Experiencing pain in my right forearm (ulna) - is this normal?

[FrederikGB]

I have been doing bodyweight exercises seriously for about 4-5 months now, and I’m just starting to experience pain in my right forearm.

Below are the exercises I’m doing.

• Planche progression (currently doing advanced tuck planche for sets of 5-10 seconds)
• Front lever progression (I guess I'm 1 or 2 months from performing a full front lever)
• Manna progression (just started on v-sits)
• OAC progression (currently doing sets of slow eccentric-OAC and can perform 3/4 of a OAC)

My workouts consist of only 2 exercises every other day and some handstand work:

1. Day 1 is planche+manna work.
2. Day 2 is rest.
3. Day 3 is front lever+OAC wrok.
4. Day 4 is rest.
5. Repeat.

I only experience the pain in my right forearm. It feels like it's the bone in my forearm being pushed to its limit and not really something muscle/tendon related. The pain is located at the middle point between my elbow and wrist in my right forearm, on the ulna (the under forearm bone).

 

The pain is strongest RIGHT after a set of planche, right when I release the hold. I feel nothing during the hold (maybe due to my mind being occupied with performing rather demanding exercise), but right after the hold I feel an intense pain in my forearm for a few seconds which is slowly replaced by a sore feeling.

 

I also feel it (not as much though) when doing manna or handstand work.

 

I searched Google and found this thread: http://forums.menshealth.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/64310347/m/5131018302

I believe I'm experiencing the same kind of pain as described by several others in that thread.

 

What is this pain, and how should I proceed?

Why do I not feel anything at all in my left arm?

 

Thanks.
 

[David McManamon]

Intense pain means stop and evaluate if you are risking an injury which will seriously slow your progress.  

 

Sorry I can't give a specific diagnosis but what you describe isn't normal. I would definitely lower the intensity of your planche work, experiment with new hand holds and do more forearm stretching, add more massage and forearm strengthening.  Are you doing your planche work on parallettes? 

 

In addition, you are working on very specific strength progressions, are you training your legs, core and entire body in a balanced way?  You may want to add more general conditioning in a greater variety of positions, when was the last time you did 20 pushups or climbed a rope?

[Joshua Naterman]

You need to be doing rice bucket stuff, for sure. Grip balls and extensor work with rubber bands is also a good idea. You can just use standard rubber bands, and add more bands as you need more resistance. You can find videos on youtube for how to do all this stuff, but you should really get evaluated more thoroughly. Could be tons of things. Preferably go to a hand and wrist specialist, if one is available. You usually only find them in large cities.

 

You should also go find a good manual therapist, preferably someone who is listed on the activerelease.com website.

 

Finally, I think that you may want to try wrapping an elastic bandage tightly around your radius and ulna near the hand. If that alleviates your symptoms, then at least part of what is going on could be "forearm splints" which basically means you're over-stretching the membrane that holds those two bones together.

 

Whatever the case, it's important that you do not try to just heal this yourself without professional guidance. Please, see a professional. Preferably one who is familiar with such things. You may want to talk to golf clubs, gymnastic clubs, circus schools (if one is around), or tennis clubs and see who they trust with their people. I have a feeling that those practitioners may be slightly more familiar with what you are going through.

 

Make sure whoever you see is licensed to practice. Sometimes people have oddball references that you may trust, but may turn out to be somewhat unsafe. As long as they are licensed and board certified, you should be ok.

[Joshua Naterman]

There are a lot of small things to reflect on right now:

 

1) Do you do any hand or forearm training?

2) Do you use the entire hand, fairly evenly, to actively distribute and support your weight, or are you just sort of passively leaning forward on (or hanging off of, in FL work) your hand?

3) Do you stretch your forearms and hands regularly, like every training session?

4) Do you know what SMR is, and how to use a lacrosse ball to perform it?

 

If any of that is missing, you're going to need to fill that in.

 

HS1 has quite a bit of strength and flexibility work, as you can probably imagine, to stretch and strengthen your wrists in just about every conceivable plane of movement.

[FrederikGB]

Intense pain means stop and evaluate if you are risking an injury which will seriously slow your progress.  

 

Sorry I can't give a specific diagnosis but what you describe isn't normal. I would definitely lower the intensity of your planche work, experiment with new hand holds and do more forearm stretching, add more massage and forearm strengthening.  Are you doing your planche work on parallettes? 

Thank you very much for your reply.

 

I am not currently doing planche work on parallettes. I do however use a "hands-pointing-outwards"-grip on the floor. Would you recommend I start doing planche work on parallettes?

 

What kind of hand holds can you recommend?

 

You need to be doing rice bucket stuff, for sure. Grip balls and extensor work with rubber bands is also a good idea. You can just use standard rubber bands, and add more bands as you need more resistance. You can find videos on youtube for how to do all this stuff, but you should really get evaluated more thoroughly. Could be tons of things. Preferably go to a hand and wrist specialist, if one is available. You usually only find them in large cities.

Thank you. I will look into these exercises and I'm getting an appointment at my doctor.

 

There are a lot of small things to reflect on right now:

 

1) Do you do any hand or forearm training?

2) Do you use the entire hand, fairly evenly, to actively distribute and support your weight, or are you just sort of passively leaning forward on (or hanging off of, in FL work) your hand?

3) Do you stretch your forearms and hands regularly, like every training session?

4) Do you know what SMR is, and how to use a lacrosse ball to perform it?

 

If any of that is missing, you're going to need to fill that in.

 

HS1 has quite a bit of strength and flexibility work, as you can probably imagine, to stretch and strengthen your wrists in just about every conceivable plane of movement.

Thank you. I do not do any specific hand or forearm traning. I will try thinking more about weight distribution next time.

I have been doing a little foam rolling, though mostly for the posterior chain (hams, glutes, lats, traps). Could I use a foam roller for my forearms?

[Joshua Naterman]

A foam roller is a reasonable start, but you'll need something firmer pretty soon. You can switch to a tennis ball when that happens, but eventually you'll want something harder. Lacrosse balls are a few bucks and they are rubber, so they don't slide around! The ball slippage can be annoying when doing forearm or shoulder SMR, so I prefer lacrosse balls.

 

You could also fill a tennis ball with cement or something, I guess