Straight Bar Curls Causing Forearm Pain

[rydin4life]

I'm getting a pain in my right forearm when doing straight bar curls on my ICF 5x5 program. I'm doing three sets of 8 and I can start to feel some pain around the second or third rep but I really notice it after I sit the bar down, like once my grip loosens, the pain flies in. Can I just substitute pound for pound with EZ bar curls or just curls using a bar/pulley machine?

[garuss]

absolutely try an ezbar see if thats pain free. Not everyone has the wrist and forearm flexibility for straight bar curls. I sure dont. Actually, I prefer dumbbells.

[scamander]

definitely EZ bar territory. I found doing bb curls with a low weight helped a bit, but I would either go DB or EZ bar.

[ironwill2008]

I'm getting a pain in my right forearm when doing straight bar curls on my ICF 5x5 program. I'm doing three sets of 8 and I can start to feel some pain around the second or third rep but I really notice it after I sit the bar down, like once my grip loosens, the pain flies in.


Can I just substitute pound for pound with EZ bar curls or just curls using a bar/pulley machine?

Yes; by all means stop performing any exercise that causes pain that can't be eliminated by correcting your exercise form.




Dumbbell Curls would be another option.

[rydin4life]

Sounds good guys. Any reason to stay away from the rope/pulley machines for these? Dumbbells make sense but I was trying to say with something using both arms at the same time like the straight bar curls do. Obviously, not necessary but just my though.

[ironwill2008]

Any reason to stay away from the rope/pulley machines for these?

Nope. Resistance is resistance.


Actually, Cable Curls are a bit better than free weight Curls insofar as their resistance curve is concerned; there's equal resistance all throughout the entire range of motion, as opposed to, say, Barbell Curls, where the resistance is only at it's maximum at the midpoint of the ROM when the forearms are perpendicular to the floor. Also, it's very difficult to cheat a rep with Cable Curls since you can't really swing or otherwise use momentum to move the load as you can with a barbell or dumbbells.

[rydin4life]

Nope. Resistance is resistance.

Actually, Cable Curls are a bit better than free weight Curls insofar as their resistance curve is concerned; there's equal resistance all throughout the entire range of motion, as opposed to, say, Barbell Curls, where the resistance is only at it's maximum at the midpoint of the ROM when the forearms are perpendicular to the floor. Also, it's very difficult to cheat a rep with Cable Curls since you can't really swing or otherwise use momentum to move the load as you can with a barbell or dumbbells.

Thanks. My gym has the ez curl bars with set weights and the ones that can have weight added to them. They're standard York Barbell EZ bars so I assume 25lbs, but I can probably weight it to be 100% sure. I'll see how those go and can always do the cable curls as well.

Again, thanks for the input and tips!

[MyEgoProblem]

Never been able to do painless straight bar curls (or skulls).. Ez is solid but dbs are king for alleviating tension in forearms/wrists..

^^ cable curls with a rope attachment give me a special kind of burn I don't seem to get with free weights or straight/ez bar on cable.

[rydin4life]

The gym has a bunch of attachments for the cables so I can probably find something that works. I guess there's a reason I only see a few guys doing straight bar curls,95% of them are in the same boat that I am.

[k9pit]

It's the middle red-ish part in the picture below right?


It happens to me too. Once you release the weight it feels like a blade is running down the outside of your forearms....

I don't even bother with straight bar curls.

Sometimes I get it with straight bar chinups too but not as bad.

Personally, I would stop it as in my experience this pain will bleed over into other moves like BB Bench press and you'll have all types of weirdness going on. Also, BB Shrugs.

[TheShadowMan]

One thing I do on occasion is i'll take a dumbbell in each hand, and mimic the ez-bar. I'll hold and balance them at the same location where I would put my hands on an ez-bar, and makes for a very interesting and totally isolated feel. I figure i'll probably be doing stuff like that until I can find a rackable curl bar, solid, with a good amount of space on ends and a decent shape to it. Overall I like using the dumbbells for isolation movements though, as a rule of thumb. They seem more tailored to the job than a bar is.

[rydin4life]

It's the middle red-ish part in the picture below right?
It happens to me too. Once you release the weight it feels like a blade is running down the outside of your forearms....
I don't even bother with straight bar curls.
Sometimes I get it with straight bar chinups too but not as bad.
Personally, I would stop it as in my experience this pain will bleed over into other moves like BB Bench press and you'll have all types of weirdness going on. Also, BB Shrugs.

Yup, that's it. I'll try the ez bar tomorrow night and see how that works. If that causes the same problem, I'll go to DB and give that a shot.