Forearm pain

[Lise]

Hey Lise,
one more thing changed since last year. You are 1 year older this year.

TELL me about it! My birthday is one week from today...I'll be 46. I finally get it why "grown ups" would say, "I don't feel that old!" Maybe my palmarus longus feels that old.

The funny thing is that I am in so much better shape now than I was at 40. So how can my body have aged 6 years, when I feel 15 years younger?!? It beats the alternative, as they say.

[snapdragen]

Hey Lise, sounds very familiar - I ended up in PT last year with "tennis elbow". Mine was a combination of work (computer geek) and gripping the handlebars on my bike too tightly.

Here's a couple of the stretches I did:

http://www.sportspti.com/tennis_elbow.htm

Don't know about the weight work though. Later on in the PT I was doing some work with bands, but never any weights. Besides that, heat, massage and ibuprofin.

Try to relax your hands and arms when on your bike. Stretch whenever you can .

The book "Stretching" by Bob Anderson is really good - all kinds of info.

[Lise]

Snap--thanks a lot. That looks very useful. The article describes the pain well. I'll start with the exercises today. I have that book, Stretching. Didn't occur to me to use it for this! I am so bad with the stretching...I just forget. Haven't yet incorporated it as a discipline.

I know that I keep a lot of tension in my last two fingers when I'm riding, and grip the handle bars pretty tightly in general. I need to learn to be alert, but not tense.

Funny to say it, but another thing that's changed this year is that I type a lot more on a daily basis--posting at TE! Hmmm...any suggestions for "healthier" wrist stuff at the computer?

[snapdragen]

Another thing we figured out I was doing, clenching my fists when I slept! Another thing to be aware of.

I did have my desk at work evaluated. I was told not to rest my wrists on the keyboard when I type (like I'm doing now on my laptop...) And when I do rest, put my hands in my lap, don't drape them on the wrist support or keyboard tray.

[Lise]

I iced my forearm, then did the exercises in "your" article, and the hand & wrist stretches in Stretching. My arm feels better than it has in weeks.

THANK YOU!

Come to think of it, I often clench my right fist unconsciously. I'll look down during a meeting, and my left hand is covering my clenched right fist. The I relax it until I do it again...but how do you stop clenching your fists in your sleep? Good luck, my friend.

Seriously, though, this is giving me hope for the rest of the season. I was thinking, "I'm scr*wed if I have this much pain from relatively short training rides." So, daily stretching, get the bike fit double checked, ice and NSAIDs when it's bad. Check out tennis elbow strap. Thanks, ladies. L.

[snapdragen]

I didn't like the tennis elbow strap - I tried a couple of different ones. One even made my arm hurt more!

I really don't know if I'm still making fists when I sleep. I know when I'm just falling asleep, I make sure my hands are open.

I still get twinges in my arm, but I keep up with the stretching, that seems to keep everything under control.

Good luck!

[SadieKate]

Lise, I really have no clue but am wondering if you have your wrists at a funny angle on the Bianchi. Your wrists should be as straight as possible both on the hoods, the tops of the bars and in the drops.

This is specific to each person and may not be caught in an initial fitting, and a tense grip could exacerbate the problem.