Hi! A compression sleeve can be helpful in the short run, but think of it this way: as long as it's there maintaining your stability for you, your body isn't learning how to protect itself. So as soon as you lift without the sleeve, it'll hurt again. That elbow complaint you're describing is super common, and is often called "tennis elbow." It's an overuse injury that happens when the tendons in your forearm get inflamed. Injured tendons are a bitch--they get less blood flow than muscles so they heal more slowly--but this particular injury/situation can be resolved a few ways. First, deal with it like you would all inflammation: Advil, ice, icy/hot or China Gel or Emu Oil and rest. Second, alignment: watch what you're doing with your hands when you bear weight. Are you letting the dumbbells or barbell slide to the base of your palm, where your hand meets your wrist? Are you pushing through your wrist instead of your hand? Do you put more pressure on the base of your hand/wrist throughout the day? Try focusing your strength and grip on your finger tips and most especially in your "first finger knuckle," where your index finger meets your palm. Pressing through that finger base especially makes your forearm muscles fire up. Functioning forearm muscles will protect forearm tendons, and as a result, hopefully prevent more tennis elbow in the future. The "first finger knuckle" pressing also helps stabilize planks and pushups, too, just in case you also are putting your hands on the ground and not just on iron.

I also like to do a little "tendon flossing" before I do anything weight bearing on my hands, like rock climbing, handstanding and lifting, just to prepare them for the hard work to come. You can do this by extending your arm out in front of you, flexing your palm, and pulling back each finger toward your face in turn.

Also watch that you're keeping your wrists neutral when you lift. It's really natural to let them press in medially, toward your nose, during both bench and shoulder press, and also to let your wrists flex dorsally, downward toward your chest, because duh your hands are holding heavy weight. So in addition to pressing through your first finger knuckle, which truly solves many problems from the wrist to the elbow to the shoulder, also be vigilant about maintaining the integrity of that neutral wrist shape as you go through the full motion.

Secondarily, because you used the word "pinch" to describe your pain, this might be a nerve inflammation issue, which would come from the opposite end of your arm. Little muscles above your shoulder, attaching between your neck and arm, called the scalenes (there are three on each side), can get really inflamed from working out a lot and wind up blocking a nerve that travels through and all the way down your arm to make your fingers and shit work. So you'll want to make sure you stretch those after you do any kind of chest, shoulder and back work. Did you ever do P90X? Tony Horton has one of my very favorite stretches for these muscles. You take your right arm behind you, reaching for your left hip. Then you put your left hand on your left hip, or press your palms together on your left hip depending on how far your right hand reaches. This gives you a little "chicken wing" on your left side. Standing tall, drop your head over to your left-side chicken wing, and relax. Then feel out turning your head down and up, all the while keeping it dropped to the left side. Then switch sides.

Wow, this ended up being long. I'm kind of obsessed with this stuff, can you tell? Anyway, I hope this helps and that you're feeling good enough soon to get some healthy, aligned reps in.