Forearm pain

[paul2010]

I have been experiencing pain on my forearm for a couple of months now, and hurts when I do bicep curls. I usually feel pulsating pains after a workout...it's limiting my training in going heavier on the curls, frustrating - grrr :evil:

I'm guessing I'm going to have to get physio treatment, but I really can't be stuffed going through the rehab process of very light weight exercises for about 3 to 6 weeks, to get back to working it 100% again...

Anyone else experienced this? One guys I train with said that it happened to him too, but just came right on it's own after some time....

[TonganTerror]

hey paul yeah I have had this I found it was when I was doing heavy preacher curls I gripped the bar too tight it feels like shin splints but in your forearm aye...

I just dropped the weight for a few weeks to let them settle back down and do standing curls for a while that strict preacher will make it worse so yeah REST IT is the only cure for it.

[IronHyde]

I too have had this. Didn't train biceps for nearly the whole of last year. Pain still comes when arms are locked doing any form of barbell curls, on either straight or kinked bars. I have been told if your grip is too close on BB curls it stretches the muscles along the insides of your forearms and this seems to be true as far as i can tell. I got to the point where putting down DB's i had to very slowly let go otherwise i would get chronic pain through the forearms.

Give them a good rest from curls then get some anti-flamme (in purple pot) and rub the crap out of them with that using your thumbs. This helped me so hopefully it will work for others.

I found that hammer curls didn't bring on very much pain compared to BB or normal DB curls so give that a go after you have given them a rest for a while.

[TonganTerror]

I too have had this. Didn't train biceps for nearly the whole of last year. Pain still comes when arms are locked doing any form of barbell curls, on either straight or kinked bars. I have been told if your grip is too close on BB curls it stretches the muscles along the insides of your forearms and this seems to be true as far as i can tell. I got to the point where putting down DB's i had to very slowly let go otherwise i would get chronic pain through the forearms.

Give them a good rest from curls then get some anti-flamme (in purple pot) and rub the crap out of them with that using your thumbs. This helped me so hopefully it will work for others.

I found that hammer curls didn't bring on very much pain compared to BB or normal DB curls so give that a go after you have given them a rest for a while.

f*ck yeah thats the same thing i had mate when Id put the curl bar down I had to put it down keeping my grip on it then let it go real slowly or the pain was unimaginably unbearable(yes that sore :pfft: )reat is the only cure for this I believe as its more of a splint than a muscle tear

[paul2010]

Appreciate your advice IronHyde and TT! Yep, that it exactly where the pain is - the inside part of my forearm

Gosh, no bicep training for almost a whole entire year? :shock: The other stink part about it is that it also hurts when I'm doing back exercises or any that involve pulling :x

At least there is hope then, and I will try resting it, and the rub downs with anti-flam.

Thanks again guys!

[oldfella]

Have also suffered similar pain. Was advised to just not grip the bar so tight. Try alternating the bicep work and find which one produces the least amount of pain.

[kels]

good to her im not the only one who has gone through this. my mate told be it could be due to weak strength in my grip. for the past month i have been working on strengthing my grip, no more pain :clap:

[rimma]

I had it when I started lifting a few months back. Still flares up on some exercises like barbell curls, reverse curls, skullcrushers. So i tend to avoid them

[paul2010]

It's of some comfort to know that there are others out there experiencing the same, appreciate hearing about your experiences, feedback and work around tips to manage this nuisance.

[EMC]

are you feeling pain in the wrist flexors or extensors?(top or bottom of your forearm muscles) during the concentric or eccentric part of the movement? (top or bottom of the curl) are you flexing (curling) your wrist at the top of the movement?

muscles dont typically give you pain unless your using them wrong or they havnt been stretched(properly) it could be a direct injury causing you to feel pain or an indirect injury causing your muscle to compensate for another increasing the workload on that muscle.

id recommend seeing a physio unless you know someone that knows alot about anatomy that can diagnose it for you in person and maybe suggest stretches/exercises to rehabilitate it. i definately would not recommend "working around/through it"

[IronHyde]

Here is the picture and blurb i just copied from my workout journal.

"

I also found a pic which shows where my pain comes from. The left sketch of the "Flexor carpi ulnarus m" is what is hurting. When i move my little finger i can feel slight pain through that entire bit of muscle. When i lift i have a deep and intense pain through the entire muscle and after a heavy train the pain is mainly located where the muscle attaches to the bone about 3cm below the elbow and a little near the wrist.

The most intese pain is when releasing weights. If i am to put a weight down on a rack i have to release my grip very slowly so it doesn't hurt so much."

[EMC]

Here is the picture and blurb i just copied from my workout journal.

"

I also found a pic which shows where my pain comes from. The left sketch of the "Flexor carpi ulnarus m" is what is hurting. When i move my little finger i can feel slight pain through that entire bit of muscle. When i lift i have a deep and intense pain through the entire muscle and after a heavy train the pain is mainly located where the muscle attaches to the bone about 3cm below the elbow and a little near the wrist.

The most intese pain is when releasing weights. If i am to put a weight down on a rack i have to release my grip very slowly so it doesn't hurt so much."

interesting...hows your grip strength?

[IronHyde]

I have great grip strength. Use to be a rock climber before getting into weight lifting. Also managed around 75kg on the rolling thunder which is a strongman device to test grip strength. Also managed to hercules hold 220kg for 33 seconds out at Nate's house a few months ago

Edit: That was 240kg, not 220. Just double checked.

[Jigga]

Lol when this happened to me I never thought other people experienced the exact same thing. The pain when releasing the weight was especially annoying, I could alleviate it a little by shoving the weight while holding it into the ground when I was finished with the set.

I trained through it and it came right. Just what I did, not saying it was the right thing to do.

[EMC]

I have great grip strength. Use to be a rock climber before getting into weight lifting. Also managed around 75kg on the rolling thunder which is a strongman device to test grip strength. Also managed to hercules hold 220kg for 33 seconds out at Nate's house a few months ago

Edit: That was 240kg, not 220. Just double checked.

it could be gradual deteriation of the muscle as grip strength doesnt come easy, though i doubt it, are you constantly failing your grip when you push the extremes of it or only from time to time?

also what you could look into is strengthening the antagonist muscle that supports it. often you can get pain in the antagoniser as a result of muscle being fatigued/too weak by nature. the antagonist usually just contracts to stabilize a weight.

the antagnoist of the flexor carpi ulnaris muscle is the extensor carpi radialis longus

do you ever do reverse wrist curls or any sort of wrist movements of that nature?

[EMC]

I have great grip strength. Use to be a rock climber before getting into weight lifting. Also managed around 75kg on the rolling thunder which is a strongman device to test grip strength. Also managed to hercules hold 220kg for 33 seconds out at Nate's house a few months ago

Edit: That was 240kg, not 220. Just double checked.

it could be gradual deteriation of the muscle as grip strength doesnt come easy, though i doubt it, are you constantly failing your grip when you push the extremes of it or only from time to time?

also what you could look into is strengthening the antagonist muscle that supports it. often you can get pain in the antagoniser as a result of the working muscle being fatigued/too weak by nature. the antagonist usually just contacts to stabilize a weight.

[Mr_Krabs]

Physio is the best answer, even if you dont follow their advice they will at least give you a diagnosis so you know where you are. $10 is nothing to pay to put an injury to bed.

But if youre deadset against a physio visit read up on "trigger points" chances are your forearm is full of them that you may be able to sort out through self massage.

[paul2010]

Physio is the best answer, even if you dont follow their advice they will at least give you a diagnosis so you know where you are. $10 is nothing to pay to put an injury to bed.

But if youre deadset against a physio visit read up on "trigger points" chances are your forearm is full of them that you may be able to sort out through self massage.

Thanks for all the advice guys...I am leaning towards physio now, at least to see what's wrong, been a bit too long and it isn't coming right. From the diagram, I think it's the flexor digitorum sublimis m....the last thing I want to do is cause permanent damage, :roll:

[kels]

Physio is the best answer, even if you dont follow their advice they will at least give you a diagnosis so you know where you are. $10 is nothing to pay to put an injury to bed.

But if youre deadset against a physio visit read up on "trigger points" chances are your forearm is full of them that you may be able to sort out through self massage.

Thanks for all the advice guys...I am leaning towards physio now, at least to see what's wrong, been a bit too long and it isn't coming right. From the diagram, I think it's the flexor digitorum sublimis m....the last thing I want to do is cause permanent damage, :roll:

Let us know what the diagnosis is, be interested to hear. Like most people it also happened to be during BB curls, only my right my forearm. had to put the bar down slowly, slowly release my grip and then with my left hand squueze my right forearm as i released the bar. :x worked on strengthing my grip, slightly losser grip as i was curling and it hasn't been a problem since :grin:

[nate225]

I think everyone gets this from time to time if they're a serious lifter. It is a really pain (literally) to shake if you're still lifting however I found what worked for me.

A combination of what Ironhyde did re: antiflamme & deep tissue massage (read - dig your thumbs in f'n hard on locallised inflamation points), and avoiding exercises that flare it up (for me mainly straight bar curls) and I added hammer curls, very light to start with & very slow / controlled reps (overly slow). I started at 5kg (which was very light given I DB curl anywhere up to 35kg) and did 3x15. I only did one bicep exercise each week & I added 2.5kg to these curls each week.

While doing this I also lessened the impact on my forearms by using straps on all back exercises (while using a thumbless gip which seemed to help).

After suffering for about 6 months I had the pain sorted within 8 weeks or so.

Might work for you. Otherwise physio!

Nate

[paul2010]

I think everyone gets this from time to time if they're a serious lifter. It is a really pain (literally) to shake if you're still lifting however I found what worked for me.

A combination of what Ironhyde did re: antiflamme & deep tissue massage (read - dig your thumbs in f'n hard on locallised inflamation points), and avoiding exercises that flare it up (for me mainly straight bar curls) and I added hammer curls, very light to start with & very slow / controlled reps (overly slow). I started at 5kg (which was very light given I DB curl anywhere up to 35kg) and did 3x15. I only did one bicep exercise each week & I added 2.5kg to these curls each week.

While doing this I also lessened the impact on my forearms by using straps on all back exercises (while using a thumbless gip which seemed to help).

After suffering for about 6 months I had the pain sorted within 8 weeks or so.

Might work for you. Otherwise physio!

Nate

Yes, I believe the deep thumb massaging technique is what they usually apply at physio-therepy. Thanks Nate.

[Darwinstef]

I had the same forearm pain as well (like shin splints in your arms). Uunfortunately the only way I could get it to go away was by resting them. As I recall the seated preacher curl used to be the real killer plus as Nate said the straight bar.

They haven't come back, touch wood .

[paul2010]

I had the same forearm pain as well (like shin splints in your arms). Uunfortunately the only way I could get it to go away was by resting them. As I recall the seated preacher curl used to be the real killer plus as Nate said the straight bar.

They haven't come back, touch wood .

I gave it a 4 day rest last week, but I guess it wasn't long enough :evil: grrr.

[SharkAttack]

it could be something to do with the way your wrist grips a straight bar,its not a natural position,as opposed to a ez-bar curl were your wrist is in a more natural position,i dunno if its related to your injury but thats what iv been told about the straight bars,dunno how true it is,iv started using ez-bars now and dont get wrist pains

[vracula]

I have been experiencing pain on my forearm for a couple of months now, and hurts when I do bicep curls. I usually feel pulsating pains after a workout...it's limiting my training in going heavier on the curls, frustrating - grrr :evil:

I'm guessing I'm going to have to get physio treatment, but I really can't be stuffed going through the rehab process of very light weight exercises for about 3 to 6 weeks, to get back to working it 100% again...

Anyone else experienced this? One guys I train with said that it happened to him too, but just came right on it's own after some time....

hi Paul i had the same issue here is how I fixed it

stop using straight barbell,use only ez curled barbell for curls

lower your weights a bit

ease into the weights gradually

when your letting go of the bar let go of the bar one finger at a time,dont drop the bar and let go immediatley it's the immediate cotraction that causes the issue

massage forearms between sets

this was my solution and it has worked.at one point it became so bad i could not lift stuff for a month,dont push through the pain bro trust me.

I also use training gloves with wrist supports ,but I beleive all my above recommendations should work.