Forearm Pain

Bigger Stronger Leaner Powerlifting & Strength Sports
1

I starting doing arm curls with full olympic bar with fat gripz on it. The first time i did them i started getting pain on my right forearm near the ulna. the next week did the samething and it was actually much worse. I took two weeks off to recover, but i still haven’t seen it go away. I normally very knowledgeable about this sort of stuff (having gone to school for massage therapy), but i can’t locate what is going on. The pain is about midway down the bone and hurts the most when i actually release the bar.

Hammer curls hurt less
pronated curls don’t hurt at all.

If i push down on my hand to simulate an arm curl, it only hurts when my fingers are involved.

any ideas?

2

I have this all the time. I’m convinced this is one of the reasons my biceps are my worst body part. I cant do straight bar curls without absurd amounts of pain in my forearms, and if I go heavy on ez-bar curls, I get the same thing.

The only type of curls I can do comfortably are hammer curls.

3

I’d just not do curls with a straight bar and the fat grips. It’s not like they’ll make or break your training. Stick with exercises that don’t aggravate your forearm.

4

I get this too on straight bars, I think it’s like a forearm version of shin splints. I just use the EZ or Swiss bar and it’s fine.

5

You can read through this thread, but I’m sorry to tell you there doesn’t seem to be much of a solution other than not curling.

6

[quote]Wild_Iron_Gym wrote:
I’d just not do curls with a straight bar and the fat grips. It’s not like they’ll make or break your training. Stick with exercises that don’t aggravate your forearm.[/quote]

Strong triceps and weak biceps will eventually lead to an imbalance and tons of elbow and forearm pain. That certainly will break your training on bench, to a lesser degree, squats, and if severe forearm pain, your grip in the deadlift.

It’s really not a matter of “I’d just not do it…”

7

have had this pain off and on, have come to the same conclusion that BBB did - it’s definitely the pronator quadratus that is irritated for whatever reason.

I’m going to try hammering the reverse curls and throwing in some weighted supination/pronation exercises (I think CT called it “Thor’s Hammer” at some point.

8

tedro - thank you for that link. i had done some ART instinctively on the forearm muscles. because of the diagnosing that i did, i think i have pinned it to the finger flexors, though the exact pain has been had by a bunch of you guys.

rrjc5488 - I think my biceps are weak compared to my triceps which is why i started upping my elbow flexor exercises which probably led to my current situation. I will never just stop doing something because i have an injury. thanks for your advice.

challer1 - thor’s hammer sounds like a great idea! thanks for reminding me about those types of exercises.

I will let you know how it goes. i took 2 weeks off, but i start again on monday…

9

I get exactly the same thing. In the finger flexors, precisely.

I have triceps (well, decent for a newb) but no biceps at all; often my solution has been “just don’t curl” but it looks like reverse curls are a better idea.

10

I’ve incorporated high rep (20-30) sets of hammer curls with a monster mini band, and it seems to be helping.

11

Even though you might shrivel up and die, you might have to lay off the curls for a little while. Same thing happens to me. Not curling makes it feel better. Also, Ironmind.com sells little rubber bands that you put around your fingers so you can open them against resistance. These hurt like shit at first but it helps to work the pain out after a couple weeks.

12

Since when are EZ and straight bar curls the only good bicep exercises?
Fuck those.

First off, take time off any exercises which bother the area, let it heal, do some light, high rep band work or whatever… Then change your exercise selection.

If you want to curl with a bar, give the actual EZ BAR (NOT CURL BAR) a try. The curl bar grips are usually too close and the angle isn’t great enough.

But for me, Alternating DB Curls with an offset grip (thumbs touching plates) are the best and give me no pain… Start in hammer position, as you curl up, supinate the wrist to whatever angle still feels comfortable… On the way down, keep the wrist supinated and only get back into hammer position at the bottom.

Primary bicep exercise for me, can go fairly low in reps and heavy just fine… Easier to go heavy here and still keep technique good vs. bar curls.

Brachialis and brachioradialis: Pinwheel Curls (mind your shoulder position/shoulder blades, don’t round your shoulders here!) imo have no equal, they’re to curls what kroc rows are to rows.
Hit the bis plenty too, of course, but I’d still do some supinated work (if you keep hammering one wrist position, eventually that leads to imbalances/tendonitis too) ala alt. curls described above.
Can use straps here with heavier weights, you’re going for the arm flexor part of the forearm musculature, not the finger flexors after all.

If for some reason you don’t like them, alt. hammers or hammer-grip bar (what was the name, football bar?) curls work fine too…

I don’t understand why people keep doing shit that hurts them. This is SO easy to avoid FFS.
Half the bodybuilding community doesn’t do straight bar curls anymore for that simple reason.
You can go heavier with less body english on alt. offset curls and pinwheels (especially the latter) eventually, so why bother with the straight bar and such at all?

Some simply have too much of an angle between upper arm bone forearms (side angle, happens more in women, but you get it aplenty in men to a degree large enough to cause trouble on straight bar curls) or wrists which can’t be supinated that far under load without pain…
You don’t want to keep doing shit like that and end up with forearm tendonitis, fucked up wrists and calcification where it doesn’t belong.

13

[quote]Cephalic_Carnage wrote:
If for some reason you don’t like them, alt. hammers or hammer-grip bar (what was the name, football bar?) curls work fine too…

[/quote]

The bar I believe you are referring to is what I have always heard called a tricep bar, a football bar is just an extended tricep bar.

The pain you are describing is something I have had before. I am sure mine was much more mild because it didn’t affect me nearly as much.

I agree with CC on pretty much everything he had to say about the subject. Focusing more on things like hammer curls and pinwheels(just started those, love them) have helped me even out my elbow flexors and lately my arms have been feeling great.

I don’t think you mentioned doing this at all, but this pain for me was the worst when I was going crazy doing COC grippers twice a week, my forearms were not doing so hot with those.

14

I’ll chime in and say that I too have had very similar pain. I am about convinced that it is a form of tendonitis in the finger flexor tendons, likely from gripping. I haven’t quite figured out the connection to the biceps work, but believe there must be some common attachment of the biceps and finger flexors.

15

Quick update - after two weeks off trying to find the pain (still very convinced it is the finger flexors) i located it. Did some stretching, did some trigger point work, did some ART work, and finally did some Graston work with the dull side of a dinner knife (rudementary i know). Worked out doing “arm day” but avoided supinated curls of any kind, and i am happy to say that the pain is almost non-existent now. keeping all the rehab stuff in for now until it is COMPLETELY gone, but things have drastically improved.

16

Edit: Uhm… I thought I posting in a different thread. My bad.

17

random post

18

[quote]rrjc5488 wrote:
I’ve incorporated high rep (20-30) sets of hammer curls with a monster mini band, and it seems to be helping.[/quote]

I introduced this in my work out this morning. Seriously awesome! great “pump” and zero forearm pain. I think i am going to keep them in anyways because i need some bicep size anyway.

thanks alot man.