Tip Elbows Inflamed Build Biceps Anyway Search Skip to content Menu Menu follow us Store Articles Community Loyal-T Club Loyal-T Points Rewards Subscribe to Save Search Search The World s Trusted Source & Community for Elite Fitness Training Tip Elbows Inflamed Build Biceps Anyway Got elbow pain Stop making it worse with your arm training Try this instead by Tim Hendren July 26, 2019August 18, 2019 Tags Training There's nothing worse for a lifter than dealing with joint inflammation like elbow tendonitis. When the orthopedist tells you the only way to remedy that pain when flexing or extending your arm is rest and recovery, it conjures up images of church lady arms that swing to and fro during heavy clapping. It can take six months or more for tendonitis to go away. Are you really going to stop training your arms for that long? Probably not. The good news is that you don't have to. You have one more card to play before downsizing your T-shirts to fit your shrinking arms. That card is blood flow restriction (BFR). BFR Brad Schoenfeld covered blood flow restriction (BFR) here and its benefits have been well documented in the research community. Just recently, a meta-analysis was published (Lixandro, 2018) pitting traditional heavy-load training against low-load BFR training to see which was more efficient at growing muscle and strength. Using almost 50 studies, it was determined that low-load BFR was just as effective in terms of hypertrophy as traditional heavy strength training. Sure, strength suffers a great deal in the absence of lifting heavy shit, but at least the sleeves will still hug the arms nice and tight. Here s How to Do It Place the restriction (wraps or cuffs) directly between the medial deltoid and bicep. Wrap your arms with a perceived tightness of 7/10. This will provide enough pressure to occlude the cephalic vein, but ensure you're still allowing arterial flow. Check for a distal radial pulse (at the wrist) after you're wrapped to make sure it's not too tight. Don't do the exercise if you can't find your pulse. Wrap Up and Lift Pain-Free BFR mimics the intensity of lifting heavy without actually lifting anything heavy. The light loads (20-30% of 1 RM) used for standard BFR training will typically allow a lifter to get away with doing movements they otherwise couldn't do with an inflamed elbow. Additionally, the pooling of blood during a series of BFR curls or extensions creates a cushion of sorts for the elbow that minimizes pain even further. Programming Use BFR up to 2-3 times per week for best results. Try it wherever arm work is programmed in your current protocol and see if you can do it without pain. You probably can. The most heavily researched set/rep scheme is 30-15-15-15. It's considered the gold standard by practitioners. It looks like this: Set 1: 30 reps Set 2: 15 reps Set 3: 15 reps Set 4: 15 reps Take only 30 seconds rest between each set. Unwrap after set 4. Breathe. Reference Lixandrão, Manoel E., et al. "Magnitude of Muscle Strength and Mass Adaptations Between High-Load Resistance Training Versus Low-Load Resistance Training Associated with Blood-Flow Restriction: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis." Sports Medicine, vol. 48, no. 2, 2017, pp. 361–378., doi:10.1007/s40279-017-0795-y. Get The T Nation Newsletters Don' t Miss Out Expert Insights To Get Stronger, Gain Muscle Faster, And Take Your Lifting To The Next Level related posts Training Tip Build Calves With 8-Second Reps It's not just genetics. It's that you've been training your calves all wrong. Here's how to hit them right. Tips, Training Paul Carter November 22 Training Tip The Zercher Shrug Stay upright and avoid bouncing to make this a very effective shrug variation. Exercise Coaching, Tips, Traps Christian Thibaudeau November 9 Training The Belt and the Deadlift Chances are you're using the wrong belt when you deadlift. Worse yet, you may not even know why or how to use it. Deadlift, Most Popular Deadlift Articles, Training Mark Rippetoe March 31 Training Forget About Squat Depth Two authorities on squatting think squat depth is arbitrary and senseless. Here are 5 things about squats that they think are much more important. Powerlifting & Strength, Squat, Training JL Holdsworth & Geoff Girvitz December 7