumbbells and not lower down as far and see how it feels next time I do biceps.

My elbows are perfectly fine when I'm not working my biceps--so thank goodness it hasn't interfered with continuing my workouts!

Thanks for checkin' on me.

Happy New Year!

Kelly
 
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