Arm pain?

[floody]

I'm having some major issues at the moment with a lot of muscle pain in my arms, any time I ride more than a few days in a row.
I get a lot of pain on the inside of my elbow, inside edge of my forearm about halfway up, very top of my triceps , and in the muscle between shoulder and neck, about where it descends into the shoulder area. Perhaps a bit clearer, where the elbow bulges out with muscle on the top side (when you're palms down). I apologise for the lack of anatomical terms.

It gets to the point where I physically cannot lift the front wheel up without a decent twinge of pain in all 3 spots, my arms are painful to fully straighten out, and actually feel "weak" (though I can still lift things as normal, but its painful).

The strange part is, its nowhere near as bad palms up - strength is fine, pain is minimal, so whatever muscle group is engaged in pushing/pulling when palms down seems to be the problem.

I never had this problem in the first 6 or so years I was riding DH, or racing MX or whatever...EXCEPT similar pain has occurred after severe arm pump a few times, but that seems unrelated here.

I'm not weak, and far from small in the upper body, conversely I'm pretty big and quite strong, so I'm thinking its a conditioning problem or a particular muscle group.

Anyone else had issues like this? Or got any ideas on stretching or strengthening.

Its becoming pretty bad, sort of 1 or 2 weeks riding, then a week or so to recover, if it continues getting worse (and every time it flares up it is getting more painful and longer to recover) its going to really impinge on my enjoyment.

[johnny]

Hmmm, the elbow bit sounds like tendinitis (sp?) to me (it's the palms up bit that makes me think tendinitis/tennis elbow). Do you tend to squeeze your grips hard? I know I squeeze the bar too hard at the gym some times giving the same reaction that hangs around for months. The physio fixed this for me with stretches and exercises. Have you tried massage in your neck shoulders? Do you sit in a slouched position regularly? Could the cause be something other than bikes, but the problem is manifest when riding?

Physio is your friend I think.......

Good luck with it, pain sucks!

[ollieflotty]

yeah i get the same thing...

[kevpun]

I'd consider an alteration in riding position for a bit. Maybe something as subtle as a change in bar rake.

I'm no expert here, but I'd be interested to know if you spend a lot of time at a keyboard and also if your getting this elbow to shoulder pain along with any upper back or neck pain.

Do you have anthing else going on ... swimming? surfing? hi rep weights on your arms?

old Johnny's right - go to physio ... go directly to physio

[TheBofh]

I used to get a lot of pain in my arms when driving. When I changed to a MS natural keyboard & trackball it helped a lot.

[bradh]

Maybe your bars are too narrow?

[mtb_man]

Maybe your bars are too narrow?
Nope, Floody runs uncut old school Azonic Double walls which are about 28in wide. :D

[floody]

I'm no expert here, but I'd be interested to know if you spend a lot of time at a keyboard


Only on here, ha ha.

I occasionally get a bit of pain between my shoulder blades (what I would guess to be the lower part of the trapezius), and below my shoulder blades (top of lats) if I walk longish distances, but I don't think its necessarily related, and generally fades in a couple of hours. But its unconnected, these things don't happen together, its been months since I've had back pain issues.

I do get some pain just where the trapezius meets the shoulder after riding.

It could well be a posture thing, though I don't slouch much..

I'm not sure its bike setup, as I was getting just the same pain riding my Banshee Scream(19" frame, 70mm stem, 2.5" azonics at 28"), my P-bike (Long P-bike frame, 50mm stem, 2" doublewalls at 28" wide), and to some extent my XC bike (19" frame, 23.5" tt, 130mm/o degree stem and titec enduro XC bars) - all very different setups. I don't think its the azonic bars as I've been using azonics since about 1996 without issue.

Will definitely proceed to a physio.

[scblack]

It COULD be a back problem also. The pain in between your shoulder blades supports that a little.

Sometimes, the problem in the spinal area, can transmit the pain of the problem into limbs(through the nervous system). It has happened to me, I was having leg pain, and a chiropractor did her thing, and the pain was gone.

I cannot say that is the problem, but it's one possibility.

Johnny's right though - physio.:)

[timmo]

I'm in the midst of suffering what sounds like exactly the same thing in my right arm, probably exacerbated by working at a computer all day.
I've just been and had a massage to ease it.

In my case it was referred pain from my shoulder and neck area. As the masseuse explained to me, under your shoulder blade there are small spaces for the nerves that run down to your arm, but if this is constricted by tense and 'swollen' muscles, the nerves get compressed and cause referred pain down your arm.

So, that could be what you're getting... but a physio or massage session should be able to help I'd reckon.

[Oddjob]

What kind of grips are you using on your bikes? It sounds a lot like a tendonitis issue. Ie grips are not large enough therefore you are gripping the bars too hard and inflaming the tendons.

[trickyson]

I had the forearm problem at thredbo when I had been doing downhill for a few days, I put it down to
a) Having to hold myself off the bars (high bb + lowish bars = bad for dh :o ) b) Brakes being not strong enough for my continuous braking and weight
c) Being not particularly used to DH (Although this by the sound of it doesn't apply to you)

It still happens, but to a lesser extent after I got thick grips, and after seeing a physio, I was told it could have been badly set up reach adjustment.

Basically, physio is your best bet, and I hope some of this helps. Pain while riding kinda spoils it.

[Joel O]

i get a similar sounding pain when i straighten my arms for 4-5 days after a longish trials ride or a ride which involves lots of big bunny hops. hurts like hell to straighten my arms.

i haven't ever had it checked out and it's never really bothered me, i just put it down to not doing any sort of cooldown and straining the muscles too much.

if it's worrying you at all (which it seems to be) it would be worthwhile to see a physio, even just for the peace of mind.