HELP - does elbow pain = tendonitis...??!!

HELP - does elbow pain = tendonitis...??!!

I am relatively new to lifting, but have been going pretty seriously for almost 8 weeks now.
my routine is sound and I do major muscle groups once per week in a 4 day split.

over the past week or so I have been noticing some dull pain on my right elbow. (the outer part of my elbow related to tricepts as oposed to inner like bicept/forearm)
the pain more like slight iritation and is most noticable all the time in regular life as opposed to in the gym - like there are no stabing pains or anything when lifting.

At home or at night when I am noticing the dull pain, if I try and bend my arm fully like completely contract my bicept and stretch out the tricept I can feel that my right elbow is defienetly somewnat sore compared to my left one.

I am wondering - is this possibly early stage tendonitis?
If it is - what do I do? I had planed to take my week off soon since I am nearing 8 weeks of straight training, but is that even enough to recover from a joint/tendon problem?

If I have to "lay off", how long is suggested?
Do I need to stop ALL weight training as any stress on the arm will inflame the problem, or can I continue unrelated things like back bicepts/fore arms and legs??
this problem will affect my ability to do chest, shoulders and obviously tricept isolation work...
I am really bummed out.

I have added "glucosamine sulfate" tablets to my supplimetns, and am seriously thinking of taking 2-3 weeks off from ALL lifting.
but I am very discouraged about that idea.

my main concern is to stop this from getting worse, but I still want to be able to stay on track - for the first time I am commited to a good diet and good routine, and I am seeing gains...
what a pain in the ass to be stopped by an injury.


any and all suggestions are welcome...

i doubt it, maybe you are doing too much biceps or too much triceps, that might make your elbow hurt a little

THE MONKEY HAS SPOKEN!

go see a doctor just to be safe.Tennis elbow is not the end all but could get alot worse if not treated right.so for right now i would say that stop lifting untill you see a doctor and tell him what you are doing so he can help you work it out.Remember you body will always tell you when something is wrong it is up to you to listen and act on it in the right manner if you dont then you body will make you pay.

Maybe.. I know one day I was doing hammer curls. With too much weight. I felt like I strained my forearm/bicep area. After that, for the next month I had some major bicep issues when doing curls and even more when doing any kind of triceps pushdown or overhead extension.

Being discouraged, I just quit working arms for about 3 weeks. It was to the point where I couldn't lift a 20 lb weight to curl without it hurting.

And things at work would aggravate it.

So what can you do?

Lay off the arm work. If I was to skip any body parts, it would be arms. I remember Kris saying something about that.
Then I'd use something like the AST Biofreeze creme. It was awesome. You can get it at their site.. AST. Glucosamine was my savior actually. It took about 2 weeks before I started taking it on a regular basis and 2 weeks to kick in. Once it did.. I can do arm work again.

If it is tendinitis, it never goes away. It's micro-tears in the tendon. However, at this time, I never feel mine anymore. So to me, it's gone.

Don't worry dude. It's probably just one rep the form wasn't right or whatever, tweak, and now you have this. Or your form was correct and it's just overuse.

But it can be addressed. And it's not over.

I wrote an article on Freedomfly about Tendonitis and the Effects on Your Routine and what I did. Kinda goes more in-depth. Give that a read as well.

Marc C. David - NGA CPT
Author of NoBull Bodybuilding
www.nobullbodybuilding.com

Thnx for the support MDA

I read the article... how long did you lay off Bicepts?
Did you still do back and other "pull day" work during the lay off?

today was supposed to be chest day, but I took an extra day off.
But I'll be hitting it tommorow and my goal will be to match last weeks weight and reps instead of up it like I ussually aim to do.
I won't do tricept isolation work, but I really wanna do my "leaning forward dips" - I am finally feeling strong enough to do them and really feel it in my chest...

I'll bring an ice pack in the car, so I can ice it right after my work out.
hopefully it won't get any worse, but now that I am all worried about it who knows...
Anyway - this is week 8, so I'll be taking a week off after this regardless.
I just hope one week off is enough.

On a side note, it's been 5 days since I cycled off creatine, and I haven't lost any size or weight...
is that a bad thing? maybe I am not a responder as I suspected when I didn't really notice the "creatine pump" I had heard about.
we'll see if my strength is down, but shoulder day was friday and I still beat my previous numbers without creatine...? who knows.

how long did you lay off Bicepts?

2-3 weeks. Same with triceps. Did them a little, hurt.. quit. It got me down some days that I started a warm-up set and wanted to go home.

Did you still do back and other "pull day" work during the lay off?

I did. It wasn't nearly as painful if the muscle wasn't isolated. Seems that isolating biceps with curls was painful but now rows or pulls up as much. So I kept on all my other body parts fine.

On a side note, it's been 5 days since I cycled off creatine, and I haven't lost any size or weight...
is that a bad thing? maybe I am not a responder as I suspected when I didn't really notice the "creatine pump" I had heard about.
we'll see if my strength is down, but shoulder day was friday and I still beat my previous numbers without creatine...? who knows.

A bad thing not to lose any size or weight? No. I didn't lose any muscle or size.. but I lose water weight. I did notice the loss of strength. If you don't it could very well be that creatine did nothing for you. In which case, V12 by SANS might. If you didn't feel that.. my god my strength is way good.. kinda feeling, then it might be a non-responder issue. If you feel after 2 weeks of being off that you can beat all your numbers, it seems like you don't respond to creatine. I quit.. 2 weeks later, I know I'm weaker. But who knows.. could be mental.

If you don't notice anything at all.. then maybe creatine isn't for you. 30% of people don't respond. That's pretty high.

I wouldn't worry about it. Tell us how you feel strength-wise in another 5 days..

Marc C. David - NGA CPT
Author of NoBull Bodybuilding
www.nobullbodybuilding.com

This might help some......

R.I.C.E.

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When I began lifting, I experienced pain in my elbows and wrists at times. I bought some ACE bandages and wrapped them up while doing preacher's and skull crushers. A lot of people told me it would weaken my wrists. I only did this for about three weeks or so until the pain quit. It's like they helped support these joints until they grew enough to compensate. You are shocking your body, it sounds like. If you have never lifted and all of the sudden you are kicking butt 8 weeks straight,,, then WOW! your body is adapting to all kinds of new growth!

Don't be discouraged. Wouldn't be a bad idea to see your Doctor if you have not already. I'm sure it is not a show stopper. I usually train 6 weeks, then take 1 or 2 weeks off. It does wonders. When you come-off a 2 week rest and hit it hard, I personally get better gains from it. I usually come back stronger (not 1st wrk-out) and feel bigger.

Keep up the good work! Sounds like you are going to be growing like a weed shortly!!