Any hope for my joints?

[Silencer]

For the twelve years that I've been lifting seriously, I've always had a weakness in my elbow joints. It is most apparent on my incline bench press: Early in every cycle, I'd work up to 230-240 pounds, and then I would strain an elbow on the 1st or 2nd rep and it would take 3-4 months before I could start using decent weight again.

This year, I decided to work my way up and stay at 225 and then only increase reps. I got to doing 3 set of 225 for 10 reps, so figured I'd be ok to go higher. So I tested sets of five: 235 -- fine. 245 -- fine. 255 -- left elbow strain!!

Worst part is the 255 pounds does NOT feel heavy overall; this is really frustrating right now. Should I just give up on moving up in weight permanentely and start doing other versions: rest-pauses at 225, negatives with 225, slow-reps, etc? Anyone else out there with something similar where your joints are the weak link? I'm adding in glucosamine through the Elasti-Joint supplement,. Any other ideas?

 

[Fa Seeshus]

try cissus.

also you don't have to do heavy barbell presses every workout. why not pre-exaust with flies and then do db presses for reps?

 

[Force245]

first try cissus. works way better than the other stuff. But instead, if this way of training is hurting you, then why continue to train that way. So you say you do fine with 225 for 10 reps. Okay then stay with 225 for 10 reps till its easy. Take a small jump up tp 230 for 10 til easy, then jump to 235 til easy. See what I'm getting at. Progression over time, Smart lifting and you won't get hurt. Say you jump up 5 pounds every two weeks. Theoretically that is 25 pounds on your incline in a year. No time off and you are still training. Of course you will stale out, but if you train smart you will continue to train instead of being hurt and not training.

 

[boondocksmuscle]

Might look at the amount of fat you're taking in in your diet. If your fat intake is pretty low that might be a problem. Fish oil has actually helped my joints a bunch.