At some point as a bodybuilder, powerlifter, athlete, or just regular gym rat your goal is going to be to build rapid strength and size. Let’s say you put it all together, you spend months crushing personal records with the perfect program, eating more meat, fruits, and veggies than most villages, and choking down hundreds of supplement pills. You did it! You’re bigger, faster, and stronger than ever before. Feeling pretty good about yourself you dive right into your next phase of training but you find a problem. You have pulsating pain shooting from your elbows down to your knuckles. What happened? You did everything perfectly, you’re stronger and bigger, yet you can’t even lift the bar without throbbing pain shooting through your forearm. Rapid expansion has turned your forearm into a tangled wad of old Christmas lights. Unfortunately this is a very common problem that many lifters go through, including myself. Luckily it is both preventable and fixable.
In order to first get a grasp of the situation you must realize that any debilitating type pain usually has to do with some form of inflammation. To fight inflammation one should first look to their diet and supplements. High Potency Fish Oil or quality Omega-3 supplementation should be a priority in your diet. The amount you should take will be dependent on how much healthy fat you are getting in your diet already. Chances are if wild salmon, pecans or almonds, flaxseed or coconut oil, grass-fed beef, and omega-3 eggs aren’t staples in your everyday diet you’re going to need at least 10,000-20,000 mg per day to really make an impact. The more of those foods, and the more fish oil supplementation the better.
Secondly before you even get to the gym take a look at two habits. If you are someone who constantly is leaning your arm on a desk, table, or chair….. STOP! Also, if you constantly have you arm up around your head while sleeping, it may be contributing to the problem.
Once you have done the easy part by fixing your diet and addressing little habits that may be hurting you, it’s time to get in there and finish off the pain once and for all. This can be accomplished with three techniques: Active Release Technique (ART) or soft tissue work, stretching, and exercise.
(ART) Soft Tissue Work: This concept is used to locate trigger points, break up adhesions and knots, and increase blood flow to problematic areas. Adhesions can occur as a result of acute injury, repetitive motion, and constant pressure or tension. Start by propping up a broomstick or something that resembles one and rolling out all areas of the arm. You can also use a baseball, tennis ball, lacrosse ball etc. to roll out the areas that hurt. What I have found works best is getting in there with your own hand and deeply massaging the area. This is the most effective way to get in deep, locate trigger points, and break up adhesions. After several minutes you should actually begin to feel like your forearm muscle is untangling. All of this should be done as often as possible, but at least once a day until the problem starts to improve.
Stretching: After using active release technique, use this sequence of stretches. Each stretch should be held for a minimum of 15 seconds, or until you feel the tension released. Start by kneeling and placing your hands down with your palms facing forward and your fingers facing towards you. Lean back and straighten your arms so you can feel a good stretch in the wrists and forearms. Next, turn your hands over, placing the tops of the wrists on the ground with your fingers still pointed inwards and straighten your arm out to feel a strong stretch. You can also use a wall, placing your hand in the same position against the wall, and leaning forward similar to a chest stretch.
Now take each finger and pull it back with a straight arm, feeling a stretch in each of the tunnels of the forearm. Next, with your arm extended in front of your body and your palm faced outwards, grasp the ring and little fingers pulling back until you feel a strong stretch. Lastly, grasp the first two fingers and the thumb and repeat.
Exercise: To hit this problem from the last angle you should add in some specific accessory movements at the end of your training program. The purpose is to increase blood flow to the problem area as much as possible because blood flow promotes healing. High rep (25-100 reps) low intensity (5-10 lbs or bands) movements like wrist curls and pulldowns should be added in a couple times a week. This will flush blood into the troubled area, which will expedite healing process as much as possible.
Combine all of these methods and you will be addressing the problem from every possible angle. Doing this will give you not only the best chance of recovery, but the fastest as well.
