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Arm Pump!


trialsguru

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well i rode some shortish natural sections on sunday for the first time in a while and i was getting arm pump. nothing really painfull but just enough to make it hard to pull the brakes lol

ive not had arm pump for a while but i have been riding mostly street so i assume its to do with my fitness levels. is there any exercises i can do to help stop it?

looking at you natural/comp guys for this one!

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If it is burning in your arms then i get this too....they really ache when i have to do loads of little hops or anything,like hopping up steps....I'm just doing weights though now to try stop it.

zoo baby!

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I had this feeling when I was riding comps some years ago. At the end of the section I could hardly pull the brakes. I also felt it when I didn't eat or drink enough before riding. But if you keep on riding with that "pumped feeling" it can leed to muscle cramps, which can be pretty painful.

So a lack of arm muscels isn't the only reason. Like I said, it also appears when you didn't drink or eat enough before/during riding...

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Bananas and salt.

And powerball.

You could do the "open and close" hand things where you just open and close your hands violently and quickly 100 times before going to bed and when you've woken up every morning. Works wonders, and is free.

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Its becasuse of the lactic acid build up in the flexor muscle (underneath) in your forearm:

Stretch before you ride and it wont be as bad

IPB Image

It can also be the extensors because you are pulling on the brakes too hard and/or your brake levers are angled badly.

Probally just a bit of wa*kers cramp though :shifty:

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powerball = (Y)

they workout your whole arm, and once you get the hang of em you can feel the effect in seconds.

you'll have bigger forearms in a week, and you can really tell the difference when riding.

definitely worth it, get em from play.com - theyre cheaper.

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You could do the "open and close" hand things where you just open and close your hands violently and quickly 100 times before going to bed and when you've woken up every morning. Works wonders, and is free.

It's amazing how little effort it requires yet the muscle pain starts fairly quickly :blink:

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apparently arm pump is because of fitness rather than strength/muscle size.

im getting pretty strict on my fitness, food and work out wise. i have never really had problems with armpump though.

just did that open and closing hand thing that janson said, and fork me thats hard for such little effort:p...

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i find weights works great,

get a old broom handle about 27" roughly bars width. tie a shoe lace to the middle,

then put tape round the tied bit so it cant spinn on the stick.

then about 2 ft down the string, tie 10 kilograms on, ( i use two 5kg hand held weights )

then stand feet a shoulders width apart with the weight inbetween your feet ont he floor,

and whilst keeping your arms straight out in front of you wind the weights up on the stick. by twisting it.

get a few of them done and your ams are killing !

i also find going climbing. just bouldering does it .

good fun too

hope i helped.

iolo.

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I read that armpump was caused by your tendons becoming inflamed due to exercise, and therefore being sort of caught on the tendon sheath? That's why pro MX riders who get armpump sometimes have operations to remove the sheathes so the tendons won't get trapped by them when they swell up during use. Some people are naturally more succeptible to arm pump, but if you search for it on here I think Ali C put up a training thing by some guy who used to help out with Kawasaki's MX team or some crap like that that detailed what you could do for it. Even if you're fit you can still get arm pump, so finding out any exercises online would be handy.

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i used to get this a lot in my earlier days of riding comps. the problem is hopping! i just think back to beginner sections where you'd be riding, approach a rock, stop, hop for 10 seconds (long time), get front wheel on it, hop some more, get on top, hop some more, ride off until next rock, hop, etc...

i think if you work towards becoming smoother/faster/more confident (good goals in general) in your riding, you'll experience this a lot less.

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ali c used to get it really bad, like 20 seconds into every section in both arms so he could barely pull the brakes, he looked into getting surgery to sort it out( something to do with removing tissue around tendons) but hes managed to sort the problem with a V brake

i normal get it about once a year, and i just bend my hand back or open and close it really quickly

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