Why do my forearms and the tops of my hands hurt?

Question

It feels as if the tendons on the top of my hand and in my forearm (just near the wrist) are very tight and it is painful. I started noticing it in wrestling two years ago and it was very painful but went away after the season.

I have been lifting non-stop since then, but now it is suddenly starting to hurt again (without wrestling). I started noticing a severe pain when pulling weeds at work and the tendons in my forearm were cracking and caused me a lot of pain. It also hurts during exercises such as pull-ups or shrug. Does anyone know what this could be? Also I am 17 years old.

Answer 1

Your workout frequency suggests overtraining. Particularly since you'll be gripping weights for almost any kind of exercise, your forearms really aren't getting a break. If you're doing wrist curls, it'll exacerbate it that much more. Having at minimum one rest day between workouts is pretty essential, regardless of what you're doing . Unless you're using steroids, you're not going to be able to benefit much from consecutive workouts.

Answer 2

I can tell you from experience that if you've been lifting weights from a young age and have done heavy weight lifting that you could have seriously damaged your tendons and joints. If that sort of pain persists, you may need to decrease load.

Taking joint and tendon supplements such as glucosamine chondroitin can help a lot. I started taking them at the advice of my pharmacist after complaining of knee pain during running (joint and tendon pain) and it helped immensely.

My knees were injured due to excessive weight lifting with heavy load at too young an age. I was doing 500-600lb leg presses at ~12, and blew both knees out just falling down at ~14 years old.