Think i screwed up the forearms

[Andrew87]

yeah so anyways as of last week both my forearms have a wierd sharp kinda pain in them when lifintg things certain ways. Im not talking excercises i mean just only when doing basic things for ex. picking up a weight off the rack and holding it with one hand. it feels almsot like something in my arm is grabing the bone. My friend i work out with alot suggests its a problem he had last year where he had a hair line fracture in his forearms from football and from lifting the thing uhh you know standing there with a bar and curliong with 2 hands cant remeber what its called lol. Anyways if it is this i was wondering what ideas you guys have in mind to get this fixed up. My friend said he was told to just use warm rags on each night before bed for a bit but i dont know so i figuered id take all your bright people opinions. Thanks a ton.

[Ant Mitchell]

I'd go check it out with your orthopedic doctor

[Darkhorse]

I used to get the same thing. It used to be really bad, but it only hurts when I let the bar go during preacher curls or barbell curls (heavy). I bet you were probably using a straight bar for your biceps/forearm work? I think it's called ulnar stress syndrome and it's due to extreme supination of the forearms and undue stress placed on the ulna secondary to weak forearm musculature. Usually happends when a bodybuilder neglects his forearms. Unfortunately, the only things to do is to wrap it up tight and deal, or switch to lighter weight while the pain goes away.

*What worked best for me was to stop using the straight bar for a while and to lighten up the load. My suggestion to you is to think about taking a week's worth of rest from the gym and start doing some higher reps with lighter weight. That's exactly what I did and the pain has not returned for over a year now.

[Ant Mitchell]

...or do that haha

[Eric3237]

I think 0311 is probably right. The other thing it might be is a syndesmosis injury.

There is a membrane in the forearm (and the lower leg) called the interossis. It sort of holds the bones in their proper place. The is can get injured so that the bones are not properly stabilized, which could explain the "grabbing" sensation. If it is the problem it's hard to diagnose. ONe thing to try is when the pain is there take hold of the forearm and put steady compressive force on it with your hand. If this helps the pain significantly then that could be a clue.

Bodybuilders do get this but it's not likely since it's usually due to repetitive impacts and such. And since it's both forearms who knows. The recommendations (not to replace the advice of a medical proffesional) would be pretty much the same as 0311 gave.

I would go ahead and wrap the forearms even when your not lifting to give everything some stabibility....if it is the injury I described then the idea would be to use the wraps to give stability to the bones. If it just happened use ice like you would for anything. Then after 2 or 3 days you can apply heat as well.

[Eric3237]

BTW, Ant's right. Give it a little while and take our suggestions. But if it doesn't get any better go to the doctor. Aches and pains like this come and go....it's when they don't go you need to get worried. It doesn't sound like you were in agony so I'm not gonna try to get you all paranoid but it's good take all these types of things seriously.

[Kane]

I had the same problem...shooting pain when releasing the bar after heavy barbell curls. I took a couple days off and reduced the weight I used for curls right down. Should take about 2 weeks to get back in the game, but try and do some forearm work in the meantime, it helped me alot. But try and do forearms with your arms are hanging down, usually guys put their forearms on a bench and do forearm curls that way, but you can hang a barbell behind your back and do forearm curls without aggrevating anything

[Andrew87]

so what should i wrap it and and what not.

[verbatimreturned]

I had the same pain, and i took some time off. you can put a hot wet towel on it or something if it makes it feel better i dont see why not

[Eric3237]

There are certain things you should do for any injury. You'll get plenty of people telling you "I did this and I was fine" but that doesn't mean that is the correct thing to do only that it turned out ok for them. Some people try to work through it or go back to lifting too soon, etc. and everything turns out ok. For other injuries that same action can turn into a lifelong chronic problem. Not that anybody has told you anything that wrong...there are simply certain things you can do to get you back in the game quicker and safer.

Given that, these type of forearm pains are pretty common so you should be fine...but I would give it a good weak before lifting then start back in with lighter weights as everyone said. You may want to start stretching the forearms at that time as well as incorportating some forearm work.

With a fresh injury don't use heat. You'll only increase the inflamation. When there is bleeding present you'll increase that too. Use ice for a few days until the primary inflammation has gone down then you can use heat.

There is an Injuries sticky you can read to get an idea of first steps. In the training section.



If there is pain present, wrap it with ace bandages or another type of wrap. Not too tight. If that helps the pain then keep the wrap on. If it makes it worse take it off.

After a couple of days you can use heat. After you take some time off and go back to lifting everthing needs to hinge on the amount of pain you experience.