[sharkattack]

Hello. I've followed the request at the top of the Injury Section and have provided much more comprehensive information than I previously did. I sure would appreciate it if you kind souls could take a look at my situation and offer any advice you can. If you have any more questiosn, please feel free to let me know and I'll answer to the best of my ability.

1. When did the pain begin? I first noticed the pain around 11Apr07 or so.

2. What were you doing at the time? Or did the pain come on gradually over time? I believe that the pain is the result of using the straight Olympic bar for performing barbell curls. I normally use DBs, but tried the straight bar for a change.

3. Where, anatomically, is the pain? Per the diagrams on www.getbodysmart.com, the pain seems to be located in the Brachioradialis muscle. Here’s a link to the page showing the muscle. www.getbodysmart.com/ap/muscul arsystem/forearmmuscles/brachi oradialis/tutorial.html

4. What does the pain feel like? Sharp? Dull? Aching? Stabbing? Shooting? If I had to describe the pain, I’d say it was a dull, muscular ache. It’s not a sharp, stabbing type of pain, and it stays localized to the area. It doesn’t shoot up and down the forearm.

5. Is the pain constant, or intermittent, or only on certain motions? I basically only feel the pain when my forearm is bent at 90 degrees (relative to my upper arm) such as in when performing a Hammer Curl. I don’t feel much pain or discomfort at the bottom of a Hammer Curl, only when my arm is bent at approximately 90 degrees. It also lessens a bit once I get past the 90 degree point, such as the last few degrees of motion during a Curling type motion. The pain seems to be very consistent when tension is placed on

6. What motions make your pain worse? The pain seems to be worst when performing a Curl type movement with my palms in a neutral position. If I perform barbell reverse curls, I really don’t feel a significant amount of pain. Maybe just a little bit. I also feel the pain when performing Seated Rows when my arms reach the point where they are bent 90 degrees, but the actual rowing motion itself doesn’t seem to bother it. Pulldowns seem to aggravate it at the bottom of the movement, but the actual pulling motion doesn’t seem to bother it much.

7. What, if anything, makes your pain better? My PT has me doing left and right rotations holding a DB handle on the end. It’s getting easier to do these, so I assume I am progressing on this exercise. He also has me doing DB wrist curls and reverse DB wrist curls. Again, I’m progressing on these exercises, they seem easier now than they did a couple of weeks ago. I don’t feel any pain while doing any of these exercises.

8. Does your pain radiate to any other part of your body? No.

9. What things could you do before, that you cannot do now because of your injury? Hammer type curls, and DB curls. I feel the pain when doing DB curls mostly when the movement simulates a Hammer curl for that brief moment while my palms are rotating (supinating) during the movement. Also see the comments above in question #6 regarding rows and pulldowns.

10. What is your main concern regarding the pain and its consequences? I want to get rid of the pain so I can begin performing other upper body movements without the fear of re-injuring the area or not letting it heal completely. I don’t want to take any steps backwards.

11. Have you ever injured that part of your body before? If so, how? No.

12. Is your pain getting worse over time? And if so, how much worse over what time period? It’s not getting worse. It’s maybe slightly better, kind of hard to say. It’s not better enough to see a marked difference though.

Thanks for any help you folks can offer. Thanks also to UConnJulie for her help in my previous post.

Any new suggestions, now that I've provided more for you folks to go from?

Thanks,
Scott