Did I Destroy my Elbows Forever?

I was lifting heavy every day for a long long time, and now my elbows pop and hurt all the time. I took a few weeks off, and now I’ve been using dumbells instead of barbells to make it easier on my elbows, and lighter weight, but my elbows still pop. What do I do? :confused:

I don’t think any of us will be able to give you a good answer without examining it. It could be several things. Just go to the doc and have it checked out. Good luck.

wear elbow sleeves, warm up enough. Blue emu on them during the day/night and tiger rub right before training. Train ala john meadows as well, higher reps more pre-exhaust, stretch and squeeze and don’t focus so much on the weight. Supplement with animal flex and use tb-500 if you’re willing

I can pop my right elbow…doesn’t hurt tho :confused: x2 on the elbow sleeves

im writing you a prescription for serostim 4iu ED first thing in the morning 30-60 minutes before eating

Popping by itself isn’t really a bad thing. My right elbow will pop multiple times a day, sometimes I can pop nonstop for like a minute. Plus most of my other joints pop throughout the day, never hurt.

Doctors will tell you if it doesn’t hurt, don’t worry about it.

Make sure to do some warming up though before lifting heavy. Elbow sleeves would probably help, though I never use them.

Get some ART on the elbows and try getting some neptune krill oil.

stop a rep or two short of failure on all pressing and tricep moves, and deload regularly.

Eliminate any kind of skullcrushers/ free weight extensions.

[quote]valkairon wrote:
I was lifting heavy every day for a long long time, and now my elbows pop and hurt all the time. I took a few weeks off, and now I’ve been using dumbells instead of barbells to make it easier on my elbows, and lighter weight, but my elbows still pop. What do I do? :/[/quote]
On top of everything else that was said, please give us your exact routine you have done for the past month, or two. First thing I would do is to balance my pushing/pulling, I often get tendonitis if I don’t keep them balanced. Then I would up my reps to the 12-15 range, and brutally insult anyone who suggests using french presses/over head tricep extensions.

I would also remove any extensions to the fore head/hair line/chin. The best isolation exercises for me when my elbows are messed up are: Barbell PJR pull overs, (essentially the same movement except with a barbell) and dead stop tricep extensions from the floor. It would be best to use rack lockouts, close/narrow grip floor presses, close grip bench presses, and high board presses, and to minimize isolation. The compound exercises I mentioned are very low stress on the elbows, but take more out of your recovery.

This is what I would do, I do not take responsibility to anything that happens if someone copies what I do. I am not giving any medical advice, and I would suggest seeing either a specialist, or your primary care doctor.

[quote]RampantBadger wrote:

Eliminate any kind of skullcrushers/ free weight extensions.[/quote]

^ this for sure … I love skullcrushers, and feel they are one of the best triceps exercises … But elbows were KILLING me

Dropped 'em in favor of cable/rope/machine ext’s - world of difference

Get smarter.
Regular heavy is asking for trouble.
Train alone in the dark and pretend you lift heavy.
I only offered 2 cents, you might not enjoy that light a load.