Acute pain just above elbows

I'm not the fittest guy in the world and haven't done any weight training in literally years. 3 days ago I started P90X to try and get myself into shape. On Wednesday I was doing the chest & back video which involves a lot of push ups and pull ups. I've overdone it during that video and for the last couple of days I (understandably) was sore around the chest, shoulders and arms. For the last two days I've stuck to cardio work and some stretching and my chest and shoulders are still slightly painful but I wouldn't be worried about working them again. However, on both of my arms, just above the elbow, I have quite a severe pain when I try to completely straighten the arm or put a bend in the arm past 90 degrees. I thought this pain would have eased off a bit by now but it seems to be as painful as it was on Thursday. For the past two days I've been doing cardio work and performing some stretching on the arms after a warm-up which has worked everywhere other than that particular bit of my arms. The pain would be just where the tricep joins to the elbow and extends about a hand-width up each arm - further up the arm (i.e. around the middle of the upper-arm) doesn't really hurt - the pain is isolated to that area just above the elbow.
 
Does anyone have experience of a similar injury and, if so, am I best just to not work that area until the pain goes away?

Hiya mate welcome to muscletalk!
 
I strongly recommend you never ignore pain, the body is an amazing instrument and the pain is your body tellibng you something isnt quite right. Possible just a mechanical issue rather than a medical condition but until you have an assessment done by a professional yopu will be guessing and risking your health/physicality.
 
So at least avoid anything that hurts until you get to see someone would be my advice and do it sooner rather than later

It sounds like tendonitis of the elbow, i suffered that for a while when training more than a few days a week when i first started weight lifting. If you ignore it and carry on it gets worse! The best way to cure it is rest! take a week out or so and see how you feel. or if you wish to carry on then take anti inflammatories which will take down the inflammation of the joint and ease the pain.

Traditional elbow tendinitis would generally present below the elbow rather than above it as it involves the muscles of the forearm.
 
OP, I would hazard a guess it's a case of trying to go from zero to fifth gear in one go (so to speak) after a long period off and the tendons have flared up a bit from asking so much of them, tricep tendons as a guess based upon your description.
 
Keep an eye on it, and if it starts to ease off, progress towards full capacity a bit more steadily.