Bench pressing: elbow problem

[CaesarX]

May not be a problem, but i thought i'd post about it anyway. I just realised that while bench pressing, i experience an uneasy feeling in the tip of my left arm's elbow. It's something of a slight tickle, perhaps the feeling of one bone rubbing against another. It's nothing major, but it was unpleasant enough to make me stop exercising and walk over to the computer to post this. Anyone know what it is and how to make it go away?

 

[Azraele]

Your best bet is to ask a professional. It could be a simple technique problem.

 

[Fausto]

Patient: "Doc, it hurts when I do this." <waggles arm>

Doctor: "Then don't do that."


If it feels weird, either don't bench for a week or so and then see how it feels or back your weight down a bit until it feels better. No sense in igoring things and ending up with a bum elbow that will keep you out of the gym for a month or more down the road.

 

[Warthog912]

I kinda have the same problem, noticed it bout' a year or so ago. I never really hurt me, so I keep on liftin-

Nice to know someone else feels it tho? Oh, are you right handed or left?

Warthog912

 

[CaesarX]

I'm right-handed. I've been doing the same weight for several days now, and today is the first time i noticed this problem. I don't really want to stop bench pressing - it's my favorite exercise. But damn, this thing is annoying. I think i remember hitting my elbow on something several years ago - i hit it pretty hard, the resulting "electric shock" effect almost knocked me off my feet. I think that may be the reason. I hate the human body, it's so damn fragile - even a male's. I kid you not, i'm going cyborg the first chance i get

 

[CPA]

Have you been benching every day for the last several days? If so, stop and rest for a couple of days. You may just have soreness from over extending. Secondly, as was already stated, your form may be wrong. Try positioning your elbows closer to your body. If you can't keep the elbows in (they start to drift outward) as you press up, then the weight is too heavy, you need to decrease it.

 

[Amused]

Originally posted by: CPA
Have you been benching every day for the last several days? If so, stop and rest for a couple of days. You may just have soreness from over extending. Secondly, as was already stated, your form may be wrong. Try positioning your elbows closer to your body. If you can't keep the elbows in (they start to drift outward) as you press up, then the weight is too heavy, you need to decrease it.

Bingo.

You need to have at least 48 hours between muscle group workouts.

Adopt a chest/back or push/pull workout routine. That means one day you do your chest and triceps (push) and the next day you do your back and biceps (pull). This will give your muscles the required 48 hours to recover.

You do not make gains in size or strength while doing the lifting, but during recovery. During lifting, you are actually causing micro damage to the muscles. It's during the recovery period that the muscles have a chance to respond and grow. If you muck up this recovery period by working the same muscles everyday, you're setting yourself up for injury, and destroying most of your gains.

Over training is one of the biggest problems among weight trainers. Don't fall into that trap.

 

Originally posted by: Amused

Originally posted by: CPA
Have you been benching every day for the last several days? If so, stop and rest for a couple of days. You may just have soreness from over extending. Secondly, as was already stated, your form may be wrong. Try positioning your elbows closer to your body. If you can't keep the elbows in (they start to drift outward) as you press up, then the weight is too heavy, you need to decrease it.

Bingo.

You need to have at least 48 hours between muscle group workouts.

Adopt a chest/back or push/pull workout routine. That means one day you do your chest and triceps (push) and the next day you do your back and biceps (pull). This will give your muscles the required 48 hours to recover.

You do not make gains in size or strength while doing the lifting, but during recovery. During lifting, you are actually causing micro damage to the muscles. It's during the recovery period that the muscles have a chance to respond and grow. If you muck up this recovery period by working the same muscles everyday, you're setting yourself up for injury, and destroying most of your gains.

Over training is one of the biggest problems among weight trainers. Don't fall into that trap.

Heh, I said almost the exact same thing to 2 guys on my floor the other day who wanted to start lifting weights. Amused=Cool now.

 

[CaesarX]

I guess this is it then, guys. The program is actually a 3 days on, 1 day off dealie, and each of the 3 days is different. But i love bench pressing so much that i do it every day, on top of the program. I guess i'll do it every second day now

 

[CaesarX]

Now that we got that out of the way, here's the next problem I cannot and will not do another set of seated shoulder presses on the Bowflex again - the cables end up rubbing against my arms and make doing the exercise extremely frustrating. This exercise is part of a body building program i'm on now, so I was wondering which exercise would make a good replacement for it?