[Cloudguy]

Starting probably a couple weeks ago (I am not positive when exactly it started) I was getting a slight pain in the inner part of my elbow near where the bicep ends and the inside of the elbow begins during bench pressing.

Prior to this, I had been experiencing some slight elbow discomfort near my elbow and below in the lower part of my left forearm that seemed to be tennis or golfers elbow. After icing that a couple times it seemed to go away and there was no more problem until this developed.

So the pain seemed to occur mainly during bench pressing right at the inside of the elbow. The pain seemed to be dulled out when the weight of the bar was transmitted through my arm, but after I let the bar go and the weight was no longer compressing my arm, the pain would shoot up briefly until I rubbed it out. The strange thing is, I did not really notice it doing many other exercises that involve the bicep to any extent, including deadlifts, rows, pulldowns, pullups, anything. That all changed yesterday. I did the presses on Monday and it seemed like the pain in the elbow was killing my endurance a bit (I started off strong, but ran out of strength quicker than normal, that has been happening the past week or 2 on press exercises).

Tuesday (yesterday) I went to the gym and started off with some reverse fly exercises and the pressure it was putting on my left elbow (inside of elbow) was causing great pain. I tried to do some cable curls afterwards to loosen it up, and banged out 8 on my right arm and when I got to my left arm I could barely get through 3 with excruciating pain right where my elbow and bicep meet and inside my elbow. I moved to deadlifts and with ultra-high weight was not experiencing a shooting pain, more of a dull annoying ache most likely due to attempting the curls earlier.

Anyway, it is now the next day and, while I have not tried to put much weight on the joint, it really does not hurt much. There will be an occassional annoying tingle here and there or some minor discomfort, but nothing serious. I have full range of motion with no pain and nothing hurts when touched or squeezed.

Anyone have any idea if this is tendinitis or an overtaxed muscle or what? Maybe due to overuse of the joint? I have been working out a good bit lately and have been increasing weight steadily using a periodization scheme (2-3 weeks at lower weight, higher reps, 2-3 weeks at high weight for 5 sets of 3 to 4, mostly on press exercises, then 2-3 weeks at a lower weight again). This has given me great improvement but maybe I am trying too much too fast?

Any ideas?