Elbow pain when training triceps? This is the solution

For more free fitness tips, check out my free email course: mennohenselmans.com/subscribe/
Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:30 1) Go higher in reps
02:39 2) Go hard or go home
04:00 3) Use a contolled training tempo
04:57 4) Keep your forearms vertical
06:20 5) Try different grips
08:18 6) Some exercises to be wary of and some to try
12:01 Conclusion
Reference:
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...
journals.lww.com/nsca-scj/ful...
• Unbelievably Effective...
• Unbelievably Effective...
#ElbowPain #InjuryManagement #HighRepTraining #StrengthTrainingTips #PainFreeLifting #WorkoutTips #mennohenselmans #personaltrainer #personaltrainers #personaltraining #personaltrainerlife #personaltraineronline

[@PrinceEC]

This is a no BS, one of the best and super informative content on the internet I’ve come across! Thank you from Australia!

[@fatlosssos]

As a rehab expert I can categorically tell you this is all nonsense. Joe.

[@mdkgr]

You're probably the best source of information on the topic of lifting. Thank you.

[@icyfires]

Love the cue to use the lowest weight that still effectively trains the target muscle - excellent advice

[@SirAlexanderdeLarge]

Mr. Henselmans flexing his polyglotism. 😎

[@AngelMorales-gj8ur]

You should this video but with the knees, and others joints in general

[@The_Legend715]

Most things he said about the elbow applies to the knee. Id add having a good hamstring/quad size & strengthen ratio, weak hamstrings = weak knees.

[@KiaOrion]

Agreed!

[@Torkel-tv4bg]

Man, love your channel, you definetly have one of the best science based fitness channels on youtube😊

[@ColFighter018]

Well, I have elbow pain when doing bicep curl and chest fly. More specifically, golf and tennis tendinitis. Thank you, sir!

[@ItRhymesWith]

I think those are more related to the forearm side of things rather than the triceps.

[@edw2241]

Look up Tyler twists and reverse Tyler twists for those injuries.

[@BozskaCastica]

Me too, triceps exercises are no problem for me. Biceps much worse. With barbell no chance. EZ bar is manageable.

[@BozskaCastica]

​@@edw2241 do you have good experience with that?

[@ColFighter018]

@BozskaCastica yeah same here, and the feeling sucks when you can't get a solid bicep routine. For a while, I was doing pinwheel curls, and I managed to get pretty good results but came across the Hoist cable curl machine, and it's amazing! I've been training a little under twenty years, so some wear and tear is bound to happen but hasn't stopped me.

[@yasuh4550]

This is actually suuuuper important and specific for me. Thanks Menno

[@marqbagua]

Lately, my elbows started to become painful. Yesterday I had triceps in my routine and this video helped a lot. The info that you spread is always high quality. Thank you!

[@baggahammers2]

It’s like you created this video for me (and my elbows). 🙏🏻

[@user-ii7xc1ry3x]

Shout out to the editor for always waiting for Menno to manually turn off the camera before queueing the outro, for some reason I find it funny as hell 🤣

[@s.e.t.a.1935]

I'd love a similar video about shoulder pain

[@KiaOrion]

Loved this one. Super informative and helpful. Gracias!

[@edw2241]

Anecdotally, what worked for me was using a very lightweight dumbbell (5lbs), grabbing one end, and rotating my wrist left and right. I eventually got strong enough to where I used an adjustable heavy club (Adex), grasped the club right near where the heavy end meets the handle, and did the same exercise. I did this daily for a few months and my pain in my elbow went away on tricep and chest exercises.

[@xRedxxWolfx]

This is exactly what I needed right now. I've already been doing some of these, but the rest are for sure getting incorporated into my work outs.

[@logandurr4924]

Thank you menno

[@wiperiser1]

Great video! A few months ago when I did bench press I started experiencing elbow pain at weights above 90kg. I did a lot of research on how to fix it. It got solved by doing my accessory tri/shoulder lifts as warm up exercises with high rep and low weight before benching PLUS changing my wrist angle during bench press so the knuckles point up towards the sealing instead of pointing back towards the spotter position.

[@emmang2010]

amazing video. Thank you for the work you do

[@CORV1990]

video came in the right moment. Having elbow pain for like amonth now.

[@user-nh9xv8tm9d]

Boom, I knew you would say lighter loads. I've been doing this and can confirm, at 43 years of age, I have less joint issues than I had in my late 20s.

[@stevewise1656]

Much needed vid! Recently higher rep training did help my elbow pain and rehab a biceps tear.

[@leonkennedy9739]

Oh fuck yeah, I have this problem recently.

[@Gromst3rr]

valuable information

[@beyond_hjaemmetraening]

Thank you!

[@GADG3T5]

Great advice as always ! A series focussing on common issues would be outstanding - working around shoulder pain/impingement, training legs with crumbly knees and so on

[@allenallen4810]

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!!!!

[@chrigo4710]

What about elbow pain when training Biceps ?

[@logandurr4924]

It's usually caused by the same reason that causes elbow pain when doing triceps

[@RyanRhino23542]

Amazing video

[@kiddfamilyfarmllc9962]

Thank you.

[@winsku]

what helped me was forearm stretches and also some tricep bicep stretching

[@danielalbornoz2441]

Thanks for this Menno, can you do a similar video about the knee?

[@Thisispow]

Thanks! Good video

[@RjTheTrigun]

OMG thank you for this. I've sent years going thru this

[@bendelaughter]

Such great advice! I have always suffered from elbow pain during tricep work and from trying different things, I have actually naturally been doing most of this over the past year. I was concerned it wouldn't be as good of a stimulus for my triceps (even though I feel it just as well) but figured avoiding pain was more important. Great video as always!

[@MdSteel7]

Thanks

[@samgolden3993]

Fckin love this dude. Thank you for your wisdom

[@franciscojesus1195]

This video was made for me

[@00HoODBoy]

appreciate you

[@JoCaMystaCain]

I find that if I take a break from lifting (about a week), when I come back my left elbow hurts pretty bad on push days, but the very next session it doesn’t hurt at all. The only way I’ve found to mitigate the pain on those first days is to somewhat relax my grip on the bar or dumbbells and concentrate on slow eccentrics. Edit: same thing with dumbbell skullcrushers, if I relax my grip and let the dumbbell rest on the pad of my hand on the way down, it helps a lot.

[@angrygoldfish]

Thanks so much for this. I'm dealing with elbow and knee pain at the moment. I'm gonna have to employ these techniques because everything I've done so far hasn't worked. If you happen to be able to do this for knee pain, that would be so awesome. Thanks again for this!

[@dory_m78]

Fantastic, could you do one for shoulder pain during presses

[@phoenixprotocol452]

Yeah you’re the best

[@the-68quadfather45]

Menno thank f*** your on KZbin massive help to all 💪🏻

[@MJfromdaO]

I needed this

[@drschwandi3687]

Elbow pain from pressing exercises can also stem from low-bar squatting. I feel it on the bench press when overdoing low bar.

[@NofirstnameNolastname]

Wow this is a crazy coincidence. I literally told someone exactly these points you made today. He was complaining about pain in his lower back and he was telling me that he was supposed to do lower reps with heavier weight because it was more safe. And I told him that was the complete opposite to do especially with his terrible technique and clear instabilities. Luckily he actually listened to me though and changed his approach. This was for his squat fyi but the ideas still apply. So he lowered the weight, controlled the tempo and I also gave him a way to fix his instabilities. Also on this topic then probably even bigger coincidence is that I also have elbow pain atm. I had gotten rid of it but it came back after I picked up my dips again. Before this I had been doing cable tricep extensions and that seemed to have fixed it. But the dips brought it back so I guess I hadn't completely fixed it yet.

[@dory_m78]

I find my lower back can handle 18rep squats rather 10 rep sets

[@iateotw000]

I'm currently going through terrible elbow, forearm and wrist issues now bc of overuse and going too heavy for too long without ever backing off for a week or two to let myself recover and heal. This video was quite timely and helpful! Took a month off and have come back using lighter weight and higher reps and changed up a couple things with my form. There's still some irritation but I can tell things are much better than before.

[@StimYuLus]

deload every 4-6 weeks or so ur joints will thank u in the long run

[@sayonkumarbiswas3886]

That email with the line of 'i have elbows of 6 year old girl with osteoporosis ' got me 😂😂😂😂😂

[@dnfriedman]

Have been dealing with this for the past month or so, from reverse curls.

[@jeffreydhill]

Pain on elbow extension has always been my most frequent limiting factor, so this is very relevant for my own training. Agree with all your points, though I will say I'm one of those mutants that never had issues with flat bench (of any grip width) and in fact, close grip bench press became my go-to tricep exercise when many others were giving elbow pain (totally agree on skull crushers being elbow crushers LOL).

[@jererajala3519]

Can you do something similar regarding shoulder pain when training delts? Particularly tips on recovering from rotator cuff injuries would be appreciated.

[@Deliciousindignation]

it makes sense for larger muscles to have heavier weight exercises/lower rep ranges to reach muscle failure before cardiovascular failure. While smaller muscles need less weight and higher reps so that your joints and connective tissue are stressed as little as necessary. Smaller muscles need less volume per workout, more weekly frequency, since smaller muscles recover faster, while larger muscles can handle many more sets per workout at lower rep ranges and take longer to recover.

[@gojkogalonja]

"WTF does that mean" got me 😂

[@ruan614]

One technique that helped my elbows a lot was incorporating some slamball squeezing. You hold the ball out in front of you (arms bent) and you squeeze. Bring the ball closer or further away from your body till you find the point where you experience about 3/10 on the pain scale. Hold that position for 30 seconds. Rest and repeat ≈5 or so times. If you do this every other other day or every 3 days you should notice over time the positions that hurt are getting less and less (and eventually go away).

[@faizalsalim1194]

Full ROM pushdowns fucked up my left elbow. I get serious pain by doing curls.No more biceps training for me.

[@MTGandP]

How did you know that I just started experiencing elbow pain two days ago? Perfect timing on this video

[@menno.henselmans]

Hope it helps!

[@eduardodepauli3382]

Can you do more videos on this topic? shoulder joint pplz

[@sparklingearth]

Many thanks. Great video and content. With elbow tendinopathy you shouldn’t do high reps light weight, though, but rather high weight, slow few reps. Not all types of elbow pain can be equally treated …

[@SinisterSkip]

For me, I got really strong on tricep pushdowns as I was training with my best friend again (huge social gains). Now I'm in my third month of recovering my elbows as I got too strong too fast on the tricep pushdown. Recently switched to rope 'push'downs, way less elbow discomfort, and with kickbacks and OH tricep extensions, ZERO elbow discomfort. There's always a way.

[@jacoblecluyse9323]

How about a video on back pain / SI joint pain or even a critique of stuart mcgills ideas?

[@DCJayhawk57]

I have found that certain back exercises worsen my pain and aggravate it more than triceps, I'm just more aware of the pain when doing triceps isolation. I'm talking about golfer's elbow (medial epicondylitis). I modified my back movements, like switching weighted pullups to lat pulls, and that seemed to help a LOT. I'm now easing back into some heavier back movements, but have modified them to take stress off the forearm muscles. I always used straps, but I've gotten some pullup handles to put on a straight bar that are more accommodating than the rubberized pullup stations at my gym. I have also found high rep forearm training a few times a week to be beneficial in rehabbing the elbows. Plus, I have gotten notable forearm growth. Win-win. Rarely, I've gotten actual pain in my triceps tendon, but that usually seems to be a load management issue and temporary for me, but a chronic nagging issue like I've had from the forearm tendons.

[@Copano1996]

TRX and rings are god tiert for elbow pain, rows and pull ups on them feels great when u get pain from chin ups

[@shabbir3914]

can you make video on Tips to fix wrsit pain when lifting.

[@MiguePizar]

I have exactly this, and is getting better while I'm continuing lifting, what I have been doing is an anti inflammatory diet, or rather saying, a PMSF diet, so only protein and practically nothing else, since fat and carbs inflame the body, also as you say in your video, the slow controlled tempo and with ROM just before I feel pain, and perfect, no pain, I also use those elbow compressors, and with that, now I can lift as heavy as always, but with same slow controlled technique, so is getting better, So from next week I will incorporate again carbs and fats. Best

[@scootaymildo1070]

I get sore elbows doing presses, pulls, triceps and biceps ! 😢

[@xntumrfo9ivrnwf]

I messed up my elbow ~6 months ago (I think from pushdowns), but I've managed to mostly work around it for all muscle groups EXCEPT my lats... I can't do any sort of pull downs without feeling some pain. Fortunately it's not debilitating, but still sucks

[@nolaabifrida4866]

🙏 Please do one about shoulder pain 😭

[@sullivancaldeira1917]

Both my elbows are killing me, although they don't bother me in pressing exercises, but anything overhead, like triceps extensions or even rope, they hurt like hell. Let's see if this helps. Although I'd wager some of these issues might also be associate with my poor shoulder mobility. Anyway, thanks for the content!

[@genautelevishn5999]

please do shoulders and sciatica

[@danielkrmpoticdk]

Any advice on (front) shoulder pain when doing tricep exercises?

[@rock3027]

I think the 70 % of 1 RM treshold to cause adaptations in the tendons argument is usually applied the other way; you should go lower in reps to make sure that you make your tendons stronger. I would think this should especially be important for training the achilles tendon for runners and the patellar tendon for basketball players. For instance S & C coach Jake Tuura seems to train his patellar tendons super heavy with high frequency but few sets each time to be able to play basketball. On the other hand going very high in repetitions could be beneficial for "pumping" blod into the tendons. I would guess that the best for tendons would be a mix of doing >= 25 repetions (warm up and cool down) and doing

[@menno.henselmans]

Long term, you want some heavy lifting in there, indeed, but when you already have pain, heavy lifting is generally a no go. You don't need to stimulate more adaptations. The tissue is already going to remodel on its own if you just let it heal.

[@immanuelkuhrt8508]

I find OH triceps extensions with bands gentle on the elbows. You loos some tension in the stretched position for better and for worse.

[@wazzup105]

Awesome video. I was told once that pain on a level of 2 - 3 /10 is .. sort of OK, but don't go beyond that. Also... Could you do wrist and shoulder pain as well (and maybe knees... yes knees :-)

[@ShaneBoy]

I find low freqency and higher volume better for my weak joints and tendons. Also do higher reps if any problems. I change exercises as soon as I see it start to become a problem. I to the exercise with high stretch usually at the end part of the workout. Skullscrushers go last.

[@dizietz]

Menno -- any idea for golfer's elbow pain on pulling exercises?

[@parasite2640]

This sounds more like ‘how to avoid elbow pain’ rather than how to fix it. If you want to fix it, strengthening your connective tissues is a good place to start. Try incorporating some JM Press in your training and some tricep cable push downs where you go well above parallel on the eccentric. Hope it helps 👍

[@baronmeduse]

In terms of grip and forearm flexor strength it was only when I started doing behind the back wrist curls that I improved the instability I developed from golfer's elbow. I can't credit it entirely, because it took almost 18 months for the golfer's elbow to subside and I've done a few other things as well, like twist gripping and pulldowns allowing a light stretch. Ik ga zeker de hoge reps met minder gewicht uitproberen. De redenering dat zoiets als een tricepsextensie geen krachtoefening hoeft te zijn, is eigenlijk heel logisch.

[@TheNoroLP]

Don't really have elbow pain, but whenever I do skull crushers, my right elbow will hurt for a few weeks. I am not even feeling pain during the exercise, the pain starts in the following days. Stopped doing them and replaced them for cable pushdowns and never had issues ever again.

[@SurfingKyogreNL]

Student physiotherapy here. It may also be of value to strengthen your forearms to alleviate elbow pain.

[@AlphaLionTrillionaire]

What if I have between-elbow-and-wrists pain when training biceps?

[@jarosoho2049]

S Tier!!!

[@Vasher121]

Got any median nerve injuries advice?

[@Matthew-xy1hj]

Similar to the bill starr injury recovery method from the 60s? Except he doesn't recommend failure, but 20 reps with light weight. It's a great protocol.

[@muchomole9398]

0:35 - just for this, I had to drop a like.

[@StarfireReborn]

Some Of Us Are Easily Pleased 😅 I'm One Of Them... Literally Huge Elbow Pain, Menno Is The Absolute Best Psychic Advisor On Injury Video Timing.

[@SinisterSkip]

Excellent video. To add to this: potentially the JM press. It goes against most points in the video, and it feels like sh#t on the elbows, but that's the whole point of the exercise. It intentionally puts extra pressure and stretch on the elbows, to strenghten them (if used responsibly ofc.). Several armwrestlers and some strongmen with elbow pain use the JM press to increase their connective tissue integrity around the elbows. Maybe too risky/advanced for a general video about injury prevention though...

[@user-he4ef9br7z]

Old school tip for elbow pain PREVENTION: Start your sessions with cable working sets before you go to heavy dips, cgbp, skullcrushes. Don't spend too much time in the lockout (useless for hypertrophy anyway) and emphasize the stretch (good for connective tissue strength also lowers the weight). Don't use grips and angles that are awkward, even if they don't cause pain immediately. Once you've wrecked your elbows and you're above a certain age, there might be no going back. So focus on prevention.

[@boxerfencer]

I never had elbow pain till i started locking out bench pressing.

[@stavros13cisse]

I got the same issue with bicep exercises

[@TomFarrow-oo5wm]

Is blood flow restriction a good idea in an injured area? Surely you want to promote blood flow?

[@BozskaCastica]

My elbow hurts maily when doing chest fly exercise in stretch position. And the worst for me is barbell bicep curls, with EZ bar is much better. I broked some elbow bone as young. Can't fully rotated the elbow. Any rehab exercises for me? Got the elbow pain two years maybe more. But doctors says it's not that bad I need to surgery. But it's still very bad and will never be 100% 😬

[@Peter-uh9hu]

Great video. My absolute favorit triceps movement skullcrusher w. dumb bells got me a severe elbow pain last year when reaching 20 kg pr. arm. A pain that destroyed all my workout and daily tasks. Now i don't do skull crushers, furthermore I work my forearm(i never did that) and my pain is completely gone. And yes, singlearm triceps rope pushdowns with little weight gives an awesome pump and my arms love it. Thanks for the insight Menno.

[@Ins_FPS]

What about golfer's elbow?

[@Damzified]

What if the pain is caused by weightifting movements? Snatches, clean and jerks, overhead squats, push presses... Technical and explosive exercises where going higher in reps, slowing down the tempo, changing the forearm angle, trying different grips, etc. don't apply at all?

[@esembee7717]

25 rep sets of rope or band pushdowns seem to help with warming my elbows up. Then I'm good for heavier cable pushdowns with a bar attachment. I avoid bar skull crushers as they hurt my elbow no matter what.

[@zelenisok]

What about tennis /golfer elbow? So many people say you should "work through it". Some say its an injury and should be left to heal.

[@jeffbunnell9961]

BFR is underrated

[@SB_1357]

What about knee pain with legs?

[@gregfields011]

I wonder if the same things that knees over toes guy does for knees will also work for elbows.

[@codyivey8936]

I’ve had elbow pain for over 3 years. I haven’t trained chest in 2 years

[@sergejstojanovic2518]

Why not skull overs on an incline bench so it gets harded when you get stretched