My wrist/forearm issue

[Bill Schwab]

I want to relay my experiences with my wrist/forearm issue in case it will help anyone here. I thought my issues were an isolated incident until a friend of mine at Area 8 told me of the same exact issues.

I started competing in USPSA 11 years ago, and for the past 10 years I’ve dealt with wrist/forearm pain. The pain was initially localized at the wrist joint and felt like a wrist bone issue. I was incorrectly diagnosed by my general practitioner as having Carpal Tunnel (I did not exhibit any of the typical symptoms, he just diagnosed me with that because I work at a computer, what an ass-clown). I subsequently went to a wrist specialist who ordered an MRI. The MRI did not yield any causes.

Life went on and for years I dealt with it. I read these forums and tried some of the things mentioned; you know extensive forearm workouts, and Captains of Crush grippers (I actually already had a very strong grip). None of that worked (in fact the forearm workouts made it worse) and eventually it got even worse and I very gradually lost flexibility in my forearm muscles to the point that I could no longer do push-ups, and starting a stage with palms flat on a wall hurt. At my worse point it was difficult to turn a door knob. My forearm muscles felt constantly in tension and occasionally I had knots in the muscles.

So about a year ago I started getting massages once of twice a month (from a big woman, not a sexy young Finnish hottie) and this proved very beneficial, especially after I found a massage therapist who specialized in sports. My flexibility was better and I experienced less pain. But my forearm was, for lack of a better word, very sensitive to overexertion. For instance, if I had to turn a wrench real hard to break a bolt loose it would sometimes make my issue flare up and my forearm would be very stiff and painful for a week or so, therefore I avoided anything overly physical for a week or so before big matches. I felt as though my Man-Card had been revoked.

My massage therapist recommended I stretch a lot, so I started doing the “Wrist stretches & forearm muscle stretches” below. This helped a lot, but that sensitivity remained and flexibility was still impaired.

http://www.handhealthresources.com/Solutions%20Pages/Exercises.htm

I had to replace a leaky water valve in the house and this led to a week of forearm pain. During this time I extensively Googled my issue (can’t find the website) and read that a common forearm issue among athletes is a forearm muscle imbalance and that you should do reverse wrist curls to regain muscle balance.

I have been doing the reverse wrist curls and forearm stretches above for my forearm for three weeks now and my issue has disappeared. I feel as though I have my Man-Card back! I have already been able to reduce the frequency of massages, and plan to cut them out altogether because the usual constant tension in my forearm is evaporating. My flexibility is great, pain is gone and my forearm/wrist feels infinitely more stable and less sensitive.

I hope this helps someone out there is BE land. If you have any questions please feel free to ask.

P.S. I have a similar muscle imbalance with my shoulders and am working on building my posterior deltoids.

[00MGN]

This is great information. I have had the same style of pain that you are describing, but exclusively in my shoulders. I finally gave up after throwing to much time and money with doctors to no avail. This included things like nerve conduction testing, MRI, x-ray, etc. I am going to start the posterior deltoids exercises to see if this will help.

[Tom D.]

Thanks for posting this. Just printed the stretching info.

[Bill Schwab]

I hope the info I posted helps you guys.

I failed to mention that I also went to physical therapy for awhile which was kinda funny because I was maxing out their forearm machines. My forearms are very strong, but it seems it was the muscle imbalance that was causing my issues, which every professional overlooked.

[KungFuNerd]

This keeps coming up with me (and I keep forgetting it!).

Work opposing muscle groups and Stretch/keep full mobility in the opposite direction.

I bend my fingers and wrists backwards and also stretch my Neck/Back/Shoulders arching back.

Thanks for the post!

[Classic_jon]

That is the exact exercise my Physical therapist had me do to help recover mobility after they put a metal plate and 10 screws in my Radius/wrist area. Just doing that every other day has helped speed up my recovery and lower the pain level quite a bit.

I currently have a 5lb dumbbell that sits on my coffee table and I will do some curls in both directions and left/right twists while I watch TV.

[KungFuNerd]

Wrist Rollers helped me out too:

http://www.esportsonline.com/?sitemid=CHCWRXXX&websrc=BS_CHCWRXXX

[mike cyrwus]

I had shooters elbow really bad for about the last 10 months. I went to an ortho, he Rx-ed me some physical therapy, and three weeks of that a couple months ago, and its almost gone.

deep massages, anti-inflammatory stuff via electrophoresis, stretching, and cold therapy did the trick.

[Cliveb]

Thanks for posting this.

I've been experiencing soreness in my right wrist after I shoot a couple of hundred rounds of .40 factory ammo from my Glock 35 - an issue which never arose when using 9X19 in a heavy gun.

I'll give these exercise a go and see how it goes.

[Bill Schwab]

Thanks for posting this.

I've been experiencing soreness in my right wrist after I shoot a couple of hundred rounds of .40 factory ammo from my Glock 35 - an issue which never arose when using 9X19 in a heavy gun.

I'll give these exercise a go and see how it goes.

I hope it helps...

[Matt Griffin]

Don't discount the possibility of nerve entrapment, especially anyone who spends time on a computer at a desk. Tiny scars eventually lock the radial nerve in place which causes extreme pain and weakness in the wrist and pinky finger. Deep, nasty scraping by a PT and stretching is enough to fix it, but I spend five years with a weak right arm because of it.