Elbow pain during russian dips - advice appreciated!

I've been plugging away at russian dips for a couple of months now with slow progress - I'm yet to do a full unassisted rep yet and that's due to a consistent sharp pain in my left elbow during the transition from upper arm support to the push phase of the exercise. In addition to the distraction of the pain, it's onset seems to render the whole arm weak and I'm unable to push through it (that's not something I do regularly you understand - I get that the pain is a warning!). If I scale the rep down with my feet on the floor or on a bench I can drill the transition fairly well but as soon as a load is applied the pain/weakness is back. The pain is only in that phase of the rep as the elbow rises, everything else is unaffected - it's acute, currently debilitating and stops as soon as I let off the load. The elbow is fine during all other dips, pressing / pulling work.

 

I'm not in a rush so was planning to keep working the assisted reps and scaled down transitions for the next couple of months gradually increasing the load (moving the feet way from under the body) to see what happens. Does that seem sensible or should I rest it out for a month? 

 

Any one had anything similar, have any idea what it could be or even just want to wax philosophical on the physical limits revealed by foundation that you never even knew were a problem!

 

 

Can you do negatives without pain? If yes, I would do that.

Yeah sorry that wasn't clear in my rambling.  The negatives to support are fine unassisted - I can do 5x5 consistently without any issues. I can then do the protract/retract in support but upon pressing up I get the pain. 

How long do your negatives usually take? Are you sure that you're not "falling" through the last part of the exercise? Maybe post a video for a form check. 

 

 

How are you on other dip variations? E.g. regular dips, bar dips, ring dips, korean dips, bulgarian dips etc. 

All my other dips are fine (IMHO) but I do fall a bit - right at the end but I thought that was how the athlete in the course video gets down to the support position? My negatives are not long (<10s), I guess that's where I need to develop strength though so I'll work on that. Thanks

The athlete in the video also uses a bit of momentum to help transition from upper arm support. Are you doing this or simply pressing?

I've tried using a bit of momentum (a fast scap protract to retract) and even a full blown kip but no joy. Is it worth filming a set of assisted reps with a slow negative?

Yeah show us what you're doing and where you're having trouble.

Finally got a chance to film some reps - thoughts...? (password: sisyphus)

 

http://vimeo.com/9971812

Bump

"page not found" is what i get

Yeah I took the video down a couple of days ago - no-one had replied and I'd managed to work through the problem on my own anyway. I can do multiple sets now and am just tidying them up over another cycle or two.

 

Work and illness coincided perfectly during my deload week to prevent me from doing anything for six days straight (a steady intake of ibuprofen might have helped as well) and when I got back to the next cycle I tried one unassisted rep and it was actually so easy I did a couple more. So I guess I had a minor strain and just hadn't felt it at any other time other than during the exercise. 

 

Thanks though.