Had surgery on right wrist for ECU Subluxation in June of 2011, got full arm cast, told to not do rehab but to only stretch the wrist out to return to normal motion. It’s been 9 months and I have returned to almost all activity, except anything that requires full pronation. Whenever I try to do pull ups/ pull downs/ bench press with a full pronated grip, I get a snap and pain in my right inner forearm near the elbow joint, right where that tendon runs if you flex your arm.
The wrist doc says he can only guess that the nerve is being pinched by my tendons/muscles when fully rotated, and said he hopes it will go away in a few months but he really has no idea.
Is there anyone who can help me? I’d rather not get a shocking feeling whenever my elbow is fully flexed. I feel like it is a nerve being pinched because it only happens when my elbow reaches full flexion, so the room for the nerve is reduced. Only idea i have is stretching, but I don’t even know what to stretch.
Do you notice any numbness tingling or weakness in your arm or to your hand when you feel the snap and pain? Just add some pieces to the puzzle. Maybe hard to pin point if this is only happening when fully flexed.
Definite tingling when the snap occurs, strongest at my elbow joint but if im pulling really hard the tingling shoots down to the base of my hand on my thumb side. I can get the sensation to occur if I mimic a complete pull down without weight, though the snap and tingling is much less without me pulling a weight. Seems the harder I flex/pull the more intense the tingling.
As for weakness, well I can’t answer that very well. I would say a small amount,when this starts happening during a lift the snap/tingling is pretty severe so I do falter a bit.
This also occurs when doing DB bench/incline occasionally, if I have my hands fully pronated. I can’t use barbells yet due to my wrist surgery, though i would assume benching with a barbell would cause this same feeling when im near the bottom of the movement.
Seems to be more severe/common when im going from having my arms overhead then pulling them down. More common then doing a movement like a bench press motion, though i think that is just because the angle my elbow makes is more closed.
Also, when doing DB incline today I had tingling in the outside of my elbow on the forearm side. Happens when I do push ups as well. Not painful, just tingles.
The doc believes the cause could be that the muscle that controls the tendon that was operated on is not functioning 100% because the tendon might not be all the way healed yet, so my other muscles are compensating and causing a nerve to be pinched. He says he honestly does not know though and is only making an educated guess.
I agree with your doc that you have a nerve being compressed, and that is probably what is causing your pain and tingling. The snapping is probably a tendon snapping across a bony sturcture, the snapping happening right before the pain and tingling, hmm. I’m sure you had some muscle wasting from being casted, and possibly you are having some space issues in your forearm while your muscles are rebuilding. I kinda doubt this would be permenant, but could be a little while til your arm is back 100%. If you had constant symptoms, not just during certain activities, I would think that there is more serious compression going on, but this is my guess.
Should also note that while I have regained 90% of my upper body pressing strength, my triceps are still weaker in my arm that is causing me issues. My right bicep is very close to my left in strength, but my right tricep is still noticeably weaker due to the fact I was able to begin bicep exercises about 1 1/2 months before tricep during rehab. When doing overhead extensions I have had discomfort/pain in my right tricep maybe 2 inches past the shoulder. Seems to be going away some as I strengthen the tricep, but it is still there. Can’t do Close Grip Bench due to this nerve issue, and that was a staple triceps builder for me, so progress isn’t as quick as I like.
It is possible some of my muscles/tendons throughout my arm/shoulder are extremely tight due to the full arm cast and no direct physical therapy. That may be causing the pinching, though I don’t have any idea which muscles would generally be tighter due to the cast or how to go about fixing the issue.