bicep-curl = pain in forearm

[Lean88]

This is a long standing injury for me, when i curl, if its bb, db or hammer, I get a sharp very painful pain in my left forearm. Its weird because i dont get any pain during any other exercises, only when I work my biceps, and the pain is in the forearm. Iv had this about 18months now and it wont go away, as i result i cant work my biceps. Iv had an Xray and MRI but both have shown as normal and im now waiting for a follow up appointment.
I was wondering if anyone else has ever had this injury, or if anyone might now what the problem is?

[Tisky]

I've had the same thing, but mine is kinda in both forearms, more in the right one though. I've had it for about 4 months now and it comes and goes. One day it will be so bad that I can barely curl 40lbs barbell and the next i can do 70 with minimal pain, so I don't know, keep us updated though, cause I wanna know what it is and how to fix. I've just been icing it when it gets bad. And then heating it and putting on stuff like bengay on off days

[Felonist]

This is a long standing injury for me, when i curl, if its bb, db or hammer, I get a sharp very painful pain in my left forearm. Its weird because i dont get any pain during any other exercises, only when I work my biceps, and the pain is in the forearm. Iv had this about 18months now and it wont go away, as i result i cant work my biceps. Iv had an Xray and MRI but both have shown as normal and im now waiting for a follow up appointment.
I was wondering if anyone else has ever had this injury, or if anyone might now what the problem is?

Hi sounds like tendinitis - this typically does not pop up on X rays. (I dunno about MRIs).
Ive had a similar problem and I know exactly what your going through it sucked for me when I had this problem in my Wrist - It may be hte extra tension in the forearm by doin a lifting motion - The only Bicep excersize I was able to do was Chin-Ups (which I still do cuz they are great) This typically does not include that extra strain. Perhaps try that. And take some NSAIDs and see how it goes perhaps a few weeks before trying to lift up again. At the end of the day I had to get a Cortisone shot - which I would swear by it- but if I could have had the inflammation go away on its own I would have preferred it.... Lemme know how it goes and best of luck.

[DavisAllen]

i have the same problem.
your best bet is going to be to try and pull in your elbows and straighten your forearm as much as you can and go extra slow and be careful, use less weight if needed. it sucks cause i know im not curling to my limit and when i get done with a set my left arm feels like i just broke it

[KOMED]

I started having a pain in my forearm while doing preacher curls months ago. I immediately stopped doing it and have tried going back to it once in awhile but my forearm still hurts so I completely removed it out of my work out

Maybe you should stop curling for awhile and let it heal.

[roberto424]

I have had the same problem recently too, except mine have been bruising for some reason in the upper region. I went to a doctor and he told me its called biciptitis, or tearing the tendon that connects the biceps to the bone. It usually occurs from doing preacher curls. Try icing the injury for the first 2 days, then heating 1 day. Rest 1 day, and repeat. Thats what worked for me..

[bizzlewood]

i had it too

best thing i did was train my forearms harder and the pain went away

[Lean88]

Hi sounds like tendinitis - this typically does not pop up on X rays. (I dunno about MRIs).
Ive had a similar problem and I know exactly what your going through it sucked for me when I had this problem in my Wrist - It may be hte extra tension in the forearm by doin a lifting motion - The only Bicep excersize I was able to do was Chin-Ups (which I still do cuz they are great) This typically does not include that extra strain. Perhaps try that. And take some NSAIDs and see how it goes perhaps a few weeks before trying to lift up again. At the end of the day I had to get a Cortisone shot - which I would swear by it- but if I could have had the inflammation go away on its own I would have preferred it.... Lemme know how it goes and best of luck.

Thanks yeah, I can do pullups and workout my back just fine so that keeps my arms pretty big. I don't do my bi's at all, but about once a month I well do a couple of bicep exercises just to see if it still hurts (and it does). Got an appointment with the specialist next month so hopefully I can get this sorted, thanks for the input guys

[Docta J]

I have this same problem in my left forearm. At first it didn't hurt but as my weights increase for curls (especially preacher curls) its become a really sharp pain. I switched to hammer curls and it doesnt really hurt that much, but then othertimes when i try to slide my porch door open i can feel the pain. Then I stopped doing curls completely and it went away completely but now that I've picked curls back up the pain has come back. I dont think its my form, anyone have any other ideas?


strong bump i know

[AlyU]

Same here! I just started lifting weights and have experienced great results so far, but last night I woke up with extreme pain in my forearm/elbow area. I really want to workout today, but I don't think I will be able to do anything since I cannot extend my arms. I've tried ice, heat, and pain meds. Should I just stick to cardio today?

[jakeb820]

I too have this problem i found that ice helped a lot but most importantly let the pain heal it will take about 3 weeks depending on how bad it is. After it has healed stick to hammer curls and just make sure your thumb is lined up with your bicep it takes a lot of strain of the forearm. If its not to bad of a pain you may be able to get a way with wide ez bar curls as well.

[ptrmull]

tendinitis maybe..ice the area as often as possible...massage can help too.

[Smigiel]

I got that back in high school when I first started working out. Typical gym idiot, biceps every day. I think it was tendinitis from overworking that muscle so often. I just stopped for a couple months and it never really came back. I never got back into working my biceps much since they get so much attention from back movements. Here and there I'll do some curls if I'm getting weak throughout a pulling movement but it's not a regular part of my workouts anymore.

[ScottRoland]

This is a long standing injury for me, when i curl, if its bb, db or hammer, I get a sharp very painful pain in my left forearm. Its weird because i dont get any pain during any other exercises, only when I work my biceps, and the pain is in the forearm. Iv had this about 18months now and it wont go away, as i result i cant work my biceps. Iv had an Xray and MRI but both have shown as normal and im now waiting for a follow up appointment.
I was wondering if anyone else has ever had this injury, or if anyone might now what the problem is?

I had the same thing.... went to a sports ortho who immediately diagnosed it as a pinched nerve. I did some physical therapy along with some cortisone injections but nothing helped. My d/bell weights dropped from 50lb to 40 to 30 and finally doing even 15 pound dumbells hurt. I returned to the sport ortho doctor who said he recommended surgery to "release pressure" on that nerve. So I finally did it on December 23... had my arm in a cast for one day....in a compression sleeve for 2 more days... now my stitches are out and today I did biceps.... 40 pound dumb bells with no pain.
The surgery is called PIN release (posterior interosseous nerve). This sports doctor said it's really common in baseball players from throwing to hard but he has seen it in body builders as well. I was skeptical.... even though this guy is a DOCTOR...was the ortho for the U.S Olympic team, the U.S. Junior Olympics, Florida Gators and now for the Texas Rangers....AND he showed me his scar where he had it done.
So far...I couldn't be more pleased with the results. The only other option was to not lift weights anymore..... and we know that isn't going to happen.
Find a SPORTS doctor and ask about that..... a regular Dr. is only going to put you on anti-inflammatories and tell you to not lift anything heavy.

Good luck

[greglock75]

Best bet is to seek professional advice, most of the above comments make perfect sense although we can only speculate without MRI results. Tendinitis and any form of tendinopathy can be a real bitch, training through it or trying to can result in damage that can only be corrected through surgery. Please be careful, I know it's hard dialling back but resting now for a little while my save you not being able to work biceps properly or with full ROM ever again!

You have no reason to listen to me, I am new to bodybuilding.com but I am a PT and have tendinitis, so I understand how frustrating it is.

GOOD LUCK MATE.

[reachuarun]

One day i woke up out of the blue i have had pain in my left forearm and its been 5 months and i get the pain majorly with biceps curls. From what I read there is no easier way to treat this problem except to rest and let it heal.

[Hairywookie]

One day i woke up out of the blue i have had pain in my left forearm and its been 5 months and i get the pain majorly with biceps curls. From what I read there is no easier way to treat this problem except to rest and let it heal.

You're right. Any pain is not good. Rest it. The forearm is a horrendously complex collection of muscles and takes a long time to recover. The muscles are fairly delicate so when you train them, don't go too heavy.

[micahcowell]

I just started working out as a junior in highschool and like any highschool guy I did too much curls and weight causing me to get this pain in my left forearm while doing any weight in curls (unless hammer). I've just quit doing curls and I just stick with back and pull ups and I haven't seen any loss in muscle but I'm still wanting to improve on my arm strength.

I was wondering what you guys do for an arm workout plan that doesn't include any curls?

[Acfletcher64]

I've had this pain in my forearms for 3ish years now. I find the only thing that helps is not doing bicep curls. After a couple months the pain always goes away, and the only way to keep it from coming back is to not curl, do reverse curls, or just do light weight although I still feel it slightly while doing light weight. The good news though is that my arms have still made gains through weekly regular workouts

[nkupianist]

I'm currently going through this exact problem (pain on the bottom of my forearm - pinky side, both arms). I have found a temporary solution that still allows me to get some direct bicep work in while things heal. I noticed that the pain only happens if I put force against my hand/fingers (as there will be when you are gripping something and curling it). To temporarily get around that issue, I've been using my gym's Cybex cable machine - but I don't actually grip the bar. Instead, I wrap a towel around each side of the handle and put that against my wrist and curl that way. For me, this gives me 0 pain in my forearm, and it allows me to get bicep work in while I heal. I then finish them off with heavy reverse grip pulldowns to my chin and with a pause/squeeze at the bottom. It's allowed me to keep getting good bi workouts while I recover.

[abhisheknathlko]

I feel acute pain in my forearm when i put down the weight after doing biceps curl, somewhere near the bone. I don't feel any type of pain in any other exercise but this. This pain remains throughout, it never goes, it's intensity increases after every biceps curl. It's my favourite exercise but because of pain i only do it once in a week to bear the pain i get.
If anyone knows about it plz tell.....
Thank you

[Beefcaserole]

I am suffering from the same problem. I have been with a physio who came across a similar case a few years ago. My physio reckons this is not muscle or tendon damage in my arm but a trapped nerve in my back. One of my main problems is that I have very dominant upper traps which have been causing a muscle imbalance and have resulted in pressure on the nerve. I have been getting dry needling in my back and also massaging on my neck along with various exercises recommended by the physio. These are all really helping to reduce the pain sensation when I curl. A couple of exercises I did initially with the physio to see if the problem was the nerve were:
1. I put my arms out in front of me, my forearms at 90 degrees to my upper arms. The physio then pushed down on both my forearms and the right forearm which I have been having trouble got really sore and collapsed. The physio then concentrated massaging on my neck and lower back area to release the pressure on the nerve. Reset the test and I had no pain in my right forearm and not only stopped the physio collapsing my arm but drove the physios arms back up at them.
2. Did the same test as in the first case except just before the physio pushed down on my forearms I moved my head sideways so that my ear was almost touching my shoulder. Doing this relieved a lot of the pain I would feel as the physio explained that doing this takes pressure off the nerve. We did it for the head on both sides as in the left ear touching the left shoulder and the right ear touching the right shoulder and then did the test as in the first case above.

Anyways, apologies for the long post but I just wanted to explain my experience with this issue and what is working for me as I really do understand how frustrating this injury is. If nothing else the two tests are worth a shot to try at home (as in the 2nd test) and also with a physio to see if that is your issue (as in the 1st test).

Hope this bit of info is useful to anyone cos I know it is working for me.

Cheers.

[mphelp11]

Can you elaborate on the arm positions during the physio session? You said your forearms were at 90° to your upper arms, do you mean your hands would be pointed upwards or inward toward each other with your elbows at 90°?

[TheUnderdog83]

I get the same pain; believe it was caused by preacher curls and have since abandoned them. I can do concentration curls with almost no pain.