Unspecified ache in both arms

Pain & Rehab Forum [Moderated]
1

Lately I started to feel an unspecified ache in both of my arms, It’s occurring in all lifts (squat, deadlift, bench) but I’m having trouble to understand the reasoning behind this and how to treat it.

The exact location is on the inside of my arm exactly at the bend - where the bicep meets the forearm. It’s occurring on both arms but at different degrees - in one it feels like absolute agony and on the other it’s just a bit annoying. it’s not sharp nor acute, it feels like a general ache that goes up my arm to my shoulder, my arm feels worse and worse with every set not matter what I do, and I can’t bench press anymore because of it. It’s gotten so painful throughout the past few days that any consistent pressure on it would put me in absolute agony. anything stress on my arm, regarding whether it plays an active role or not increases the pain, for example after deadlifts I feel a general pain and weakness throughout my arm.

I’ve noticed the pain for the past two weeks, it went from a point of sight nuisance to agonizing pain. the pain increases from set to set. it’s unnoticeable on a day-to-day basis until I “load” my arm (for example playing with a ball). During the set, I feel weakness in my arm, but the ache goes away completely from the first rep up until the last, in the duration of 30 seconds after the set is finished, the ache slowly comes back and becomes increasingly more noticeable, until it’s agonizing. I’m currently running the 12-week-strength BBM program, during the squat the pain becomes apparent, and by the time I get to the bench press it already feels pretty bad. At first I thought the pain is related to my squat elbow position which got a bit narrower, but I noticed it’s occurring the same way after heavy sets of deadlifts as well. the only lift I don’t feel it at all is overhead press.

currently I’m recovering from a pretty bad knee injury. I’m familiar with all pain related philosophies BBM has to offer and I listened to all the podcasts. I really try to not catastrophize the pain but lately it got absolutely unbearable, throughout every set of bench press, i feel in increasing agony. I’m still trying to work through it and ignore it as much as I can.

I honestly don’t know what to do anymore, has anyone experienced anything similar? how can one handle this kind of injury/pain?

2

I had something similar, I couldn’t throw a ball and once was arm wrestling with a friend and couldn’t sleep later because the pain was so bad, even when I wasn’t moving my arms.

I believe mine was caused by high volume squats. I tried different grips and widths, eventually settling on a wider thumb around grip without using my pinkies. The pain went away within a couple of weeks, and has never come back.

3

Hey @talarbatov sorry to hear about your situation. Going to be difficult to state what may or may not be ongoing without a consultation. I recommend checking out this article for guidance on altering programming to tolerance: https://www.barbellmedicine.com/blog…ining-what-do/

If you wanted a consultation with us, please complete this intake form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F…ilUWA/viewform

Otherwise, given how much this experience appears to be effecting you, may be worth consulting with a local trusted clinician for some insight.