Weird left arm condition

[Airmiha]

Greetings to everyone, I've joined this forum just recently and this is my first post. I'm regularly not a big forum person type of guy because I'm still very much inexperienced and mostly have nothing smart to add. I'd really appreciate any help I could get.

Let me start off with the template questions and move on to my questions regarding my issue:

1. When did the pain begin?

4 months ago I started experiencing bicipitial tendon discomfort due to bad bar placement while squatting and I suspect the cause was a too narrow grip and elbows pushed back until the limits of flexibility. My left arm went totally numb after sets of squats in around five squatting sessions until I finally widened my grip enough and placed the bar differently. That's when the discomfort while squatting was very much relieved, but still present in a small way.

2 months ago the previous condition turned into something different. The affected area didn't hurt anymore, but I noticed a weird swelling near my elbow which I'm trying to identify for the past two months :

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2. What were you doing at the time? Or did the pain come on gradually over time?

Read above, but I can't be sure if squatting started it. It just seems logical due to the discomfort I've been having. I don't know how the swelling came, I just found it by accident.

3. Where, anatomically, is the pain?

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4. What does the pain feel like? Sharp? Dull? Aching? Stabbing? Shooting?

The swelling by itself doesn't produce pain. Even when touching it, it isn't painful. It feels like a very small itch, like I'm just feeling it in a way I can't feel this same area on the right arm, very difficult do describe.

If it counts for anything, the lower area of the upper arm, on the opposite side of the biceps (can't find how it's scientifically called) feels tight and mediocrely hurts when I do the behind head triceps stretch.

5. Is the pain constant, or intermittent, or only on certain motions?

Sometimes, I feel a shooting sensation in my pinky, and when I flex my wrist to a 90 degree angle compared to the forearm, I get a mild shooting electricity through all the four fingers except the tumb. Same thing happens when I extend the wrist upwards, in the furthest position.

6. What motions make your pain worse?

See above.

7. What, if anything, makes your pain better?

Nothing really.
8. Does your pain radiate to any other part of your body?

See above.

9. What things could you do before, that you cannot do now because of your injury?

The condition isn't aggravated by any lifting movements. I have a feeling that the left arm is weaker on certain bilateral movements, but when it comes to gripping or unilateral work, it moves the same poundage as the right arm. I also measured the biceps and the forearm. The measures are same on both arms. I'm lefthanded btw. Squatting produces a slight soreness, but I'm pretty sure I'm holding the bar as it should be held in a low bar position.

10. What is your main concern regarding the pain and its consequences?

I'm worried about what kind of a problem I'm having here, and fearing that it might escalate into something more serious as time goes by.

I'm also worried if I'm holding the bar in the squat in the most optimal position. I've been reading SS by Mark Rippetoe and tried pushing the elbows back as much as possible, which stretched the upper arm alot and maybe produced the discomfort. Now I'm trying to have a slight bend in the wrists and keep the elbows more forward, but the left arm always has this weird feeling and I'm not sure is it just trauma from before or a new aggravation.

The swelling is also very weird and the shooting sensations might be something connected to the ulnar nerve. What I fear is that is that the nerve is or will be damaged and I might experience lack of motor functions in the arm.

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?

The swelling is the same, and the condition has been the same for almost 2 months now.


I'm not sure how squatting fits into this picture because it doesn't produce any apparent discomfort, but I'm worried it might leave microtraumas to the tendons or the nerve. I'm not an expert in this and am prolly talking stupidity, but I'd just like to hear if someone encountered with something similar and has an idea how to make the swelling and the shooting sensations on wrist moving go away.

I was planning to go to a doctor but if this is a lifting related problem, which it probably is, I'm better off at looking advice from people who are into lifting themselves. I live in Croatia so it's hard to find a qualified physician and I'm not sure if it's a neurology or some other issue.

The main question would be could this turn into nastier, is it something I should be concerned about, and will it go away with time or is there something I can do to speeden up this process.

[UConnJulie]

It sounds neurological ... based upon the initial numbness and the shooting electrical sensations. You likely tweaked the nerves somehow during that initial squatting session, then your body probably responded by scarring things down a bit. What you describe is classic impaired neurodynamics.

The swelling ... that is the only thing that has me a little concerned. I would see the doctor first, and if anything medical is ruled out, I can give you a stretch to improve the neural mobility (but I don't want to give you the stretch until you get cleared medically).

[Airmiha]

So, I guess it's time to stop delaying the doctor visit. I'll go there first thing tomorrow or Tuesday, depending on his shift.

What is exactly "impaired neurodynamics" ? Google gives no results.

[UConnJulie]

It means that your nerve is not moving in the soft tissue the way it should.

[Airmiha]

I went to see the doctor two weeks ago and she scheduled me for a specialist appointment which I had today.

The specialist explained how the cause of the ulnar nerve compression was a trauma to the arm and the trauma occurred due to the excessive tightness in my left rotator cuff, trapezius, triceps and middle back, basically the entire left upper torso area.

She scheduled me for ultrasound and physical therapies (10 therapies) which start in 2 weeks.

I'm not sure what I will be doing there but she mentioned forceful stretching.

A week ago I strained my right hamstring while doing sprints. It's much better now, and I'm starting rehab which Bill Starr and Mark Rippetoe recommend, that is squatting for 3 sets of 25 reps with very easy weights every day and gradually increasing the weight to flush blood into the injured area and avoid scar formation.

Before the hamstring injury I was on the 8th week of a 12 week block training cycle so now I need to restart from the strength phase.

My questions are, since the doctor told me to layoff training :

1. Is it alright to do squats (since this was the exercise that provoked the problem)

2. The doctor said I shouldn't do upper body work for a long period of time. Is this really the case because of this minor problem ?

3. Will foam rolling and tennis ball work help to relax those muscles (the doctor had no idea what foam rolling is or I didn't explain it right) ?

4. What ways besides physical therapy would you recommend to loosen up this area ? I also have a slightly elevated left side (imbalance). What could be causing it ? I doubt it's scoliosis.

5. What about the exercise you told me about in your first reply ?


Again, thank you for every input.

[UConnJulie]

Honestly, if you are seeing a phyical therapist in person in short order, then I would rather you asked him/her these questions. Seeing someone in person trumps an internet diagnosis every time.

[perrogrande007]

Like Julie said, it's better for you to talk to the specialist. That being said, I will tell you my experiences with shoulder tightness and pain and numbness throughout the arm.

I was a competitive powerlifter from the age of 14 to almost 30. That being said, I developed a lot of tightness from bench pressing and pain from squatting.

I have had to be very persistent about fixing this issue, as it arises a couple of times a year. Here's what I have found that works for me. You may want to speak with specialists who are experienced with treating sports injuries and also who are lifters.

I found that I was very weak in a few areas of my upper and mid back, as well as my external rotators. This led to faulty positioning of my shoulders, especially my left (resulting from a dumped bench press that messed up my left bicep, thus a chain reaction into the shoulder).

I believe it is also causing some tightness and dysfunction in my right hip. The right hip flexor is tight, as well as the right lower back (QL?). No amount of stretching or foam rolling has helped the hip, just frequent visits to the chiro so he can release it. I haven't found a permanent fix, maybe Julie has a suggestion?

What I started doing is working some external rotation with the elbow braced to the knee, bent lower trap raise, single arm db bent lateral raise, and powell raises. I pick two and perform them after my compound upper body movements and I will also use them between my warmup sets if I am squatting. They seem to pull my shoulder back and down, which takes away the pain. I was unable to low bar squat or bench press until I started doing these a few weeks ago. When I started the Powell raise caused immense pain, even with 7.5lbs. I am now doing 3 sets of 8 with 20lbs with just a small amount of tenderness.

The two lifts that seem to help the most are the powell raise and the single arm bent db lateral raise, followed by the trap 3 (lower trap) raise and believe it or not the ext rot is least effective but still has its benefits.

I have also reduced my bench press from working out with 350 to using about 235 and slowing the movement down, staying tight the entire time. Just last week I couldn't use more than 95 and even 95 would cripple me for a few days.

For restoration I am using salt baths, Celtic and Epson, and also using aromatherapy, camomille (sp?), eucalyptus, menthol, etc 30 min after training sessions and I am getting deep tissue massage throughout my lats and upper/mid back. The knots in my back are incredibly painful. Rolling on a tennis ball on the ground helps but is almost unbearable.

Lots of stretching for the chest, but not too hard, just more frequency so as to not put any more knots in there.

I'm hoping to acquire an EMS machine to start therapies with that as well

Competition and getting old is Hell man. It's great that you are catching this in the early stages. Chronic injuries are Hell to recover from and can take either a) lots of time or b) short time but lots of expensive and painful extreme measures

I hope some of this information helps you.

[Airmiha]

After the doctor visit I started doing everyday stretching for the pectoralis, lats, rotator cuff and triceps, alongside shoulder dislocations with a broomstick and foam rolling.

One thing puzzles me- I am extremely flexible when it comes to shoulder dislocations, pec doorway stretch produces absolutely no pain, and foam rolling with a tennis ball also isn't painful.

I understand how talking to a specialist is important, but this is precisely the reason why I'm asking these questions in here. The doctor is an older woman and she's pretty cool and talkative, we hit it off pretty well, but she doesn't talk in terms of active recovery or what weight movements are responsible for the pain and tightness. Not many people use weights here, and especially in my town. She just doesn't have the experience in dealing with weightlifting injuries and her comment on how : "Athletes sometimes have to miss the entire season to recover" doesn't sound good to me.

I'm gonna do the therapies and the ultrasound, but what I'd like is a permanent way of keeping the tightness and imbalances (which lead to injuries) away. First of all, I hope of realigning that nerve again with the tissue, and I'm gonna see how the therapies turn out to be. After that, it's prolly going hard on golf ball foam rolling and stretching.

I know it sounds strange, but not alot of people are familiar with weight training around here, especially not doctors. I was seeing a physiotherapeut of a local soccer team couple of months ago, regarding a knee bursitis, and when the talk got to weights, he advised me to ditch the squats because they're bad for the joints.

[UConnJulie]

1. Is it alright to do squats (since this was the exercise that provoked the problem)

You probably tweaked the nerve via the bar placement and perhaps the arm position. For now stick with bodyweight squats.

2. The doctor said I shouldn't do upper body work for a long period of time. Is this really the case because of this minor problem ?

A nerve injury is never a minor problem. If you don't rehab it properly, it will become a chronic problem. I would hold off on serious upper body strengthening for 8-10 weeks.

3. Will foam rolling and tennis ball work help to relax those muscles (the doctor had no idea what foam rolling is or I didn't explain it right) ?

Yes.

4. What ways besides physical therapy would you recommend to loosen up this area ? I also have a slightly elevated left side (imbalance). What could be causing it ? I doubt it's scoliosis.

Muscle imbalance. Look into an article at T-nation called "Pushup, Face Pulls, and Shrugs" or something like that by Mike Robertson and Bill Hartman ... should help.

5. What about the exercise you told me about in your first reply ?

Ask your doctor/physio about neural glides ... David Butler and NOI's work ... see what they know about them ...