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Getbig Bodybuilding Boards => Training Q&A => Topic started by: cheftim on October 08, 2008, 09:48:41 PM
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Maybe May it was? Have been in two motorcycle accidents. My body is half broke and I'm very hesitant towards machines. Long story short. Got a new training partner and did exercises that didn't agree with me. Totally did my elbow in. I'm a Chef and work with my hands. I was in constant 24hr a day pain. Stopped training completely. Have been doing therapy. Got cortizone shorts in August. Feels brand new. The doctor gave me advice? But he's this great big fat fuck. He doesn't get heavy training as far as I'm concerned? Today was my first day back in the gym. Man I'm ready to do it! Advice here? How do I train my tri's?
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maybe your tris can grow without direct work from pressing exercises
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Maybe May it was? Have been in two motorcycle accidents. My body is half broke and I'm very hesitant towards machines. Long story short. Got a new training partner and did exercises that didn't agree with me. Totally did my elbow in. I'm a Chef and work with my hands. I was in constant 24hr a day pain. Stopped training completely. Have been doing therapy. Got cortizone shorts in August. Feels brand new. The doctor gave me advice? But he's this great big fat fuck. He doesn't get heavy training as far as I'm concerned? Today was my first day back in the gym. Man I'm ready to do it! Advice here? How do I train my tri's?
ehhh, what do you think?
you try different triceps exercises and use those that dont hurt your elbows. make sure the elbows are thoroughly warmed up before you start using heavier weight. pushdowns is a good warm up exercise for elbows and triceps. if you do tricep extensions do them last in your workout and keep the reps pretty high.
pushdowns
close grip bench press (often this exercise wont hurt the elbow as much as extensions)
tricep extensions (or do something else if elbows hurt too much)
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Two-handed extensions from behind the head seem to place less stress on the elbows.
Even skull-crushers done in this manner are usually a bit easier on the elbow joints/tendons than their bastard “to the forehead” cousin.
Bodyweight tricep extensions/tiger dips are currently my favorite such exercise.
In addition to the good advice offered in the above posts, consider slowing the negative portion of your extension work. A slower return to the start position eliminates much of the elbow discomfort for many folks.
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Try Closegrips, board presses, or rack lockouts. AVOIDsingle joint tricep exercises unless it is high (15+) rep pushdowns
Jason
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I've also suffered with some elbow pain in the past, got cortisone as well but I wouldn't recommend it since it's not always addressing the cause of the problem.The injury was the result of quite a hard hit to the elbow as well, as in I couldn't use my arm properly for months after seeing doctors and all who seemed to know jack-shit really, so I think it might have some relevance to what you have.
This is what worked me though and I have no more problems:
I noticed that often when I have elbow pain there's spasm in my triceps. It feels like knots in the muscle except you're not aware of it until you start poking around in that area. It's basically a trigger point that causes referred pain in the joint.
It can also impinge nerves and cause less blood circulation to the area where pain is felt.
Often if I pushed the muscle I could actually feel a tingling sensation running through the joint and right down my arm, giving a sensation of almost immediate relief.
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Bodyweight tricep extentions/tiger dips, board presses, and rack lock outs? I've never heard of any of these movements? I'm all ears. Almost took four months off. Cortizone and rehab. There's fear in my heart that this will come back and plague me? I'm a simple guy. I cook and train.
There’s a decent chance the pain/discomfort will return at least a little bit. The idea is to control it as best you can.
I really don’t know of any serious trainers who don’t have minor (at best) aches and pains from doing this.
One key is to find exercises that don’t bother the elbows and focus on those.
You don’t want to avoid using the area all together because you need blood circulation for healing to take place.
I would keep doing your pushdowns with light to moderate weight since you know that’s safe for you.
Keep stretching and icing – it’s more important than most people think.
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Tiger Dips:
Stand in a power rack.
Position the hooks at about waist height and set a barbell in them.
Grip the bar with both hands about shoulder width apart.
Stand with your body almost against the bar and, with one foot, take a nice sized step back.
Now move your other foot to meet it.
Feet together.
Bend a bit at the hips.
Tuck your chin.
Bending the arms at the elbows, slowly lower your head under the bar until you get a decent stretch. Keep your elbows pointing down and in with constant tension on the triceps.
The rest of the body remains fairly rigid.
You’ve just done the negative.
Now reverse the above actions and push yourself back to the starting position by basically doing a triceps extension.
Really, that’s all this is, but instead of moving the bar away from your body, you’re moving your body away from the bar.
You’ll probably have to experiment a bit with minor adjustments to bar, feet, and hand positioning to get the right "feeling" for you. You can also vary the difficulty of the movement by changing feet positioning. Play around with it.
Someone else can explain lock outs and board presses.
I'm late for work.
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I've been suffering from similar elbow pain for sometime. (on and off) It really has put a damper on my tri workouts. I have found that it is most important to properly warm up the elbows before doing any exercises. Certain exercises hurt more than others and I've learned to pick and choose and rotate in order to keep from totally neglecting my tris all together. I usually use light rope push downs to warm up. I do set upon set until I'm sure everthing is good and warm. ( I also use an elbow sleeve to help keep the heat in and aid in the warm up) I can't really say there is a perfect exercise that doesn't hurt at all but one of the more painless tri exercises that I've found (that lets me feel like I'm still working out) is bench dips, either weighted or with just my body weight. I can still get a really good pump with little irritation to my elbow. Push downs are a hit and miss exercise. Some days I'm fine and other days I can feel a little pain. Seated machine dips and standard free dips seem to be alright as well. I hope this little bit of info helps out.
Pat