Services & Treatments
Forearm Pain From Rowing
Rowing is a very popular sport in Perth and many sports people take it up at school or as an adult.
The potential injuries are similar; our physiotherapists explain more below, please keep an eye out for our blog posts regarding other rowing injuries.
A common injury with rowing is forearm pain, often described as ‘cramping’ or ‘burning’ pain. It can be aggravated with long set pieces and racing. It can feel like you can’t grip the handles of the oar and when you finish rowing stiffness or locking and difficulty moving your wrists or fingers.
This is common in new rowers or if you’ve returned to rowing after a break, or a change in training regime and is most likely due to poor technique.
Causes of forearm pain can be due to too much tension in the arm, gripping too tight on the handles, pulling with the wrists and arms, the wrist being at an angle at the ‘catch’ or dropping the wrist, ‘feathering’ with both hands and a few other possible causes. It’s good to speak with your coaches for some feedback. Unfortunately if it is a technique issue and it’s habitual it can be frustrating, difficult to change and the symptoms may take a little longer to settle down.
The Difference Between Soreness and Pain
Most often, soreness occurs a day or two after exercising. This soreness is due to the exertion overload placed on your muscles and the release of chemicals from your muscles. Commonly known as “Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness” (DOMS), it is more than likely to occur if you have exerted yourself more than is necessary or you have tried new exercises which your muscles are not used to. The soreness you feel is more of a discomfort rather than pain and generally should subside with rest.
As with most exercise, if you do the same exercises repetitively, your level of discomfort will decrease as your muscles adapt to the routine.
At Central City Physiotherapy we recommend you change your exercise routine every 3-4 weeks. This assists your body in constantly gaining the maximum benefit from your exercise routine. In contrast, if you experience pain after exercise, the pain is normally focussed in one area and tends to be sharp, persistent and can, over a period of time, worsen.
Exercising ‘through the pain’ can aggravate and cause injury and should never be considered. If during your exercise, you experience pain, contact us immediately so we can ascertain the source of the pain and give you the best strategies to manage it.
Seeing a physiotherapist for an assessment and to treat the structures which are causing the pain is beneficial.
The nerve lengths would need to be assessed and appropriate stretching could help with the burning pain. Soft tissue release of the tight fascia (connective tissue that surrounds muscles, blood vessels, and nerves), which could be contributing to the pain may also relieve symptoms. Stretches for the muscles of the forearm to perform before and after exercise would be issued and at times using ice after training sessions to relieve symptoms could help. A full physiotherapy assessment is also important to ensure that there are no other structures involved. Clearing the neck, shoulder and elbow of any contributing referred pain is important as compensatory patterns may have developed if training has continued through the symptoms. It is also important to take breaks or rest if the symptoms increase.
Serious cases could develop into compartment syndrome or carpal tunnel syndrome and in other cases, it may also develop into a “golfer’s elbow” or “tennis elbow” even though rowing is the cause.