Okay some of you remember I broke my elbow last October. When I tried to start lifting again I had alot of hingeing and problems when doing triceps. Well I thought I had waited long enough. Its almost been a year. The last few weeks I have been doing tricep dips (started to get hung up on these after my weights increased on the rest of my upper body) and dumbell extenstions. Today I wanted to shake things up and do lying extensions (nose breakers). Dropped weight, dropped set, and the elbow has cracked about a half dozen times, no pain and I have full extension, but its sore from the inside out if that makes sense. I have to go to the Dr. anyway as long as I don't have swelling I shoulkd be okay and I will let him know.

What you guys think? Am I working the kinks out from an old injury? Do I need to skip tris (yeah for Hi Helens as Meg calls them ) or is there something more gentle I can do?

Chris

Hiya Chris! I'm no doc (hey, neither are you -- see our disclaimers! ) but my humble opinion is that so long as you don't have pain and you have a full range of motion (and your doc's OK), go ahead and work tri's. BTW, that flabby arm Jello stuff is also known as "Bingo Arms" here in Western PA .

I'm guessing that your nose breakers are what we call skull crushers (there's lots of other names) and I think they're the toughest of all triceps exercises, so no wonder your poor elbow was cracking. My knees pop and crack like that on squats and lunges and a doctor told me that's called "crepidation" -- like in decrepit, get it? Like old and falling to pieces? She said that there's nothing wrong with the noise so long as there's no pain involved. So I keep snap, cracking, and popping on Leg Day with no apparent harm.

Perhaps you could back off on your nose breakers for a while and try a triceps machine, pushdowns (with a rope or bar), or kickbacks with light DBs until you get your strength back to where it was before you broke the elbow. You're already doing the overhead extensions, right? There's also close grip bench press with a bar or Smith machine or good old pushups with your two hands in a triangle. I think the key is to go light until you build up a little more strength and then go back to the lying extensions. But don't be surprised if your elbow keeps making noise.

BTW, I hope you have a good spotter on those! I'm always antsy when I do them since I dropped the bar on my forehead once when my spotter wasn't paying quite enough attention -- ow ow ow -- one of my many bruises.

I do them with dumbells so no bar and no spotter. I probably should have had someone there with me when I did tris back in Jan or Feb. The elbow hinged up and would not move and I lost all my strength at once, dropped the dumbell right down my back, good thing I moved or I might have hurt myself. Is there a good way to check your form with kickbacks. I always feel I am shifting my weight, or hunching, or working my back more. I feel like I am readjusting after each one and that's why I avoid them. Is there a good way to position your upperbody so your not wobbling around.

Chris

Hi Chris , my first thought was kickbacks too because you can't go too heavy on those at first no matter what... I use a bench when I do them and make sure my elbow is very well tucked in at my side, my back is very straight not rounded, and I look in the mirror to make sure that when I go up my tricep flexes...

Not a doc, here either. Note disclaimer I'm also a member of the rice crispy club- the snap, crackle, pop crowd.

My suggestion if you are nervous doing skullcrushers, is do them lying on the floor with your feet up on a bench. Hold the dumbells hammer style, and bring them down beside your ears instead of to your forehead. That way if they are too heavy or your elbow bothers you, they land quietly on the floor instead of on your head.

My current favorites are overhead cable extensions with a rope, super-setted with a single arm cable push down. My shoulder is too fragile for dips and my abs are too non-existent for push-ups.

Mel

Well that elbow is a little more sore this morning that the right, but no swelling and no loss in range of motion. My arms feel like spaghetti from yesterdays workout anyway.I think I will try the kickbacks next time and I really do appreciate all your input. Its so awesome that we have a great source of information here.

Chris