Arm pain

[krp312]

Hi all,

I think it's my tricep that's sore to the touch (area just above my elbow on the back side), and has been since my last workout which was 3 days ago. I've gotten sufficient rest and nutrition since then. I think I might have overexerted myself. Does anyone know which exercise caused this pain, or is this not enough information? I'm new to this so I apologize ahead of time if I'm sounding like an idiot.


Thanks,
k

[scumdogg]

Can you tell if it's muscular pain or is it joint/tendon? If it's muscular, then it's the pushups that are doing it. If it's joint or tendon, pushups may still be responsible but it could also be the pullups. I've had elbow pain from pullups when I didn't control my descent and just dropped into a dead hang. If you're doing this, then you may have aggravated the tendons attaching the tricep to your elbow. Only a doc or physio will be able to tell you for sure. Be sure to check your form on both pushups and pullups, and don't let things get too sloppy.

[krp312]

I think I've ignored controlling my descent as well. I did Day 3 today and kept things slow, along with improving my technique from watching some videos (I was doing some things wrong with pullups). I think my pain is less but I'll follow up if not. Thanks a lot of your input--I have a feeling things will be better from here on out.

[Bri3626]

Kinda sounds like a similar problem I had. I was trying to find the video on crossfit where the guy talks about your shoulders being tight. His idea is that you picture a couple mechanical arms pulling a weight up and down with the same ball socket but they are essentially held together by rubber bands. As the weight goes up the bands stretch but then the weight is dropped overstretching the bands. This is what occurs with the ligaments and tendons for a lot of folks that are doing pullups. The analagy applies to all the joints. The problem most of us have is we don't really engage the muscle until we start pulling and then we disengage partly or in whole the muscle on the way down essentially stretching our "rubber bands" again. This may be your issue...

In his video the idea/theory is that if you tighten the muscle and engage them going up and down you reduce your risk of injury. This is also true for a lot of weight lifters because if they don't tighten everything up before the lift they just don't lift as much or eventually achieve injury. Pavolich at dragondoor.com aka "The Naked Warrior" states that keeping the muscles tight and strong before, during, and upon completion of whatever lift your doing is essential to the devlopment of staying injury free and getting stronger.

Take a look around on crossfit or look up mobility exercises crossfit on a search engine. There are a lot of videos and instructions that talk about keeping it tight as you go through your workout. Personally I think a lot of people are scratching their heads when a coach says keep your back tight but the main idea is your clenching your muscles up as you do the exercise and pavolich explains this pretty well. With my shoulder injury I've had to focus on doing that and it seems to be working.

[krp312]

Makes sense. I continued with my routine doing stuff slowly, which I think promotes the 'clenching' from start to finish as you said. I'm having little pain right now but tomorrow will be the true test after I sleep. I'll update if anything goes wrong but your rubber band visualization seems to make a lot of sense.

I had no idea that form was so important too. I looked up videos on how to do pullups properly and I can see what people are doing (sticking their chest out, bringing their shoulders down). I tried doing it today and I can feel how it promotes certain muscles over others and it felt like I was doing the right thing. I'll have to get a friend to see for sure.

[Bri3626]

In the video I was talking about the guy says that most people don't have their shoulders engaged. He goes through a series of steps showing folks basically to keep their armpits pointed forward which helps to tighten up the upper chain. Sounds kinda goofey but I tried it and it makes a difference. As a matter of fact I increased my reps I could do on the bar soon after that so I believe there is something to it. If you get on a bar and just hang and completely relax then essentially experiment with forcing your armpits to face forward then doing a pullup you will see what he means. If I could find the dam video it would explain it better.

[krp312]

After doing my regimen for many weeks now, I'm still not sure why I'm getting the arm pain. One adjustment I made was to do pushups first before the pull-ups and squats, and that's helped a lot. It's as if either the pull-ups get my arms all tired so by the time I do pushups, they're weak or more liable to improper form. Or maybe my form is just bad and I need to have someone take another look. I'll keep you posted.

[Admin]

Go see a doctor

[Admin]

Go see a doctor