Is this arm pain normal?

[1976pianoman]

Hello,

I've upped my reps on a simple 3 exercise upper body routine; push-ups, dumbbell upward row & dumbbell shoulder press. I typically do 3 sets to positive failure. Now I'm doing 5 sets. One day into this increase and I have some pain I wanted to get some feedback on. Nothing else hurts except this one area on my upper-inner forearm. Both arms, yet the right hurts a bit more. Feels like a bruise. At first I thought it was a non-muscualr tendon or other related issue. It's dull and isolated to a small spot. Maybe it's just my muscle in that area that's been worked hard. I've included some pics so you can see what spot I'm talking about. I skipped weights today cause I don't want to continue to push if I need to take a break. I don't know if it's safe to push through the pain. Thanks for the feedback.

 

[1976pianoman]

It's the brachioradialis. Any tips on how to relieve the stress on the brachioradialis when I am doing these exercises? I'm pretty sure the culprit is the upward row. Maybe there is another exercise I could do for the medial delt? Or tips on how to do the upward row in a way that doesn't strain the brach?

 

[PaulBlack]

Any black and blue marks or what would appear to to broken blood vessels under the skin?
I am guessing probably not!?
Next guess might be that trigger points in your upper and forearm are kinda painful when you push on them. (areas you push on in the various muscles that smart when you put pressure there.) Google trigger point therapy.
Might be what some call biceps tendonitis.

 

[OnionKnight]

if i had to guess, its tendonitis. just give it a break for a week, knock back somefish oil, and itll probly go away. im guessin 2-3 days and itll go away

drop theupward rows. if your elbows dont give out on you, your shoulders will eventually. replace it with face pulls, reverse flys, or ytw's

 

[1976pianoman]

Thanks guys.

 

[PaulBlack]

Yeah and I might agree with Onion,^ on dropping the uprights and if you have to do that, try a high pull instead. The weights stay lower near chest height, you won't be apt to impinge the rotator cuff and you still get quite a bit delt involvement.

 

[Wilsy7]

Have you tried foam rolling?

 

[1976pianoman]

No, I have not. I tried pressing on the trigger points which I guess is acupressure. That worked to alleviate the pain. I also discovered that my hand positions while doing the the dumbbell upward row is important. If my thumbs start to point upward and I'm holding the dumbbells in a upside-down "V" shape, I stress the brachioradialis. This is really easy to accidentally do, especially when fatigued and approaching positive failure. However if I force myself to keep the dumbbells parallel, then I am not stressing the brachioradialis. So I'm going to make those changes and also mix it up with some reverse flys. I'm not in any pain anymore.

 

[powersurge]

Could be "tennis elbow". When you squeeze something, does it hurt?

 

[1976pianoman]

it went away. so I don't know.

 

[David147]

This is normal and just tells you that the push ups are doing what they're suppose to be doing. Nothing to worry about. You shouldn't really ignore it, because your body is telling you that its getting close to is limit. In reality, do the push ups till you can't actually push yourself back up again.

When you work you're actually tearing the muscle tissue, (which is why you get sore most of the time after working out) then, as your body heals itself it repairs that layer and actually puts on another, thus eventually making your muscles bigger.

To help with the pain you can either eat something (with protein, or have a protein drink) which will help with the repair and the soreness, and it will also help to build the muscle faster. Or just take a pain reliever if its really bothering you THAT much, but really, it'll go away in an hour or so, at most.