Seeking advice / ideas on elbow tendon pain...

[Guest guest]

BFL'ers,

I've been noticing a pretty consistent (tendon, I think) pain at both

sides (forearm & biceps) and of my elbow joint. This isn't new, but,

for some reason, today, while changing up the exercises just a little, I

had decided to drop the weights used for both my biceps and triceps

exercises.

Lowering the weights didn't seem to have an immediate effect. ...As in,

the tendon pain is still there, primarily on the biceps exercises.

Some history on this pain...

Several months ago, I backed off on my creatine (Phosphagen) supplement

yet continued to attempt to sustain the weight used. At the time, I was

using the 60# dumbbells for my 6 rep seated dumbbell curls, then closing

out with 50# for the 12 rep set and superset.

Eventually, the stress became much too great and I had to reduce that to

50# on the 6 rep set and 45# on the closing sets of 12. I haven't

really felt like I was straining the muscle, but, I was certainly

feeling the pain in the tendons.

At this same time, I changed my primary shoulder / delts routine back to

the seated dumbbell shoulder press. I don't have spot holders for the

dumbbells and I need to lift them in place to begin the exercise. Now,

that basically involves starting with a seated curl, then the shoulder

presses, then the negative (return) of the seated curl. For these, I

was hitting 70# on the 6 rep set and 60# on the 12 rep set. The 70's

involved a lot of stress and a bit of swing to get them up and down from

the starting position and I certainly felt this stress in the area of

the tendons.

As of today, I changed over to concentration curls and further reduced

the weight to cap at 40# and closed with 35# on them and then standing

hammer curls. Now, that's 15 pounds down from where I was. I also

changed the primary shoulder routine to lat pull downs which takes away

the strain of getting the dumbbells in place for the shoulder presses.

I was able to get adequate muscle strain on the curls by slowing the

tempo / count to a 4-1-6, but thought this would have eliminated the

tendon pain. It didn't! I still feel the tendon pain as if I performed

my prior upper body routines. In fact, I can feel a very light pain as

I simply hold my arms in place to type this note.

Now, my basic questions...

1) Has anyone noticed creatine providing added muscle strength without

growing the strength of the tendons, too?

2) Has anyone had this type of tendon pain while consistently

performing their UBWO? If so, was it ever eliminated?

3) Is it possible I damaged the tendons while hoisting the dumbbells in

place for my shoulder presses? I clearly had to strain to get the pairs

of 60's and 70's in place.

4) Could over working cardio have affected the appropriate recovery of

the strain on the tendons? I've been a little lax with the proper

cardio very recently, but was pushing 60 min (28-35 HIIT, and the

balance at moderate) for each cardio session - including Sunday (4x per

week).

5) Am I now hurting the tendons more by using a longer tempo rather

than heavier weights on the curls? It certainly feels more painful today.

6) Should I try a tight wrap or one of the Ace arm band support wrap

around the tendons when exercising? ...Or how about after exercising,

so they don't get in the way of my arm movements?

7) Will an anti inflammatory like IBU be counter helpful since it may

hinder my body's rebuilding of the muscle & /or tendon? ...Does IBU

hinder the body's ability to rebuild the tendons like it has been

reported for muscle?

8) Could a change up in nutritional intake (as in less protein from the

myoplex shakes and other better eating) have some kind of direct or

indirect effect on the tendon recovery?

Looking for your opinions...

Nothing like bombarding your inboxes with such a lengthy set of

questions this early in the new year, but, I need some ideas here. The

level of pain has now surpassed the pain from my unknown shoulder injury

from my construction project of ~8 weeks ago.

I'm feeling like a Doctor visit might really be in order, but, I no

longer have a really good sports medicine doctor. ...Not since my other

Doc moved cross country to California.

Short of getting a doctor's appointment, what else can I do and what

have any of you other BFL'ers experienced? I would appreciate any and

all suggestions on how to remedy this tendon pain. If this has happened

to you, I would like to know about it.

Years ago, long before BFL, I've had tendonitus after hurting my arm

with another home construction project and this is getting close to that

kind of pain. ...But that took about 6 months to start to really feel

better without any form of exercise and I don't think I'll want to back

down on my exercises for that long.

I promise to read every suggestion!

Thank you.

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Remember...

Progress, not perfection!

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Holowko, CPA, CCP

PO Box 444

Lafayette Hill, PA 19444-0444

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