forearm tendonitis question

[Special K]

I've had a nagging soreness in my right forearm for several weeks now. It's on the underside of the forearm right near the elbow joint. The soreness is most apparent if I grab the hand of the "injured" arm with my "non-injured" hand, and then try to twist the hand of the "injured" arm inward (if that makes any sense).

I follow a 5x5 weightlifting program 3 days per week. The only lift that directly seems to cause soreness in my forearm is curls, but then it's only for my warm up set. After that, I don't notice any soreness during my working sets, yet this soreness has persisted for several weeks now, so it doesn't seem to be getting better even though it also doesn't prevent me from working out.

Is there anything I can do to work through this, short of dropping all movements that involve the forearms (which is pretty much all compound lifts)?

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Sounds like it could be a supinator muscle strain. Something you could do is use a tennis or lacrosse ball to roll on the area to loosen it up a bit. You can also stretch into pronation a little bit. Lastly, you can do a lot of really light supination without weight or with a very small weight to get some good, healthy blood flow into it. See how that helps over a week or two.

 

[Special K]

Sounds like it could be a supinator muscle strain. Something you could do is use a tennis or lacrosse ball to roll on the area to loosen it up a bit. You can also stretch into pronation a little bit. Lastly, you can do a lot of really light supination without weight or with a very small weight to get some good, healthy blood flow into it. See how that helps over a week or two.

Would a PVA foam roller be as effective as the tennis ball? I've been foam rolling it the past few weeks, although I've also still been lifting heavy with curls.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Would a PVA foam roller be as effective as the tennis ball? I've been foam rolling it the past few weeks, although I've also still been lifting heavy with curls.

A foam roller is typically too soft to make effective changes to the tissue at the elbow - something hard like a lacrosse or bocce ball is much better. Also, instead of doing palm-up curls, try doing hammer curls (thumb up). That might take a little bit of the demand off the supinator while it heals.

 

[Special K]

A foam roller is typically too soft to make effective changes to the tissue at the elbow - something hard like a lacrosse or bocce ball is much better.

I picked up a lacrosse ball and started rolling my forearm with that last week.

Also, instead of doing palm-up curls, try doing hammer curls (thumb up).

Good recommendation - I can go fairly heavy on the hammer curls without experiencing any soreness in my forearms.

You can also stretch into pronation a little bit.

Would that be stretches such as these:

Or did you mean something different?

Lastly, you can do a lot of really light supination without weight or with a very small weight to get some good, healthy blood flow into it.

Do you mean just holding my arm out and rotating my palm up, and then back down to a neutral position (i.e. hand up and down)? Would I just do this either while holding nothing or holding a DB?

 

[HeXen]

I've had a nagging soreness in my right forearm for several weeks now. It's on the underside of the forearm right near the elbow joint. The soreness is most apparent if I grab the hand of the "injured" arm with my "non-injured" hand, and then try to twist the hand of the "injured" arm inward (if that makes any sense).

have that for the past 3 years. dr thought it was tendonitis and gave me 3 different kinds of NSAID's, didn't work. then a cortezone shot of some kind directly by the elbow joint where it hurts...nothing. Stopped going to the doctor and i just suck it up like i have been doing all this time.

sadly i can't do pull ups or basically anything where i have to pull my arm up using my bicepts, well i can but it hurts like hell. similarly in my wrists, putting pressure against my wrists with my hand flat out hurts them too, can't do push ups. sometimes it feels like its sprained...dr. couldn't/ wouldn't do anything about it.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

I picked up a lacrosse ball and started rolling my forearm with that last week.

Good recommendation - I can go fairly heavy on the hammer curls without experiencing any soreness in my forearms.

Would that be stretches such as these:

Or did you mean something different?

Do you mean just holding my arm out and rotating my palm up, and then back down to a neutral position (i.e. hand up and down)? Would I just do this either while holding nothing or holding a DB?

I've had a lot day so my response is gonna be a little brief so bear with me. Google forearm pronation - those stretches you're doing are wrist extension and flexion respectively. Pronation is actually more of the spinning motion of your forearm.

And yes, supination exercises are just what you said. Try not to move your arm, just your forearm when you do it. You can do it while doing either TBH. Both are good. Whatever challenges you the most with as little pain or true discomfort as possible.