Credit to George Turner
Elbow injuries fall into two categories. One of which is the upper arm, specifically the long head attachment of the triceps. It's bone spurs, a problem that's bodybuilder specific and not common among the general population.
Bone spurs are caused by exercises like french presses, in which the force of resistance, the fulcrum, is purposely put on the triceps at its elbow attachment, rather than where it should be,on the belly of the muscle.
I call them disadvantaged-lever exercises, and the category includes dumbbell behind the head french presses and lying triceps presses, especially the variety in which you lower the weight to your face.Generally, those movements cause microtearing of the tendinous attachment at the elbow long before they produce the tricep size you are looking for.
Every time there is a tear, no matter how small, the body sends calcium to the area to heal and reattach the tendon to the bone surface. The calcium is "reaching" for the tendon. Injured bodybuilders, who are unaware of what's happening, continue to do the movements that isolate the triceps, perpetuating a negative cycle.
You do the french presses, get stronger, experience pain, warm up longer, do the movements or a variation again, experience pain, and your body sends more calcium to the site.
You keep straining the attachment, your body keeps sending calcium, reaching for the tendon and, voila, bone spurs.
Now you have no choice but to find alternatives to using the disadvantaged levers. Bone Spurs a quarter inch long have seen to that. Now even dips and close grip bench presses, the exercises you should have been doing in the first place, cause discomfort, and it takes you forever to warm up.
You should be able to work a muscle through it's full range of motion in any position, right? Not necessarily. You certainly cannot ignore the rules of kinesiology forever anymore than you can break any other laws over the long term and expect to get off scot-free.
Muscles come in all shapes and sizes, but basically, they are like hot tamales. They are thick in the middle, or belly, necking down to where the cartilaginous tendon, which gets virtually no blood supply, attaches to the bone. The muscle, whether it's the triceps or any other, is thickest in it's belly, where it gets an abundant blood supply. For obvious reasons thats where the fulcrum should be for any exercise. If you do dips or moderate width bench presses, approximately two thirds of the resistance force comes off the belly of the muscle. The other one third is spread out over the attachments.
Change that, and you reverse the physics that affect the triceps as a lever. Now two thirds of the resistance comes off the attachment and very little comes from the belly. You've lost the muscle belly' |