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[Sponge]

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Edited December 16, 2014 by Sponge

[Gavyn.]

sounds like arm pump.

if so then there's not much you can do except get used to it.

[N.Wood]

Think you need to ride more and get the forearm muscle built up.

Also try using your brake as little as possible, especially your front one.

Maybe try one of they hand excersiser jobbies, too.

[Sponge]

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Edited December 16, 2014 by Sponge

[N.Wood]

I also forgot to mention that this can happen if your brake is shite.

Mine does it now and again if i'm riding natural in the wet, as you have to put more pressure through the lever to keep the brake from slipping.

[Sponge]

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Edited December 16, 2014 by Sponge

[Ali C]

I have suffered from arm pump all my 9 years of riding, I have tried everything to get rid of it!

Nothing worked apart from one thing, then it just dissapeared completley!

The best thing I ever did to reduce arm pump was to use a vee brake! Thats also the main reason I still use one now. You can set up a vee with VERY little spring tension to give a smoother lighter pull than a maggie, also a vee has more hold than a maggie so you don't need to pull quite so hard.

[Sponge]

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Edited December 16, 2014 by Sponge

[basher]

powerball is a good idea. Building muscles up in the forearm is the best thing to do. But like ali said vees help. And has helped me. But they only help if you get a good set up and set them up right. But when you do set them up right oh god they are nice and so light feeling.

[Ali C]

I have heard (true or not) that arm pump is muscles contracting and stopping the low of blood to the hand (or was it nerve signals?)

either way, the understanding I got that once you start getting armp pump then more muscle = more arm pump.

Try a change in diet, or take some asprins as they thin the blood, thinner grips help too.

[basher]

I have heard (true or not) that arm pump is muscles contracting and stopping the low of blood to the hand (or was it nerve signals?)

either way, the understanding I got that once you start getting armp pump then more muscle = more arm pump.

Try a change in diet, or take some asprins as they thin the blood, thinner grips help too.

fury muff, i just thought it was from lack of muscle and that gives you the pain from the stress of riding

[matt middler]

I'm sure there is an operation you can get done to either get rid of it or certainly reduce it, I think I read that somewhere a few years ago. I think it was Shaun Palmer that had it done when he did DH. Correct me if I'm completely wrong!

[Ben John-Hynes]

PumpX is specifically manufactured for the plague of "muscle fatigue" or "arm pump", it helps to enhance the performance of athletes by bringing oxygen to the cellular level. So whatever your sport, be it motocross, mountain biking or even windsurfing. If you suffer from arm pump or muscle fatigue, try Pump-X now. A natural tonic that allows you to perform to your max and recover fast.

Ben

Edited March 21, 2008 by Benjaminge

[JoeM]

Try running brakes Euro style? Takes a bit of getting used to though!

[Ben John-Hynes]

Try running brakes Euro style? Takes a bit of getting used to though!

Good idea

would be a challenge too!

[basher]

Something i found was when i did a competition a while back id never had arm pump befroe and i was running a hope brake id just put on and it was terrible it didnt work. And just because of that the fact it didnt hold or anything gave me arm pump. The same is with the back brake.

One key thing to stopping arm pump is simply haveing a good brake what ever it may be. If you have a great brake that holds it will cut the arm pump down. As when you have a shite brake and it keeps slipping you pull harder and harder each time you slip. And this gives arm pump over time.

Try running brakes Euro style? Takes a bit of getting used to though!

then youll just get arm pump in your other arm

[Ben John-Hynes]

then youll just get arm pump in your other arm

Is it something you develop then?

Or is it something you're born with and riding just angers it?

[*Tom*]

I've only every had arm pump once and that was because my brake had no hold what-so-ever, so maybe could be something todo with having to squeeze your lever too hard, or holding onto the bars much too tight?

[Sponge]

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Edited December 16, 2014 by Sponge

[*Tom*]

I used to get it on my trials motorbike, then i changed my grips to some softer ones, helped so much, might be worth trying

[Tomm]

I'm sure there is an operation you can get done to either get rid of it or certainly reduce it, I think I read that somewhere a few years ago.

Yeah, you can cut the muscle compartment open so there's more room for the muscle to expand (It's called a fasciotomy ). There's at least one MX racer that's had it done, I'm not thinking of Shaun Palmer though.

If you really want to read up on it (and arm pump in general), here's a good link: http://www.stanislausorthopedics.com/armpumpandmotocross.htm It's pretty long, but here are the important bits:

Muscles are often found together in "fascial compartments". Fascial compartments contain muscle wrapped in a layer of "fascia". Fascia, a tough but thin white gristle, envelops the compartment like a casing wraps a sausage. Fascia helps to both anchor muscles and to give them form. Fascia is very strong but it is not very elastic. The inelasticity of fascia surrounding muscle means that even small increases in the volume of a fascial compartment can cause big pressure increases within the compartment.

How Arm Pump Happens

During vigorous exercise muscles require a tremendous amount of oxygen rich blood and commonly increase in volume by up to 20%. The engorged muscle inside the inelastic fascia results in increasing pressure within the compartment. Although gases and solids are compressible, fluids are not. The incompressible fluid within the inelastic facia makes the forearm feel hard as bone. (A similar mechanism is used elsewhere in the body to create a rigid structure out of soft tissue.)* If the " compartment pressure" rises high enough, blood vessels can collapse which restricts or stops the flow through that vessel. Veins, with their low pressure and thin walls, collapse earlier than high pressure, thick walled, arteries. When venous flow reduces, arterial blood continues to enter the fascial compartment but is restricted from leaving. This restricted outflow further increases the compartment pressures. If the compartment pressure rise higher than the pressure in the capillaries (the "capillary pressure") or even the arteries (the "arterial pressure") then these vessels may collapse and result in "muscle ischemia" - a painful condition of oxygen deprivation. Muscle ischemia leads to even higher compartment pressures via pathways we won�t discuss here.

High chance of reducing arm pump

1. Frequent riding.

2. Staying relaxed on the track, loosening the stranglehold on your grips, moving your fingers, and alternate between squeezing and relaxing your hands.

3. Using more legs and less arms while riding.

Medium chance of reducing arm pump

1. Avoid heavy weights in arm workouts.

2. Suspension set-up.

3. Wrist curls with light weights and high repetitions.

4. Forearm, wrist stretching.

5. Using aspirin as a blood thinner. (The blood thinning attributes of aspirin work best at low dose. One pill a day is all you need.)

Possible chance of reducing arm pump. Treatments that some riders believed helpful are sometimes diverse and contradictory:

1. Taking nutritional supplements, vitamins, magnesium, potassium, calcium�

2. Changing the bar type, composition, and position (some say up, some say down) .

3. Lever position (some say up, some say down).

4. Grip size and stiffness (some said smaller and stiffer grips helped, while others said a larger softer grip absorbs vibration and helped.)

5. Steering Dampers.

6. Gripper seat covers

7. Acupuncture

8. Magnets

9. Voodoo

* He means getting a boner

[spartan]

K you need to get one of those finger working things, its like a vee that you squeeze.

Next time ur in a boring meeting at work, squeeze like 2 hundred times.

Your arm pump will be gone in like 2 weeks because you forearms will be ripped.

[Sponge]

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Edited December 16, 2014 by Sponge

[JaMmY]

i had a simialer problem but it was only my thumb, first finger, and second finger and about 1/2 my palm that went numb.

Still rode and didnt make a difference just i didnt kn ow how much to pull my brake in as i coudnt feel it lol.

I just soaked it in hot water (bath) for days, still isnt proper know, but getting there.

[Tomm]

Can you back that up with facts? I'm sorry, but I'm rather doubtful of some theories considering that once you suffer from such a problem, trying to 'strengthen' the arm just makes it worse apparently? Unless of course, you know personally of riders that have gone through with arm pump and pulled through with guaranteed positive results after using such strengthening devices

No, building the muscle up does make a difference. If you get bigger muscles (but still require the same braking force), then your your muscles will expand proportionally less and produce proportionally less lactic acid etc. But the volume in which they can expand will be bigger, so you're less likely to get the nasty build up of pressure that happens in arm pump.

That's the theory anyway. Although it sounds like MX riders get it much worse than trials riders.