For you who have done weightlifting for quite some time, pain on certain parts of your body is nothing new. Elbow pain is a common pain experienced by weight lifters or people who often lift heavy weight for a long time. Elbow pain can happens to different parts of the elbow, some of the causes are explained below.
Do you experience constant elbow pain?
Consult a medical professional to help you determine the causes to the constant elbow pain you have. You can also do this following test yourself to locate the pain.
1. Stand in front of a mirror with both arms hanging by your sides.
2. Do you see anything not normal with your arms position?
3. Bend your arms towards your chest.
4. Straighten your arms and rotate your palms.
5. Do you feel any tension or pain at your elbow due to the rotating movement? Can you locate the pain?
Tendinitis
It is common to weightlifters and people over 40. Tendinitis is an inflammation of joint or tendon that causes pain near the joint. Apply ice at the painful area at 20-minute intervals to relieve the pain.
Golfer's elbow
The pain occurs mainly at the ulna side of the elbow. Some exercises that can trigger this pain are triceps presses, barbell curls, dumbbell flies, and other movements that include up and down movement of the forearms.
Pain at the front of the elbow
Overtraining your biceps can cause this issue. This kind of pain often occurs when people do biceps curls, preacher curls, concentration curls, or hammer curls. Too much strain at the front of the elbow causes the pain.
Arthritis
Arthritis is the inflammation of joints that cause swelling and pain. People who have been doing weightlifting can develop arthritis over time. To prevent arthritis, consume more vitamins by eating fruits and vegetables regularly and take glutamine supplement if you need to.
Is there something wrong with your exercises?
If the pain occurs when you are using a straight bar, this may be the cause of your issue. The best way to deal with this problem is by substituting the bar with an EZ bar, which is designed specifically to allow your arms and wrists to take more neutral position. EZ bar is often used for lying triceps extension, biceps curls, and upright rows. When doing bent over row exercise, use an underhand grip instead of using an overhand grip.
If there is no EZ bars in the gym, use dumbbells instead of a bar. However, if you find no issues with using traditional bar, keep doing your exercises normally.
