Squatting And Elbow Pain - Fix It Foreveri
Last Update On December 19, 2011
Far too many people seem to experience nagging elbow pain from holding the bar while squatting - especially low-bar. My friend who helps me manage this site says that he observes similar complains almost daily on the Starting Strength forums.
The number one reason for experiencing arm pain during a squat is the low-bar position itself. It's such an unnatural position that your shoulders, wrists and elbows have to endure a lot of strain. Let's take a look at the low-bar position.
As you can see the bar is so low that if you don't have enough flexibility your joints will endure severe strain. Not to mention that all the surrounding muscles have to work extra hard to support the bar. During heavy sets your body goes into “survivor mode”. Or in other words we try to squeeze power our of every muscle and quite often the arm will come into play a little bit. Technically if you have your elbows pointing back NOT DOWN UNDER THE BAR they will not be supporting the bar BUT you may still experience pain. I've done low-bar squats and quite often during heavy sets I will lose a little bit of balance and the bar may move a little on my back as well. It's very hard to recover if that happens.
There are three solutions to the problem.
Solution 1: Hold the bar correctly;
The above picture shows the correct low-bar position. The elbows are pointing back, thumb-less grip, elbow and wrist in almost perfect alignment...etc. Of course in reality heavy weights change almost everything so don't be surprised if your form gets worse during maximal effort.
Solution 2: Use wider grip;
Have you seen how powerlifters hold the bar - almost hands to the plates. Honestly most of them don't do it by choice but due to lack of flexibility and being too big. Wider grip makes it a little easier to assume correct alignment of your elbows but your upper back tightness will suffer. If wider grip solves your pain just keep using it.
Solution 3: Switch to high-bar squats
In my opinion this is the best option and it will permanently take care of the pain. The high bar squat does not only relieves a lot of strain from the shoulder girdle, elbows and wrists but it also allows you to go deeper at the bottom which is great for leg hypertrophy. It's very unlikely to experience elbow pain from high-bar squats. However if this happens use the above solutions.
High-bar Squats = The King
You might also like...
