The 30 Minute Physique Experiment Day 4

The 30 Minute Physique Experiment Day 4

08/11/2025 Training Log: Pull Session

Late night pull session at 8pm after a busy day of work and following a nice long hike in the mountains the day prior.

Warm up: bent over rear delt flyes

Ex 1: pullups-7,6

Ex 2: single arm rows-12/12, 11/11

Ex 3: incline dumbbell curls-8,9

Ex 4: incline hammer curls-10,12

Total Time = 21 minutes 

I've been dealing with a bit of golfers elbow (elbow tendinitis) on my right elbow the past few weeks. It seems to have become more flared up recently.

My suspicion is the combination of doing extra bonus arm days (bummer), pushing concentration curls, and weighted pullups. 

Odds are, the culprit is a combination of these 3 things, but I'm guessing it's mostly a result of doing an extra arm day and pushing hard on weighted pullups at the same time. 

Concentration curls are an incredible exercise for me and they allow me to train the biceps in a position in front of the torso, but I've always found bicep curls in front of the torso to be tougher on my elbows, while bicep curls with elbows beside or behind the torso (incline dumbbell curls, Bayesian cable curls) tend to feel great on my elbows. I also find that clients who have histories of tricky elbow syndrome (a made up diagnosis by me) respond well and can train hard on incline dumbbell curls but often not other curl variations.

Luckily, incline dumbbell curls and incline hammer curls are main stays in my program when doing PPL.

Anyway, I don't usually notice problems with it during pull sessions with pullups, rows, curls, and hammer curls or shrugs. I'll be doing some exercises and care to help it heal, but in the meanwhile, I was still able to train pretty hard today.

I'm laying off weighted pullups for awhile though and I'm going to just focus on pauses at the top and bottom of each rep, slow eccentrics, pulling up until my mid-chest hits the bar, and experimenting with different hand widths to see if a narrower, wider, or medium grip feels best. I'll probably go a bit easier on the pullups in the meanwhile. 

As for curls, I'm obviously keeping incline dumbbell curls. I'm, of course, going to continue finishing pull sessions with incline hammer curls. And maybe I'll try single arm spider curls for a few weeks every other session (alternating with incline dumbbell curls) to see if that will be a suitable, mostly pain-free replacement for the concentration curls meanwhile.

I've definitely noticed serious bicep gains these past few months since alternating between incline dumbbell curls and concentration curls, so I'd like to keep some form of elbow-in-front-of-torso variation in the mix.

Dropping weighted pullups and extra arm days will likely have the biggest impact on my rate of elbow healing, though. I've dealt with these tedious elbow injuries many times in the past and I seem to have a decent system for recovering from it:

1. Turmeric & cucumin 

2. Sauna

3. Slow supinated wrist curls

4. Slow pronated wrist curls

5. Hammer rotations

6. Iron mind grip work (long static holds for 10-15 reps per set) or tennis ball squeezes.

7. Stop doing exercises that bother it for a while

8. Drop weight and increase reps on pulling work.

I don't follow a specific frequency, set, or rep scheme on the forearm and grip exercises. I, instead, opt for a grease the groove approach and just do a bunch of reps of each exercise throughout the day, flushing the muscle with blood and staying away from things that bother it.

Tomorrow (Tuesday), I've got a Push Session.