Elbow pain and triceps

u_e_s_i

u_e_s_i

Well-known member
Whenever I do overhead triceps extensions my elbows start hurting. I spoke with a physician and he said that the aching is in a ligament/muscle/tendon (it was in a different language) that runs from the elbow to the shoulder. This sounds like the triceps’ longhead.
Has anyone experienced his before? Could anyone recommend any methods for alleviating the pain or for hitting the long head of the triceps?
 
u_e_s_i said:
Whenever I do overhead triceps extensions my elbows start hurting. I spoke with a physician and he said that the aching is in a ligament/muscle/tendon (it was in a different language) that runs from the elbow to the shoulder. This sounds like the triceps’ longhead.
Has anyone experienced his before? Could anyone recommend any methods for alleviating the pain or for hitting the long head of the triceps?
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I work the long head of the tricep pretty hard. However, I have never experienced any pain from it. I would seek further medical advice to get treatment.
 
Have you tried playing with your form to adjust the movement? Sometimes tweaking little things can make a substantial difference.
 
SDPonce63 said:
Good point here. Make sure your movements are slow and controlled. TIME UNDER TENSION builds muscle.
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Not only that, but elbows in tight vs being flared- like in dips- makes a huge difference. And it doesn’t feel the same for everyone, so it’s really important to find the sweet spot *for you* to be able to perform the exercise comfortably/safely.
 
jrock645 said:
Not only that, but elbows in tight vs being flared- like in dips- makes a huge difference. And it doesn’t feel the same for everyone, so it’s really important to find the sweet spot *for you* to be able to perform the exercise comfortably/safely.
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Is keeping the elbows tight or letting them flare out usually better for tricep work?
 
u_e_s_i said:
Is keeping the elbows tight or letting them flare out usually better for tricep work?
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Try both and see what feels better for you. With dips, you’ll hear people say to keep elbows in tight to focus on tri’s, but they can’t be in too tight as it just won’t feel natural. Naturally, your elbows need to flare out a little. How much? That’ll take trial and error for you to figure what feels best for you. Everybody’s joints are a tad different so you really just need to play with it and see which way feels best.
 
If you cannot do one or two movements because of joint pain and it takes your focus off the muscle, use another movement. You may have an acute tennis or golf elbow as well. One thing you can do is take a gold or lacrosse ball and roll it on your forearms, especially around the elbow area. Also, do the stretches in the photos in the link. I do them everyday, but I do them on the ground to get a deeper stretch.

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You've most likely been letting your rib cage flare upwards on this exercise which is a common fault
When the body has no stability, it will make stability by tightening everything. When you do the exercise, you should have your rib cage down like you're going to throw or take a punch. Then do the exercise. I see a lot of people flare the rib cage up on this exercise to get more ROM / stretch - but it is obviously not the triceps stretching here

Take a break from the movement for about a month and do something else, then go back to it
 
Elbow pain for triceps.... Absolutely. Comes and goes, but you need to stop doing anything that bothers it. I am constantly working around some nagging pain here and there but elbows are notorious with tricep work, especially skull crushers and similar extension excersizes. I really like overhead extensions with the rope, really can get a stretch and hits the long head hard!
 
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