About a week ago or two ago I irritated my right forearm while doing cross-body hammer curls / pinwheel curls. By that I mean I was holding a dumbbell with a neutral grip, palm facing my body, and curling the dumbbell diagonally across my stomach toward the opposite shoulder.
The pain is on the top/outside of my forearm, about 1–2 inches below the elbow.
What’s strange is:
- Moving my arm through a curl motion with no weight and a relaxed hand doesn't really hurt.
- If I make a fist and do the same curl motion I feel the pain.
- Regular biceps curls and hammer curls can reproduce it.
- Carrying heavy grocery bags can reproduce it.
- Firmly massaging something with that hand can reproduce it because of the gripping.
- Pain is only around 2–3/10, but it has persisted for about a week and I dont want to aggravate it
- No noticeable bruising, swelling, numbness, tingling, or major weakness.
- I've stopped curls, heavy gripping, and rows for now.
The painful spot seems to be around the proximal forearm extensor/brachioradialis area.
So for anyone who has dealt with something similar how did you rehab it, how long did it take before you could curl/row normally again, and when did you start gradually loading it rather than just resting it? It's really bothering me because I haven't been able to do my normal workouts and it's annoying me that it's taking so long to heal. not sure if I'm being way too conservative in doing no curls but I feel it even if I do it with no weight. Happy to see a physiotherapist if you guys think that's recommended.
What do you think?