Treating tendon pain in my forearm.

[Tyler Phillips]

Hello all. For weeks now I've been experiencing what feels like tendon pain in my forearms - both of them, and in the same locations. I'm trying to figure out which one by looking through my A&P textbook but I'm having a hard time figuring out which one. The pain is on the ulnar side, and occurs whenever I try to extend my wrist. I only feel any pain when the weight of my body bears down on it, such as when I'm doing planche training or L-sits. The pain is even worse when I try to do the same activities while gripping parallelettes or pommels, which leads me to believe there's flexion strain as well, though I don't feel any pain while hanging from a bar or any activities where I'm "below" that which I'm gripping (ie pullups, front lever training, etc), only "above". I've also noticed that the pain is practically non-existent when I'm doing handstands, as the weight is placed throughout other areas of the palm that aren't the heel, thus less extension of the palm and thus less pain.

At one point I had taken about 5 days off to alleviate the pain, and while I thought it had worked, it appears to have returned. I'm not sure where this pain came from exactly - my original thought was overtraining on my Iron Mind Captain's of Crush grippers, but it may have very well been overtraining for the previously mentioned activities as well. In any case, is there much that I can do besides standard rest? Any recommendations for an effective amount of rest time - at least one week appears to be a given - would help too.Thank you.

[Tyler Phillips]

To resurrect an old topic, I'm unfortunately still dealing with this same forearm tendonitis in both arms. I've tried many things at this point: RICE (ice for 20 min on, 1hr off; wearing boxing wraps while sleeping for compression), NSAIDs (dose of 800mg, 3x/day), working around the injury (doing other activities that don't aggravate it), etc. I admit that over the months I may not be doing them for long enough, doing them "aggressively" enough, or doing them all in concert enough to fully dissipate the inflammation.

To be specific, it flares up whenever I'm supporting my bodyweight and leaning forward (planches, straddle Ls, elbow levers, all pommel horse work), and it also flares up whenever I grip a hard rope/cord and pull it tight (a good example of the motion would be tightening a gi). I realize this condition should not have lasted for this long so I must not be doing something right. I'll ask again if anyone has any advice or even a specific protocol for best effective treatment, so please answer this time around.

[Cole Dano]

There are quite a few threads on similar problems, i'll assume that you've already checked them out, the wrist/elbow sticky will also apply to your situation, so there is an easy mobility set.

I'm just going on my own experience here, having recently dealt with a similar pain which stemmed from a long weekend of doing handstands. The symptoms you describe are exactly the same, overuse, and generally weak wrists.

A wrist strengthening program may be in order. Again there are lots of threads here on that topic, wrist rollers, pushups etc.

My tools of choice have been using Indian clubs, and a gada which i have found to be excellent for working the forearms from many angles and have made a noticeable difference in my grip, both strength and endurance. Both can be made fairly inexpensively, and there is info available on YouTube.

[Tyler Phillips]

I just read/watched that sticky for the first time - I'll definitely incorporate that routine into my days and make part of my wake-up circuit. I've read through some of the topics as well concerning this issue, and the general consensus appears to focus on prehab for building necessary strength. I'll buy that in a second for prevention, but is that just as effective for treatment? I know my wrists feel stronger ever since working on wrist push-ups - I can do the 2 set of 10 that are usually prescribed at the end of handstand days. Even then, I'm not sure I've seen an improvement in my condition despite the strength gains. This could be because I simply haven't rested the tendons enough, which unfortunately it's near impossible to completely rest them since that muscle contracts whenever I grip something with my ring and pinky fingers, or when I'm in that extended supported position I described earlier.

Regardless though, if that's what can help treat it - a combination of strengthening and rest - along with the other things like fish oils, ibuprofen, RICE, etc. then I'll try that as well. I'll do my best to be diligent about it as well, since I have had the condition dissipate, just never heal entirely. Thanks for the fast response.