Good Morning you Doctors of Pain,
Back in January of this year I was training for gripping strength. One day, doing one arm preacher curls, I noticed significant pain in my right forearm at the bottom of the movement. The pain would lessen as I approached the termination of the concentric phase of the curl, but would return as I got back down. This occurs even with five pounds. Pain is much less if I do things like drag curls, or otherwise avoid straightening my arms, but the pain even presents while doing chins or pullups. Pain dissapears also if I switch to hammer curls. Pain is most noticeable in pronator teres and brachioradialis, and flexor carpi radialis, if I am correct. Radites to biceps with tightness and stiffness in medial epicondyle. Pain is noticeable on waking but does not prevent sleep. I have attempted to manage loading, but I have not had any success. I would really appreciate your advice in this matter. Thank you for your time and attention.
Iron Mike
First, that might be my favorite salutation I have ever received. Second, it sounds like you have gotten yourself some medial epicondylagia. You can almost think of this as “elbow tendinopathy.” Part of the fun of this, especially on your dominant arm, if you end up using those muscles all the time throughout the day. It has a way of making you hyperaware that there are some symptoms there. The upside of this is that running a normal tendon protocol tends to help with symptoms. In this instance it really is just tempo wrist curls. I would start with:
Weeks 1-2: 4 sets of 12 at RPE 8
Weeks 3-4: 4 sets of 10 at RPE 8
Weeks 5+: 4 sets of 8 at RPE 8
Just like we talk with other tendon protocols, the movement should be controlled and deliberate. I don’t know in instances such as this that I advocate for strict 3-0-3 tempo so much as slow. Also, if this occurred doing grip training and you happen to have some captains of crush, I’ll often recommend running those as an eccentric where you close with two hands then slowly open with the right. If there is anything else we can do, let us know.
Derek
Thanks, Derek,
is there a specific type of wrist curl I should be doing? Dumbells or barbells? I have those grippers, so I’ll run those as well. Thanks again.
Iron Mike