Pain in crease of arm between bicep and forearm. Closest to forearm.

I have been battling pain in my forearms for over 2 years now.

I have seen multiple doctors whom have injected me with cortisone, PRP, dry needling etc. The doctors are not sure what I have.

The pain is closest to the inside of my arm near/on the Brachioradialis.

The pain is often a dull ache that eventually becomes a sharp pain when irritated. I have tried doing plenty of PT as well as taking plenty of time off for rest. I have ice massaged, used an Armaid, etc.

The pain began in my left arm but now it seems like my right arm is following in pursuit. It seems my body likes to replicate the pain to both sides.

Has anyone else on here battled pain in the inner forearm on the Brachioradialis and had any success doing anything?

Have you seen an orthopedic specialist amongst the different doctors? X-rays or MRIs? Are you in a city big enough to have an Ortho who specializes in elbows (usually shoulders and elbows in my experience...).

I bet you have already tried rehab for medial epicondylitis? Theraband flexbar?

I've also dealt with a strain/tear/issue in the brachioradialis on my right arm since last spring. Remember hurting it while doing supplementary bicep curls after a hangboard workout. Don't have much to offer, sounds like you've done even more for rehabilitation than I have which is discouraging to hear you're still having the issue. Main reason for commenting is to be able to follow the thread. I tried taping/using a tennis elbow strap to apply pressure during climbing but I found it then made the other part of the muscle near the bicep have to do more work which scared me about injuring it so I gave up the strap. Now I try to just climb smart and not repeatedly undercling or do anything that aggravates it. Hope to hear some good news from others that will help us out that doesn't require the horrendous prospect of not climbing until it heals.

I have gotten an X-ray, ultra sound, all inconclusive.

Tried a thera band havent tried using the bar yet. I have 2 at home I'll give those a shot for a week.

I am not a medical doctor, nor do I have any training as one. I do however have years of experience with this specific issue, and would love to try and help you out. When I dealt with these issues I could not afford a real specialist, so I also could not find much worthwhile advice. The things which have worked for me are:

-hammer exercise: hold a hammer straight out in front of you and rotate it slowly to whichever side your body is on, from vertical down to horizontal and back to vertical. Then flip the hammer upside down and do the same thing, this time rotating it up and to the side away from your body. Go for 20-30 reps (1 rep being down then up, or up then down, and fewer if you go really slowly) each way, and 2-3 sets. If this exercise hurts that part of your arm, as per Esther Smiths advice, try doing 1 set of 5 reps at a level where you don't feel any pain 5-10 min after doing the exercise, 5 times interspersed throughout the day, and work this slowly into doing 2-3 sets of 20-30 reps post-climbing.

-stretching the forearm

-strengthening the top of the forearm. This is I think your best answer. The hammer exercise will help here but also check out the forearm roller exercise. No offense meant, but based on the picture you have of yourself this is where you have a muscular imbalance/weakness.

-working out the triceps, specifically the brachii and brachii lateral.

More information on my approach can be found here. In particular check out that podcast that Ted and I both link to. One thing I am not sure I remember Esther mentioning in that is the importance of the front delt for overall shoulder stability, so maybe the answer lies in there as well.

Interesting workout. I have never tried turning the hammer upside down. Seems like that focuses more on the lateral side of the forearm, unfortunately that doesn't bother me (yet) but its good for preventative.

I have been doing the hammer straight up one for a few weeks, too much weight and it irritates it. I'm also doing, wrist curls, rice bucket, finger flexing.

Did you overcome your injury?

Erez L wrote:Interesting workout. I have never tried turning the hammer upside down. Seems like that focuses more on the lateral side of the forearm, unfortunately that doesn't bother me (yet) but its good for preventative.

Yes. Without it eventually your arm and wrist will get out of whack.

Erez L wrote:I have been doing the hammer straight up one for a few weeks, too much weight and it irritates it.

You can choke up on the hammer to reduce the strain. Also, check out that Esther Smith podcast, as she gives some very nice and very specific advice for your specific condition.

Erez L wrote:I'm also doing, wrist curls, rice bucket, finger flexing. Did you overcome your injury?

I don't have any experience with a rice bucket so I can't comment there. Wrist curls are a less-muscle-growth-inducing version of that roller-rope-weight exercise in my experience. Also, yes, I have gotten this tendonitis and gotten over it, several times, one almost as badly as you have it now and for me when that happened it was a weak triceps so I had to workout the triceps. Your triceps in contrast look fine. Mine responded to this, albeit slowly, but I could still feel a response within a few sessions, and it was still mostly/entirely gone within 6-8 weeks.

Where you are feeling pain is less relevant than where your muscles are relatively weak, as where you feel pain will have as much to do with the actual muscle imbalance as it has to do with your specific grip technique, pulling technique, the range of most of your motion, injury history, and general sports and training history. That is why this is not a simple issue with a simple fix.

You might also try some lemongrass essential oil to help reduce the inflammation. My experience with that is it does little when you put it on, but I could tell a BIG difference the next day.

Erez and anyone else with this problem, FWIW, my most recent experience with this 'injury' is the last few training days up until last night when it was gone.

I had the pain in the outside of my bicep right across the elbow from the brachioradialis, all the way up the bicep, and the thing which reasonably quickly fixed this was adding some mass onto my triceps brachii and triceps brachii lateral. This in turn shifted the pain onto the brachioradialis, which I in turn was able to address in two sessions by holding a hammer straight out in front of me (actually an adjustable barbell with weight on just one side) with the weight pointed at the ground, and lifting the weight up and out through a 90 degree arc, so from vertical to horizontal and back down to vertical, for 30 quicker reps. I could feel relief immediately post-exercise. If those muscles are weak on your arm, and you have Erez's same injury, this might be the ticket. In contrast, the hammer held vertical version aggravated this for me.

Another thing to add is that forearm stretches are very important for me with this particular exercise I think because of the under-structure of the forearm with respect to muscular length when the top muscles are underdeveloped. For this I suggest squatting down and putting your palms on the floor with your fingers both pointing straight in front of you as well as straight behind you, and gently lean toward your finger tips in either case, and hold for 30 sec to 1 min, breathing deeply and relaxing and thus gently easing into the stretch the whole time.

JNE wrote:Erez and anyone else with this problem, FWIW, my most recent experience with this 'injury' is the last few training days up until last night when it was gone. I had the pain in the outside of my bicep right across the elbow from the brachioradialis, all the way up the bicep, and the thing which reasonably quickly fixed this was adding some mass onto my triceps brachii and triceps brachii lateral. This in turn shifted the pain onto the brachioradialis, which I in turn was able to address in two sessions by holding a hammer straight out in front of me (actually an adjustable barbell with weight on just one side) with the weight pointed at the ground, and lifting the weight up and out through a 90 degree arc, so from vertical to horizontal and back down to vertical, for 30 quicker reps. I could feel relief immediately post-exercise. If those muscles are weak on your arm, and you have Erez's same injury, this might be the ticket. In contrast, the hammer held vertical version aggravated this for me. Another thing to add is that forearm stretches are very important for me with this particular exercise I think because of the under-structure of the forearm with respect to muscular length when the top muscles are underdeveloped. For this I suggest squatting down and putting your palms on the floor with your fingers both pointing straight in front of you as well as straight behind you, and gently lean toward your finger tips in either case, and hold for 30 sec to 1 min, breathing deeply and relaxing and thus gently easing into the stretch the whole time.

Thanks! Will give this a shot today.

Can you clarify your suggestion though? You say the hammer version of the exercise irritates it but the 90 degree arc does not. I don't follow the difference between the 90 degree arc and the hammer? How is the exercise that works done?

Commenting to follow this thread, I just recently developed this same issue after my first day back on the ice this season. Thanks all

My experience with this is that people follow these exercises until the affected area stops hurting then the stop doing them.

This is something you should add to your regular training workout and do on a weekly basis for the rest of the time you want to be a climber.

Think of it as preventative muscle balance, not a cure for something that is broken.

Thanks DRusso, and I agree completely. The only difference should be the strain you are working with: up the strain as you heal, but never to the point of causing any discomfort. You can start out as light as you need to, but if your arm hurts no matter what I would recommend resting a week or two before starting this.

• *These are more detailed instructions for the right hand. The left hand exercises will obviously just be mirror images.**

For the first two exercises start holding the hammer straight out in front of you with your right hand, and with your arm straight. Keep your shoulder back and in the socket and stand with straight posture.

(1)With the hammer head pointed straight at the sky, rotate the hammer head to your left (toward your body) down through a 90 degree arc (so down to horizontal), and then back up to vertical. This is a single rep. I like to do 20-30 quicker (about 1 to 1.5 seconds) reps with this exercise. You can also drop the weight and up the reps (while keeping the time about the same) if you feel you need to reduce the strain.

(2)For the second hammer exercise, start with the hammer head pointed straight at the ground, and rotate the hammer head to your right (away from your body) up through a 90 degree arc (so up to horizontal), and then back down to vertical. Same advice in terms of reps.

This next exercise will use a different starting arm position. I did not recommend it before because doing it with the arm straight out in front pushes the range of motion of the arm and so causes extra strain in the inside of the elbow and outside of the wrist. This strain is reduced to a manageable level by changing arm position as described below.

(3)For the third hammer exercise, hold the hammer with your elbow to your hip, or place your arm on a table or other rest so that you can twist your arm without any problems with range of motion. Starting with the hammer head pointed straight at the sky, rotate the hammer to your right (away from your body) through a 90 degree arc (so down to horizontal), and then back up to vertical. Same advice in terms of reps.

Only do whichever of the three do not aggravate the injury (plus the forearm roller if it also does not hurt, and with the same strict posture as exercises (1) and (2)), please don't forget to choke up on the hammer to customize the strain, please don't forget to include stretching, adequate rest, and inflammation reduction, and good luck :)

JNE wrote:Thanks DRusso, and I agree completely. The only difference should be the strain you are working with: up the strain as you heal, but never to the point of causing any discomfort. You can start out as light as you need to, but if your arm hurts no matter what I would recommend resting a week or two before starting this. **These are more detailed instructions for the right hand. The left hand exercises will obviously just be mirror images.** For the first two exercises start holding the hammer straight out in front of you with your right hand, and with your arm straight. Keep your shoulder back and in the socket and stand with straight posture. (1)With the hammer head pointed straight at the sky, rotate the hammer head to your left (toward your body) down through a 90 degree arc (so down to horizontal), and then back up to vertical. This is a single rep. I like to do 20-30 quicker (about 1 to 1.5 seconds) reps with this exercise. You can also drop the weight and up the reps (while keeping the time about the same) if you feel you need to reduce the strain. (2)For the second hammer exercise, start with the hammer head pointed straight at the ground, and rotate the hammer head to your right (away from your body) up through a 90 degree arc (so up to horizontal), and then back down to vertical. Same advice in terms of reps. This next exercise will use a different starting arm position. I did not recommend it before because doing it with the arm straight out in front pushes the range of motion of the arm and so causes extra strain in the inside of the elbow and outside of the wrist. This strain is reduced to a manageable level by changing arm position as described below. (3)For the third hammer exercise, hold the hammer with your elbow to your hip, or place your arm on a table or other rest so that you can twist your arm without any problems with range of motion. Starting with the hammer head pointed straight at the sky, rotate the hammer to your right (away from your body) through a 90 degree arc (so down to horizontal), and then back up to vertical. Same advice in terms of reps. Only do whichever of the three do not aggravate the injury (plus the forearm roller if it also does not hurt, and with the same strict posture as exercises (1) and (2)), please don't forget to choke up on the hammer to customize the strain, please don't forget to include stretching, adequate rest, and inflammation reduction, and good luck :)

This is perfect. Thank you for the detailed instructions!

Thanks JNE for your thoughtful and thorough responses! I'm going to try all of these rehab techniques and hope to be close to 100% soon. Not sure where you're from or where you climb but if all of your advice and effort to give it provide any path towards recovery (seeing as this is the most thorough explanation I've found online) I'd love to buy you a beer (or two). Thanks again and if you come to the Midwest (RRG or DL) let me know so we can crush some beers after crushing the rocks!

Erick Valler wrote:Thanks JNE for your thoughtful and thorough responses! I'm going to try all of these rehab techniques and hope to be close to 100% soon. Not sure where you're from or where you climb but if all of your advice and effort to give it provide any path towards recovery (seeing as this is the most thorough explanation I've found online) I'd love to buy you a beer (or two). Thanks again and if you come to the Midwest (RRG or DL) let me know so we can crush some beers after crushing the rocks!

Cool Erick, and I will hopefully take that offer up sometime soon. I'm not sure when I will get out there but those places, especially the RRG, are on my "must visit before too long" list.

I'm glad to hear people want to try this routine. It has been wonderful for me through the years. A few more pointers are for (2), it is more ergonomic and therefore recommended to do this with a slightly bent arm and the wrist still held straight. Also when I say "shoulders back" I specifically mean shoulders in proper alignment, which for most climbers will involve pinching their shoulder blades together and then dropping their shoulder and letting their arm and shoulder come a little forward in the socket in order to get full or near full range of motion. This will take a little practice so just work slowly at doing it the best you can.

Also, for (1) and (2), the weight that you are using can be increased while chocking down on the handle to the point that your hand is touching the weight/hammer head in order to do more weight and therefore work the front delt more if that is what one wants, and it is worth pointing out this routine will hit most or all of the relevant rotator cuff muscles and their associated structures.

Lastly here are two more exercises for the wrist to really round out the routine:

(4) With the arm resting on a table or chair armrest, hold the hammer with the head pointing straight up, then swing the hammer slowly down and forward through your full range of motion as if trying to hammer in a nail, then bring the hammer back to vertical. This is one rep. I like to do these slowly and with more weight and so fewer reps, so I work in the 8-16 rep range. I am also extra cautious not to use the weight to push the range of motion of the wrist.

(5) Standing with your arm held straight down at your side and the hammer head pointed straight back away from you, lift the head of the hammer up toward the back of your forearm through the full range of motion of the wrist, and then lower it back to horizontal. This is one rep, and I do the same thing as (4).

I recommend starting out with two sets of each exercise you are doing, and working up from there. I like to do three to four sets under the idea that I need to get a comparable amount of work done with these muscles as my climbing muscles in order to have them keep up in terms of strength and growth. I also never plan on making this a strength routine but instead plan on always keeping it in the hypertrophy range and limiting growth to the desired level by not increasing the weight past a certain point except when I add muscle to the belly of my forearms. Also, if all you have is a simple hammer, doing all these exercises until you get a deep and burning pump has worked best for me.

Huge thanks JNE! I'm doing 1 and 3 but will definitely try at least 2 and 5 and probably 4 as well.

Climbers elbow, AKA golfers elbow. From what I understand it is the most common climbing over use injury. Lots of exercises for it just plug it into the google box.

Young Finn the Climber wrote: Climbers elbow, AKA golfers elbow. From what I understand it is the most common climbing over use injury. Lots of exercises for it just plug it into the google box.

Pretty late to the party here, but a quick Google search will demonstrate that this is not Golfer's Elbow, as the pain is in a completely different location, i.e. at the brachioradialis, rather than the 'inside' of the inside, so to speak. Pictures will speak more clearly.

JNE thanks for taking the time to post those explicit directions.  This will help a lot of people as the injury is so common in the sport.

JNE wrote: I am not a medical doctor, nor do I have any training as one. I do however have years of experience with this specific issue, and would love to try and help you out. When I dealt with these issues I could not afford a real specialist, so I also could not find much worthwhile advice. The things which have worked for me are: -hammer exercise: hold a hammer straight out in front of you and rotate it slowly to whichever side your body is on, from vertical down to horizontal and back to vertical. Then flip the hammer upside down and do the same thing, this time rotating it up and to the side away from your body. Go for 20-30 reps (1 rep being down then up, or up then down, and fewer if you go really slowly) each way, and 2-3 sets. If this exercise hurts that part of your arm, as per Esther Smiths advice, try doing 1 set of 5 reps at a level where you don't feel any pain 5-10 min after doing the exercise, 5 times interspersed throughout the day, and work this slowly into doing 2-3 sets of 20-30 reps post-climbing. -stretching the forearm -strengthening the top of the forearm. This is I think your best answer. The hammer exercise will help here but also check out the forearm roller exercise. No offense meant, but based on the picture you have of yourself this is where you have a muscular imbalance/weakness. -working out the triceps, specifically the brachii and brachii lateral. More information on my approach can be found here. In particular check out that podcast that Ted and I both link to. One thing I am not sure I remember Esther mentioning in that is the importance of the front delt for overall shoulder stability, so maybe the answer lies in there as well.

This easy to make setup does what the hammer does with more support, and linear weight. Reverse the wind of the cord to reverse the movement. 

PVC pipe big enough to get your hand in, the cross handle you can clearly see, a PVC cap on the back end with a centered hole just big enough to fit over the pipe nipple screwed to the wall. 

Since you're rehabbing, don't get crazy about the weight.