[Closed] Forearm/Elbow pain ?

Sounds like a Tennis/Golf Elbow type of thing.

I've had a little in my right arm. I managed it with self-advised physiotherapy :o)

So stretching and gentle movement of the hand/fingers to exercise the muscles/tendons in the forearm. It's taken over 12 months of regular work to get it 'almost gone'

As above, I’ve just got it from changing my tennis stroke.

You can get arm straps that apparently help (sort of push a pad into the muscle area)

Went to a physio, massage and exercises
- get one of those thin stretch band things, tie it in a loop and hook round something solid
1 - do a bicep curl under resistance from band , just pull forearm up and hold for 15 seconds, repeat 3 times
2 - put hand side on, upright , thumb at top, in the band and pull against band till under tension, then slowly rotate thumb(and hand)forwards and then down so thumb goes down to nearest the ground(sort of rotating forearm under band tension)

3 - Look on internet and find much better description of exercises.

Cheers fellas... sounds like a good starting point for sure. Just looking up the exerices now.

Tennis/Golf elbow as said above.
I had it in my left arm for almost 12 months.
Tried various different exercises and one of the strap things with a pad on it.
Nothing seemed to be able to fully get rid of it.
Went to see a different physio who suggested acupuncture.
Said it might or might not work but worth a shot.
One session and a couple of days later it was gone.
No idea if it was coincidence or not but it's been fine since.

Always post this link, as the secret is working out how you're pissing it off and whether it's something that will just get better if you stop pissing it off, or whether you need to actively exercise it.

http://drjuliansaunders.com/dodgy-elbows/

As a climber, dodgy elbows come with the territory.

How old are you?

I've hit 50 and I've got it in my left elbow - doing bicep curls or press up's aggravates it - I hear it crunching too. I think it may be the start of arthritis, as my fingers are starting to show signs also

i'm about the same age mate... well, not even about... i'm the same 🙂

@TheArtist

If it is induced/worsened by loading rather than just movement, there's a fair chance it is at least partly tendon/muscle related rather than degenerative, so I wouldn't write it off as irreversible.

If it is induced/worsened by loading rather than just movement, there’s a fair chance it is at least partly tendon/muscle related rather than degenerative, so I wouldn’t write it off as irreversible.

I'm hoping so

However, my family history doesn't show much in the way of hereditary serious illnesses on either side, but arthritis has been a common ailment on both sides - to the point where my old man is completely debilitated with it

Always post this link,

Good article - had a scan through, will read in more detail later. Cheers

I've been going through this for a while, I've maybe halted the gradual worsening but yet to see any definite improvement.

I get golfer's elbow on both arms (i.e. at the very side pointy bit of the elbow, on the inside if you're looking at forearms palm up).

I ALSO get some sort of bicep tendonitis at either end of where the biceps attaches.

I think the golfer's elbow is due to either gripping bars too tight (on the gravel bike probably) and/or riding with wrists flexed backwards, a guilty habit of mine when I'm on the tops or trying to get a little bit more aero on the hoods.

I think the biceps tendonitis was either from riding with arm too straight having dropped the handlebars significantly on my bike fitter's advice. Have now reversed this but haven't ridden the gravel bike in anger so can't be sure that's the cause.

Am also very suspicious of my mobile phone habits, I think too much time spent holding smartphone with right arm flexed whilst scrolling and typing has aggravated it.

Am experimenting with compression sleeves on my arms, so far my arms always feel better for a wee spell with the sleeves on, but haven't tried riding with them, I suspect they'd be too warm.

Worth thinking about a massage using a lacrosse ball:
https://www.outsideonline.com/health/training-performance/tennis-elbow-causes-treatment-exercises/
Also YouTube has videos of this.

Am also very suspicious of my mobile phone habits, I think too much time spent holding smartphone with right arm flexed whilst scrolling and typing has aggravated it.

Try a Bluetooth headset - game changer....

i have it in my right arm currently.

i play squash so im fairly sure thats the cause.

its always worse first thing in the morning, take a while to loosen up and stop hurting, but i can feel it whenever i bend my arm. when i play squash i use a compression strap (+ ibroprufen), it is very painful at first but then warms up and goes away. next morning, agony again.

got some isometric, eccentric and concentric exercises which really target the painful areas but does not seem to get better. apparently you can get a steroid injection in the area but might do more long term damage? interesting about Acupuncture - might try that!

I've had tendonitis (golfers elbow) which took ages to shift - I had to very progressively load the elbow over months. Back up to 3x7 pull ups now - could barely lift a can of tomatoes pain free at it's worst. Currently adding one extra rep in every month as I'm paranoid about re-triggering it - so next month it will 3x8 reps etc....

apparently you can get a steroid injection in the area but might do more long term damage?

Just masks the pain - it doesn't repair a damaged tendon - deload and rehab is the best long term fix. Also reduces the change of tendon surgery being successful if you were to ever need that (highly unlikely with an elbow).

I've joined this club. Had it at the beginning of Covid but it sorted itself out after a few months.

Now it's back, elbow pain when straightening arm, or picking something up that needs gripping. So a glass or tin can is quite painful, but hooking a carrier bag over my fingers is ok unless I want to raise it.

It's annoying as I need to carry stuff at work, should get some physio.

This is something i seem to have developed to. It's limited to my right forearm/elbow(im left handed) and only realy appeared when i got back around to cycling more having spent the best part of 2 years off the bike in general due to covid lockdowns, and not wanting to go out.

So I suspect its more from atrophy of muscle in the forearm, maybe even down to lack of suppleness in the tendons, or a combination of the two. Left gets used for normal day to day, right obviously not so much, and maybe now using both arms, its from a bit of weakness.

I've found minor relief from compression sleeves, massage and stretching.

I still haven't properly devoted myself to the eccentric strengthening stuff but given I'm about ready to sack off riding altogether because of the discomfort, I think it's about time...

I had this for around a year after going back to fairly heavy weight training after a long period off.
My right elbow was extremely sensitive to any touch and an almost constant burning pain in the tendon areas.
It seems to be almost sorted now, although I didn’t follow the eccentric exercises recommended for tendonosis, I eased off the weights a bit and did more reps instead.
My thinking is that it’s helped my tendons catch up with the muscle growth.

I had this for around a year after going back to fairly heavy weight training after a long period off.

A jump in load / intensity is the perfect recipe for tendonitis.

Mine came about after a snowboarder took me out when I was skiing and damaged my shoulder. I couldn't push, but I could still pull. So, I effectively doubled my pulling load to keep busy at the gym. Ended up with a knackered shoulder (still) and tendonitis in my elbow from the spike in load.

Has anyone managed to ride through this sort of tendonitis?

I get pretty uncomfortable fairly quickly on road or MTB, going to try an adjustable stem on the indoor bike to bring the bars higher/closer in the hope this helps...

The rule of thumb is you can ride with it aching a bit, but anything that actively causes actual pain should be avoided.

Maybe a different grip which forces you to hold it in a different position without the wrists dropped so hard.

I have had this and my physio brother suggested mashing my forearms with a Lacrosse ball.

Sorted it.  It occasionally flares up and some mashing sorts it again.

Yep, had a good massage last night and she advised keeping up the massage, as shortened/tight muscles effectively keep the angry tendons under excessive strain, preventing healing etc.

There's an obvious and immediate improvement after massage but it doesn't last long unfortunately so I think self massage is important.

Z-Health have done amazing shoulder/ elbow targeting exercises. Check the blog.

Z-health shoulder and arm treatment:
Shoulder Pain Relief & Performance - Episode 320 - Z-Health

Episode 239: Shoulder Pain Nerve Flow Part 1 - Z-Health
Episode 240: Shoulder Pain and Upper Body Nerve Flow Part 2 - Z-Health

Episode 147: Shoulder Pain Relief - Z-Health
Episode 142: Shoulder Pain Relief for Overhead Positions - Z-Health
Uncommon Drill for Shoulder Pain - Episode 310 - Z-Health
Lat Training for Better Shoulder Function - Episode 306 - Z-Health

Episode 143: Proper Throwing Mechanics - Z-Health

Bonus material -
Episode 118: Improve Hamstring Range of Motion without Stretching - Z-Health
Episode 123: Neck Pain and Neck Tension Relief - Z-Health
Episode 132: Mobilize the Neck - Z-Health
Episode 182: Neck Pain, Neck Stability, and Balance - Z-Health

I had a very similar elbow issue. (Golf elbow symptoms)
Some of the Z-Health nerve glides above helped a lot -
Turned out it down to was weak - inactive serratus. Typical of lazy riding position with shoulders allowed to swivel forward.
As BikeJames says. Keep shoulders “packed”. I.e. Put each shoulder blade into the other back pocket.

I've had really bad golfers/climbers elbow as a result of climbing. It's taken about 5 months of physio to cure it.

TD/DR - (1) see a good sports physio to get a diagnosis... and if it is golfers elbow/tendon... (2) As I understand it, a lot of the stuff on the internet is not current thinking - current thinking is heavy static/isometric loading to build tendon strength rather than dynamic (even light weight) loading - but talk to a sports physio

My physio - who is also a really good climber - explained the issue (for climbers) is that muscle strength can be increased much quicker than the capacity of the tendon to manage the load can. The tendon reconfigures in some unhelpful way and becomes v sore (sorry I'm not any sort of medic)

I did post a long list of stuff I do - but it may not be relevant so deleted as doing the wrong stuff can be problematic

Mine's been getiing inceasingly worse over the past week, despite not going to the gym - general work duties (physical job) have been aggravating it.

Contrary to one opinion above, I tried an elbow support - whilst it didn't feel like it was applying much in the way of pressure, I wore it to the gym yesterday (did some curls that usually set it off) and wore it all night at work last night. Today it is less sore than normal, maybe co-incidence