Forearm Pain
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Forearm pain is muscular aching or pain occurring between the wrist and the elbow. Often, the sufferer experiences weakness and reduced range of motion along with muscular aches and pains. This condition is usually due to strained or adhered muscles and can significantly interfere with normal personal and work activities. Pain is usually felt when the fingers or wrist are moved, or when lifting or carrying heavy objects.
The flexors and extensor muscles are designed to do their jobs without developing any injury, unless they are used in a way that is out of their normal alignment. The coordination between the two muscle groups is like a dance. One group contracts while the other lengthens and vice versa. This dance proceeds without injury or pain if the wrists are kept in a relatively level position, or if the amount of flexion and extension remains fairly equal. But, let one group do more work than the other and problems can develop. Likewise, if the wrists are tilted to one side, or twisted, or a combination of these two positions, then it is much more likely that injury will develop because the flexors and extensors are under strain in these positions.
The parallel configuration of the forearm muscles brings an easy opportunity for adhesions to form in the fascia which wraps the muscles, essentially gluing them together. Strain that occurs due to excessive grasping, holding, lifting, twisting and curling will cause the fascia to undergo a chemical change in an effort to provide support to areas that are overworked. In time the fascia will become sticky and restrictive. Rather than muscles being able to slide and glide effortlessly across one another, muscles that are adhered move as a single unit.
When adhesions are present, all of the flexor muscles on the palm side of the forearm contract as a single unit and all of the extensor muscles on the opposite side of the forearm lengthen as a single unit because they are stuck together. This makes a small movement like bending a finger much more work for the muscles and excessive strain results. If this is repeated over a long enough period of time, the muscles become irritated, adhesions become more dense and cover a broader area, and forearm aching, pain and restriction has an opportunity to develop.
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