New to Gym, stats suck! I have tennis elbow too, need advice

CaptJohnLukeDiscard · 2018-08-22T21:22:46+00:00

Here are some general thoughts in no particular order that I would tell me if I were starting again in the gym. I'll address you specifically at the end re tennis elbow, etc.

Pacing

It's a marathon, not a sprint. You want to be the guy who is still lifting in 15 years, not the guy who was the strongest for a couple and then busted his knee / back / neck / shoulder. Take it slow, focus on perfect form every rep of every set of every day, and don't worry too much about 'progress.' It will come.

Intensity

Intensity is key. I know this sounds like a contradiction to the first point and it is, slightly. You need to be intense about this. Stay present in each lift. Stay present and intense about your form. And, within reason, push yourself pretty hard. Keep your breaks short enough that your heart rate stays above 100 or so. Longer breaks in between compound lifts, shorter breaks between isolation / smaller movements.

Programming

Get a program, follow the program. The only thing worse than an asshole who doesn't bother to follow a program is the guy who tries a new program every week. Find something standard, stick to it for 12-16 weeks, and then reevaluate. SL 5x5 is good, nSuns, 5/3/1, RP, GOMAD, GVT, etc. are all decent programs. Find a goal, find a plan that matches the goal, and stick to it. Don't deviate from it and make up your own shit because you think you know better than the plan and all the guys who vouch for it. You don't.

Regardless, stick with beginner programs (5x5, etc.) for at least the first 9-12 months for the most gains.

Set and Follow Long Term Goals

For the first several months, you can lose fat and add muscle at the same time. After that, you'll tend to need to focus on bulking or cutting. You will need to decide which you are doing, for how long, and what the goals are. Just like a program, try to set goals and then actually go meet them. Switching goals every week (strength vs size vs endurance vs aesthetics) is a great way to sabotage yourself.

Nutrition

Aside from consistency in the gym, nutrition is king. You have to eat enough to add muscle but don't eat shit. Don't follow fad diets. Of all the nutrition advice, I personally think hitting your protein goals is the most important. A super quick guide on protein is to intake your bodyweight in freedom units x1.0 to 1.4 in grams per day. For example, if you weigh 200lb, you want to get between 200 to 280g of protein a day. If you don't track anything else, track that. For most people, eating that much protein is hard and will automatically make you full enough that you don't want to eat a bunch of shit.

Recovery

Don't be that asshole that destroys your body by constantly getting 5-6 hours of sleep every night. Train with a plan, eat with a plan, and recover with a plan. Recovery means consistent, scheduled sleep every night (aim for 8 hours), getting GOOD supplements, and incorporating stuff like stretching, foam rolling, soaks in the sauna / hot tub, etc. You don't regret it.

Gear

I don't mean roids. I mean stuff like a weightlifting belt, wrist wraps, elbow sleeves, knee sleeves, etc. Plenty of guys will give you shit for it. Fuck 'em. If the gear helps even slightly to prevent injury, wear it and ignore the dudes who mouth off. Remember the marathon comment? Good. Your PRs will never go anywhere if you have a significant injury every year.

Partner

If you can, get a training partner that is actually committed. That provides good accountability, help with seeing form errors, spotting you while you lift, etc.

Specific to Mr. Tennis Elbow

First, how did you get the injury? What does your doc say? Have you been to a PT? I would take their input much more than a bunch of assholes on a sexual strategy forum. That being said, since you asked... rest the injury and focus heavily on legs, back, etc. for now. Squat, lunge, good mornings, etc. Rinse and repeat. Probably should refrain from jerking off for a while too.

Second, your squat number is atrocious. I assume it's so low because you are actually squatting to proper depth (femurs well below parallel). If you aren't squatting that low, then start now. It's actually easier on your knee from a shear force perspective than stopping at parallel. Check out EliteFTS's "So You Think You Can Squat" and other videos for form tips.

Good job getting back in the gym. Keep going 4-5 times per week every week for 12 months and you won't recognize yourself.

JustOneMoreAcct · 2018-08-23T02:55:29+00:00

The best thing for tennis\golf elbow is a theraband flex bar. Worked better then anything else for me. https://youtu.be/3m5VjS9ZQKw

wildnight98 · 2018-08-22T21:16:34+00:00

Disclaimer: I am not a doctor, this is my experience only, I am not recommending you do what I say, you should get a professional opinion, etc.

Tennis elbow aka tendonitis is, as named, inflammation of a tendon. An inflamed and thus too-tight tendon pulls across the bone under load causing pain. The good news is this is distinct from an injury, although tendonitis often affects people for long periods of time.

I found an followed helpful advice as follows: (1) don't rest. Tendons are strengthened by exercise. Keep exercising with the most load and most range of motion that you can without pain. (2) Often tendonitis is caused by too tight connector muscles and limited range of motion. Find and do mobility exercises and stretches for elbow tendonitis (see youtube etc.). You will be stretching everything from pectoralis to forearm. This worked to clear mine up after a couple weeks, even after a couple months of no change or improvement (before I found the protocol).

witness-the-beauty · 2018-08-22T21:17:59+00:00

I had tennis elbow bad and searched it out. It's all in your forearms, at was for me. When the muscles in your forearms grow sometimes they scar across your arm instead of lengthwise and so the result is that the tendon in your elbows gets snapped like a belt instead of stretching like they're supposed to this creates inflammation on your elbow. there are several massaging techniques for the muscles in your forearm to break up the scar tissue that go across your arm. That worked for me but it took about a month of massaging those four arms several times a day. Basically I would have somebody grip my forearm with both their hands around the arm as hard as they could and flex my wrist up and down and side to side to get the muscles moving through their hands and that took care of it and it has not been back since. If my description is confusing just search the YouTube for it.

ParaXilo · 2018-08-22T21:18:37+00:00

An option would be to rest it and ice it for a week then see how you feel.

Like any injury your best bet is to rest it. Doesn't mean don't workout just avoid some exercises.

https://www.livestrong.com/article/524600-can-you-still-work-out-if-you-have-tennis-elbow/

JudgeDoom69 · 2018-08-22T22:01:01+00:00

This helps with Tennis elbow:

https://www.amazon.com/Venom-Elbow-Brace-Compression-Sleeve/dp/B01N2U2A67/ref=zg_bs_5006370011_2/132-0669234-4470136?_encoding=UTF8&refRID=9Y83NDGVGRT22RYRWZDV

Download the app “StrongLifts 5x5” to get your lifts progressing

gettingmymojoback · 2018-08-23T02:01:55+00:00

What worked for my Golfers Elbow (inside of elbow rather than outside) was to just stick to upper body compound lifts (BP, OHP, Rows, Chins, PullUps/PullDowns) and remove bicep/tricep isolation work completely until the pain subsided.

Took about 6 months total of no isolation work until it went away completely. My theory is it took that long for the tendon strength to catch up to my increased lifts and that the extra volume from isolation work was just too much to recover from until my fitness level caught up.

No issues with it since and I can run 531 BBB with full accessory lifts with no pain now.

[deleted] · 2018-08-23T04:02:28+00:00

I was in the same shape as you. I forked over the dough for a good, serious trainer to help me build up my core and teach me proper exercises. My mistake has always been reading shit off the iternet and implementing it crookedly at the gym. You have to build the foundation first before you can start building the house.

Westernhagen · 2018-08-23T13:10:23+00:00

Very possible that elbow tendonitis is the product of poor form at bench press. Don't know if you are working with a trainer but if not, it is worth the money to get your form right (not just with bench but the other lifts too). Are you lowering it too fast and flaring your elbows, for example? Here's a good video.

RedPill-BlackLotus · 2018-08-23T17:25:10+00:00

Already lots of gold suggestions here. I read a tnation article on this that might add value.

https://www.t-nation.com/training/tendonitis-cure

So much good stuff on that site. Check it out.

223552 · 2018-08-24T02:07:10+00:00

I am a professional, and I treat these for a living. Going heavy will only aggravate it. Best to ease off pulling exercsies (such as rows, heave dead lifts). You can still train legs with squats, lunges, machines. Pushing is ok. Start daily stretches of forearm muscles. See physio/osteopath for good soft tissue release, and elbow joint loosening up. Use a tennis elbow brace. These days, lots of typing seems to be the main culprit. Takes 3-6 weeks for resolution, if managed properly. Dry needling is also effective.

Rubbing anti-inflammatory creams will help. But stretching daily (3-4 / day) is essential.

If all else fails, steroid injections.

RedPillCoach · 2018-08-24T20:05:46+00:00

Additional exercises for tennis elbow?

Umm, no. This is a repetitive use injury and you are not going to lift through it.

See a doctor and get a couple physical therapy sessions and they can set you straight, tell you the exercises to do, and what not to do.

I do not believe you should be lifting with your apparent level of knowledge and awareness until you at a minimum get a personal trainer for a few sessions and medical clearance and physical therapy. Please get expert advice about you personally and don't rely on keyboard jockeys. We reccomend 5 X 5 powerlifting and you can exacerbate tennis elbow very easily into a long term problem if you don't know what you are doing.

Reject444 · 2018-08-24T21:25:38+00:00

I'll share my story in case it helps. I've also been doing SL 5x5 for about six months, to which I added some light (15 lbs.) bicep curls as an accessory a few months ago. I just fought through a pretty wicked bout of Golfer's Elbow (same tendinitis as Tennis Elbow but on the inside of the elbow instead of the outside). Working with my doctor, he suggested that it was maybe from bicep curls or bench pressing and he recommended that I just stop doing these for a while, but I'm very confident in my bench form and I always keep my wrists straight, and I didn't feel like I was curling enough to cause an injury.

Eventually, I realized myself that it was actually squats that were doing this to me. Somehow I was flexing my wrist in such a way--usually during re-racking the bar after a heavy squat set--that it was killing my bicep tendons in my elbow. I backed off squats for a couple of sessions, pulled back the working weight a bit, switched to a full grip for squats (not thumbless; just be careful not to actually rest the bar on your thumbs), and started using a counterforce brace (compression sleeve didn't seem to help me as much, but might be better for Tennis Elbow than what I had) and, most importantly, stiff wrist wraps while doing squats. These keep my wrists straight and don't let me twist them in whatever way I was twisting them before. These changes have really helped and, over the past month, the pain and discomfort from the tendinitis has gradually reduced in frequency and intensity to the point that this week I think it's finally gone. So rest your arms if needed but you might try looking at your squatting as a possible culprit, especially since SL 5x5 has you squatting so much. If you think that's the problem, adding some braces or wrist wraps and making some other changes (like a full grip) might help. Or might make it worse; I'm not a doctor, and I'm far from an expert on lifting and fitness. This is just what worked for me.

As others have said, it could also be your Bench Press or OHP, if you're not keeping your wrists straight during those lifts as well. And your numbers on BP and OHP are actually quite heavy for only having done the program for a few weeks, especially compared to your Squat, Row, and DL numbers, which are more in line with what I'd expect to see after doing SL 5x5 for three weeks.

Generally, I cannot stress enough how important it is to work on your form for these lifts. These compound lifts are actually pretty complicated and technical movements, even the ones that seem pretty simple like the Bench Press, and if you're not doing them correctly, you're risking injury that could not only derail your progress at the gym but could potentially fuck you up in a permanent way. Even a little thing like the way you bend your wrists while ending a set can hurt you. Do a LOT of research into proper form for these lifts, watch other guys at the gym who seem to know what they're doing (but don't always listen to them because I've also gotten some advice from big, well-built dudes at my gym that was just demonstrably wrong), and always give 100% focus to exactly what you're doing on each and every rep.

boy_named_su · 2018-08-29T20:18:57+00:00

I suffer tennis elbow as well. I take turmeric as an anti-inflammatory and type II collagen and Omega 3s to help rebuild. And rest when it gets bad, just doing squats

SBDadvanced · 2018-09-07T20:06:45+00:00

For tennis elbow, get a green theraband flexbar off amazon and do the exercises for tennis elbow on youtube. Removed my pain from an overuse injury in a few days. I use it daily now to keep my wrist/forearm muscles stretched.

If something gives a sharp pain, dont do it, otherwise work thru discomfort linearly as 5x5 lays out.

Dont go too crazy on accessories either. you need a base and that comes from full body heavy ass lifts.

don_viteo · 2018-08-24T14:25:16+00:00

That is pounds? Those aren't bad stats by all respects given You started 3 weeks ago, even if they are 100%RM. When I started I couldnt squat 3x10 without any load - fuck, I was so fat. Are You cutting or bulking? If cutting do not expect any signifacant progress until Your first bulk, and at the end of cut You will probably have to deload, sorry to break it to You. If bulking - well, give it 3 months. 3 weeks is like - You just started. The brain needs to rethink how it moves the weights. Focus on good technique and correct TUT. Weigth stats are individual by all respects, one dude does BP@100 and will be packing muscle and ripped, second will be doing BP@200 and be skinny as shit.

helaughsinhidden · 2018-08-24T18:59:01+00:00

With these stats it's clear you have never lifted or had a huge break in lifting. If that is the case you needed to follow the novice lifter Stronglifts approach and just start with an unloaded 45-lb Olympic barbell. Starting 45-lb barbell on Stronglifts, the squat should be ~95 lbs 3 weeks later. You have to lift with your body and mind... not your ego. Ego will get you hurt in the gym quicker than anything else, as you now know.

When you start lifting again, follow the Stronglifts program properly.

MrChad_Thundercock · 2018-08-22T21:19:23+00:00

“Should I be doing additional exercises to strengthen it”

Jerk off more faggot.

Do some fucking research yourself.. lazy fucktard.

Title	New to Gym, stats suck! I have tennis elbow too, need advice
Author	helaughsinhidden
Upvotes	8
Comments	33
Date	August 22, 2018 8:53 PM UTC (5 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/askMRP
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/askMRP/comments/99h1sl/new_to_gym_stats_suck_i_have_tennis_elbow_too/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/askMRP/new-to-gym-stats-suck-i-have-tennis-elbow-too-need.204084 https://theredarchive.com/post/204084