Arm/Elbow pain from good mornings?

[Micah B.]

Hello all,

Last Friday, i was doing some heavy GM's and afterwards, when i had been home for a little bit, my arm started feeling a little tight/slight discomfort in the lower bicep area. I took it easy over the weekend, and lifted again on monday and it was pretty darn uncomfortable. Tuesday i attempted squats and the pain became unbearable. Ive been resting since then.

Does this make sense at all?

[Barry Perkins]

i sometimes get the same pain...but it's usually from overtraining (which doesn't take much for my old a**), sort of in the elbow joint right at the end of the bicep and even into the forearms. You might be flexing your biceps when doing your lifts, which is a no-no, that could put alot of strain on your tendons and bicep muscle... just some thoughts/ideas...keep the arms straight..almost relaxed...remember...the arms and merely hooks with which to grab the weight...

[Corey DuCharme]

Barry made a good point about the bicep strain, but I'm wondering if the bar resting across your upper back is impinging a nerve. Any numbness or tingling in your arm?

[barabas47]

what kind of pain is it. Any shooting pains? It's tough to strain a bicep with GM's. Were you doing any other lifting during that day or the previous day.

[Micah B.]

Barry made a good point about the bicep strain, but I'm wondering if the bar resting across your upper back is impinging a nerve. Any numbness or tingling in your arm?

nope, no numbness or tingling. that was the first thing my coach asked me actually.

what kind of pain is it. Any shooting pains? It's tough to strain a bicep with GM's. Were you doing any other lifting during that day or the previous day.

not shooting pain. more like dull pain, except when i try to lift something heavy, then it becomes more painful.

i lifted the day prior, doing speed bench, but felt no pain afterwards.

my guess is that the bar slipped down my back a bit and kind of compressed my elbow. its feeling about 85% right now, so ill probably head back into the gym on monday and take it easy, just to see how its doing.

thanks for the responses.

[davebeers]

you've got tendonitis....i get it really bad from squatting.
The only way to get rid of it is to take it easy. Take 2 days completely off of lifting, take 800mg ibu-profen every 4 hours, and ice as much as you can.

Two days of that usually clears it up for me.....preventing it is as easy as staying tighter when you squat and/or do good mornings. I suspect the tendon flares up from minor slippage of the bar during the lift....the tighter you are the less likely this is to happen.
Also try incorporating more front squats to give your elbows a break.

This is something i've battled with on and off for 3 years. I've tried so many different things, but in the end the best way to clear it up is to take a complete break and rehab aggressively.

[Micah B.]

you've got tendonitis....i get it really bad from squatting.
The only way to get rid of it is to take it easy. Take 2 days completely off of lifting, take 800mg ibu-profen every 4 hours, and ice as much as you can.

Two days of that usually clears it up for me.....preventing it is as easy as staying tighter when you squat and/or do good mornings. I suspect the tendon flares up from minor slippage of the bar during the lift....the tighter you are the less likely this is to happen.
Also try incorporating more front squats to give your elbows a break.

This is something i've battled with on and off for 3 years. I've tried so many different things, but in the end the best way to clear it up is to take a complete break and rehab aggressively.

thanks a lot. ive actually taken 5 days off :) and have been taking ibuprofen. at least now i know that was the right thing to do.

ill probably try to use a safety squat bar or cambered bar more than a straight one for back squats.

[Micah B.]

A big thanks to all who posted in here. My arms back to feeling good again.

Steve - you were completely right: ice, iboprofen, and rest. hopefully it stays away for a while.