UNcomfortably numb- arm pump and similar probs

**mart1** · 14th November 2006, 14:14

20 pushups a day and stretch fingers, forearms before a ride. Also try not to let your arms take all your body weight, use your back aswell.
Works for me.

**TonyB** · 14th November 2006, 16:59

Lets see.
Gav- yep, stretch my arms constantly. Nope- no bigger leathers, might try a shorter back protector though.
Joni- so those powerball things actually work? I just dismissed them as the usual 'as seen on TV' crap.
Motu- I had big problems with the old carpal tunnel muscle whatsit back when I did a bike courier run. I always use the clutch, so I was doing 100's of gear changes a day. From memory my left hand would get BAD pins and needles at night, over everything except the little finger and outside of the palm. Used to drive me insane(r). Thats not whats happening at the moment.
DP, OAB etc- yep, am well aware that I need to relax. Its just that this is affecting my upper arms which have never had a problem before, despite that fact that I hold most of my weight on my triceps with the Bucket/FZR and no weight on the Monster. It seems back the front. Will start doing some pressups, and I need to get back out on my MTB- thats very good for strengthening arms, funnily enough. The problem actually goes away through the corners and is at its worse at the first right hander.
Might give that spray a go- it's cheap enough.

Just out of curiosity- If I squeeze a set of bathroom scales with both hands I can get it around to about 85-90kg. Would that be normal, or a tad on the weak side?

**Shaun** · 14th November 2006, 17:19

Get in touch with Dom Jones Tony, he has had that drama and has been shown some very good ways to help the scenario

**TonyB** · 14th November 2006, 19:35

Funny you should say that Shaun- Peter sent me an email suggesting just that. He outlined his findings and said post them if you want, so....

1) The solution (hopefully) comes from applying many small changes, no one big one. (How most probelms are solved!)

2) Arm pump is a slang term, very american, very motocross related. There are two categories, possibly overlap as well

1)Cramp, which is related to nutrition, fitness, relaxation, hydration etc. To identify this it generally passes within a few hours, no residual discomfort. You can picture this amongst riders who travel long distances, living on pies, beer and cigarettes and little sleep.

2) Compartment Syndrome. This is common with Road Racers, (Freddie Spencer had it really bad) board sailers and long distance runners (in their calves) This characterised by muscle shut down of strength, pain and loss of feeling in the parts beyond. ie the hand. On the right side of course this means loss of control of brakes and throttle. Recovery from this can be as long as a week. From what we can see this is congenital, or caused by accident damage to the "layout" of the arm muscles, nerves and blood vessels. In either case, often an operation is performed called a fasciotomy, which "relieves" the tissue compartment surrounding the muscle. From what we can tell it works really well.

Suggest you Google search "compartment syndrome" which gives quite a bit of info.

**Ivan** · 14th November 2006, 20:18

As chopper would say

Harden the fuck up and grow a mostuche

Nah I get it in my leg muscles after wards though it hurts but yeah

**TonyB** · 14th November 2006, 20:23

Freddie Spencer aparently used to do pretty much the whole race with his butt about 1 inch off the seat. Surely he gave himself a break on the straights?!? Either way, imagine the leg strength and endurance that would take- remember this GP length racing, not 4 to 6 laps like we do here

**gav** · 14th November 2006, 21:26

And when he raced the 250 and 500 in the same season, the extra load basically wore him out. Don't forget it wasnt just the racing but the practice and qualifiying sessions as well, literally climbing off one bike and hopping onto another.

**Joni** · 15th November 2006, 07:38

Originally Posted by TonyB

Joni- so those powerball things actually work? I just dismissed them as the usual 'as seen on TV' crap.

Yeah I reckon one will help for sure.... strenghthen your muscles using it and then apply the other suggestions made here and I reckon you would be in a stronger place on the track

Every bit helps I reckon...

It takes some time to get used to the thing and to really get it moving... just keep at it, oh and get one of the "heavier" ones, ours goes to 12kg's, I think its perfect for me, but too light for Kick.

**FROSTY:Me** · 15th November 2006, 08:06

Tony --Probably repeating other peoples advice.
I used to get arm pump really bad.
Nowadays how I get over it is 3 things
1)hydration--drinking heaps during the day
2) Being relaxed --its all in the head to a fair degree --use the straights to relax ya upper body and even shake the arm thats pumped worse
3) LAPS -plain n simple mate--the more ya do the more race fit your body becomes-it has two effects-Your body becomes more "race fit" and you relax more as you get comfortable on the beast.

Another huge difference has been getting my leathers tailored to fit me -ON the bike

**Mr. Peanut** · 15th November 2006, 08:08

Originally Posted by TonyB

Lets see. Just out of curiosity- If I squeeze a set of bathroom scales with both hands I can get it around to about 85-90kg. Would that be normal, or a tad on the weak side?

A tad on the strong side, I only got 84, but that could be the scales.

**gav** · 15th November 2006, 17:25

Originally Posted by Joni

Yeah I reckon one will help for sure.... strenghthen your muscles using it and then apply the other suggestions made here and I reckon you would be in a stronger place on the track

Every bit helps I reckon...

It takes some time to get used to the thing and to really get it moving... just keep at it, oh and get one of the "heavier" ones, ours goes to 12kg's, I think its perfect for me, but too light for Kick.

So what you're saying is Kickaha needs bigger balls........