Do I need to wait or just skip an exercise..?

numindan

Met with my trainer on Sunday and am not seeing him again until Thursday. Tonight I'll be at the gym without him.

Sunday we were doing Barbell curls and today (2 days later) my inside elbow area (sorry, I don't know anatomy but basically the area where you'd have blood drawn for testing) feels very tight and sore. I'm a walking barrel of injuries already and don't want to do anything stupid before I see my trainer again on Thurs. I'm doing the curls on the lowest weight at the gym (20lbs), so dropping to something lower isn't really possible. Hoping the hive mind here will know if I should adjust the exercise to use lower weight dumbbells or just skip it today?

PLUMSGRL

one gallon of water+ 8 pounds, get 2 jugs and lift those! also the reason that area (anticubital) is sore/tight is because thats where the muscle becomes tendon and attaches to the bone...try warming up the area buy doing the same movement without the weight and squeezing the muscle at the end contraction/flexion (when your elbow is bent).

ilovedeadlifts

if your muscles hurt, give them a rest.

sounds like it could be tendonitis.


on another note. if your "trainer" has you doing curls, instead of compound movements, you might want to consider getting a better trainier.

numindan

Thanks. I'll definitely try the warm-up/stretching before starting. I do have access to 5, 7.5 and 10 lb dumbbells. I was just wondering if I should use those instead of the 20 lb + barbell weight. Perhaps starting with the 10 lbs and dropping to 7.5lbs per arm if I can't manage the barbell today?

numindan

on another note. if your "trainer" has you doing curls, instead of compound movements, you might want to consider getting a better trainier.

As far as I can tell from reading up on the exercises he's given me, this is the only non-compound/non-body weight activity he's given me to date. The trainer did come highly recommended from my physiotherapist as being one with lots of experience dealing with injuries so I'm not sure I should be looking for a different trainer based on a single exercise.

Other than this, so far my routine is about 50% body weight related and consists of the following split over 2 different days/routines (keeping in mind that this is only my 2nd week...)

- squats
- lunges
- planks
- pushups
- back extensions
- dumbell rows (bent over)
- dumbell chest press
- dumbell shoulder press
- dumbell pullovers
- barbell curls (standing)

My physiotherapist also has me doing a bunch of ball exercises (roll outs standing for shoulder injury, roll outs on knees for back injury, crunches on sweedish ball & squats on bosu ball for knee stability, standing on one leg for set duration for knee stability, stretches, etc.) in addition to the above. She's seen the trainer's routine and hasn't mentioned any concerns with it.

I do see your point about skipping the exercise that hurts (barbell curls) to allow extra time for healing but I still don't see the point of ditching my trainer over one exercise...

ETA: List of exercises

akjmart2002

Curls might have their place for bodybuilding, but they are a single muscle and joint exercise. You may just be feeling particularly sore in that one joint because of the exercise specificity and the weight. Give it a few days before coming back to it.

Or, switch to pullups and bench press. Multi-joint exercises that will *also* work your biceps just as much as curls.

If you can't do a pullup, try deadhanging from the bar for 1 min at a time. You'll get a great bicep stretch and build grip strength at the same time. Do 3 or 4 sets of 1 minute hangs.

Your mileage may vary...

numindan

If you can't do a pullup, try deadhanging from the bar for 1 min at a time. You'll get a great bicep stretch and build grip strength at the same time. Do 3 or 4 sets of 1 minute hangs.

I'm working my way up to bench pressing & deadlifting - physiotherapist says I need to build more muscle around previously broken clavicle and vertibrae before I should attempt them.

If she ok's deadhangs (I'm not able to do pull-ups - yet), would I do that with palms facing inward (towards face) or outward (away from body)?