Kettlebell TGU. Bigger bell, plenty of pain in the forearm.

[Daniel Vintila]

Hello everyone.
I've looked to see if anyone had the same problem or if it's been discussed but couldn't find it so this is my issue.
I'm currently working on achieving Sinister. My 1H swings at 48kg are going very well ( some days harder than others) but its great, my main problem is the TGU.
At the moment I'm working with a 40kg and 44kg and the main issue is that the weight feels uncomfortable on the forearm, the pressure from the bell hurts my forearm,
so I can basically train max 2 times a week with TGU. The reps go smooth when I train, I can do the 10 reps in 10 min @40, but then my forearm is in pain for a few days, and if I do a wrong clean Oh God it hurts.
So my question is if any of you when moved towards bigger bells had this problem and how did you fix it? I thought my body would adapt but its been 3 weeks now with the same issue which also affects my Bench press.

Live Strong

 

[Rumsmike]

Hello everyone.
I've looked to see if anyone had the same problem or if it's been discussed but couldn't find it so this is my issue.
I'm currently working on achieving Sinister. My 1H swings at 48kg are going very well ( some days harder than others) but its great, my main problem is the TGU.
At the moment I'm working with a 40kg and 44kg and the main issue is that the weight feels uncomfortable on the forearm, the pressure from the bell hurts my forearm,
so I can basically train max 2 times a week with TGU. The reps go smooth when I train, I can do the 10 reps in 10 min @40, but then my forearm is in pain for a few days, and if I do a wrong clean Oh God it hurts.
So my question is if any of you when moved towards bigger bells had this problem and how did you fix it? I thought my body would adapt but its been 3 weeks now with the same issue which also affects my Bench press.

Live Strong

I had the exact same issue with the 40. I had completed many reps with it over a few months but this problem got consistently worse for me so I switched to 48kg sandbag getups with some Mace work to hit the shoulders. The pain want away quickly but reappears when I do attempt them occasionally. I've moved onto to some other programming now after achieving timeless solid and will probably stick to heavy sandbags when I go back to S&S in a few months.

Interestingly my cousin had the exact same problem when he moved up to the 40 a month or two ago. He thinks it may go away with more practice but for me it got steadily worse after completing probably hundreds of reps with that weight.

 

[Davidlbn]

Use a wrist support until the bruising resolves. I did for a short while while I was learning to snatch which left my forearm a bit bruised, the pain from which carried over to TGUs. Better than not doing them.

 

[Molson]

Use a wrist support until the bruising resolves. I did for a short while while I was learning to snatch which left my forearm a bit bruised, the pain from which carried over to TGUs. Better than not doing them.

+1

I was in the same situation with 40kg. First 3 months were fine and then I had pain in my forearm in many areas, but mostly around the contact zone. A wristband with a shield inside helped a bit. Backing of on the weight and just doing multiple reps helped too. But the game changer was working on my forearms with multiple stretches, strengthening assistance excercises. I strongly encourage you to review if you don’t have a pain/discomfort with your wrist and forearm in various angle and plane options positions with lifting stuff. Try how your forearm will feel with lifting stuff with Pam facing your face (rotating out the forearm). This could include: mace bells, waiter presses, curls or wrist curls, push ups, many more.

 

[Daniel Vintila]

+1

I was in the same situation with 40kg. First 3 months were fine and then I had pain in my forearm in many areas, but mostly around the contact zone. A wristband with a shield inside helped a bit. Backing of on the weight and just doing multiple reps helped too. But the game changer was working on my forearms with multiple stretches, strengthening assistance excercises. I strongly encourage you to review if you don’t have a pain/discomfort with your wrist and forearm in various angle and plane options positions with lifting stuff. Try how your forearm will feel with lifting stuff with Pam facing your face (rotating out the forearm). This could include: mace bells, waiter presses, curls or wrist curls, push ups, many more.

Thank you for all the options, some I've tried and some not, and I will definitely introduce more forearms stretches, as I'm not very consistent with them. I dont have any pain in any particular angles, just the pressure of the bell on my forearm is the main issue.
Thank you and everyone else for their answers.

 

[Daniel Vintila]

Use a wrist support until the bruising resolves. I did for a short while while I was learning to snatch which left my forearm a bit bruised, the pain from which carried over to TGUs. Better than not doing them.

I was thinking about getting some of the wrists with a shield but still want to fix it in a different way. Thank you for your advice!

 

[barrak]

Hello everyone.
I've looked to see if anyone had the same problem or if it's been discussed but couldn't find it so this is my issue.
I'm currently working on achieving Sinister. My 1H swings at 48kg are going very well ( some days harder than others) but its great, my main problem is the TGU.
At the moment I'm working with a 40kg and 44kg and the main issue is that the weight feels uncomfortable on the forearm, the pressure from the bell hurts my forearm,
so I can basically train max 2 times a week with TGU. The reps go smooth when I train, I can do the 10 reps in 10 min @40, but then my forearm is in pain for a few days, and if I do a wrong clean Oh God it hurts.
So my question is if any of you when moved towards bigger bells had this problem and how did you fix it? I thought my body would adapt but its been 3 weeks now with the same issue which also affects my Bench press.

Live Strong

I had this issue when I tried to move from 24K to 32K. In my case, it wasn't the added weight per se that caused the extreme discomfort. Rather, it was the change from the 24K iron bell (Metrixx Elite) to the 32K competition bell. The latter sits against my very thin wrist much higher which multiplies the pressure. My wrist guards did nothing to alleviate the problem.

My options were either get a 32K Metrixx Elite or switch to sandbags. I chose the latter, since I was planning to do that anyway with 40K+.

 

[Mark Limbaga]

Having a 4' wrist I know what you mean..

Take it slowly, really build that connective tissue strength and linkage.

Eventually, the 40kg won't be that intimidating anymore

 

[Greg H]

I had this issue with the 32 kg. What fixed it for me was wrist stretching and the Theraband. But most importantly I noticed that the heavier weight on the TGU took my wrist out of straight alignment at the start. I saw that I was bending it back a bit. When I fixed that problem solved.

 

[Alexander Halford]

Daniel,
I was (and still a little bit) in the same situation, due to the minor condition at the left wrist.
Wrist guards are ok to use, I do it myself - sweat bands mostly, but don't let this deceive you - it won't fixed your problem, as it didn't fixed mine. Even more, it numbed the pain and allowed training, but I ended up with 3 months forced break. You don't want to get there.
I saw your get-ups. You are strong guy, your technique is very good. At some reps it just seems that the weight feels heavy.
Take bigger breaks - after the swings, and between the get-ups. As big as 5 minutes, treat it like serious strength work. This will allow you to build your strength slower, but pain-free, and, as Mark mentioned, to strengthen connective tissues, tendons properly. Keep swinging heavy, it will build your grip as well.

 

[Brett Jones]

Daniel
There could be a couple of things going on:
It could be the design of the KB—some larger handles place the bell too low on the wrist and some "smaller/shorter" handles can place the bell too high on the back of the arm and create a lot of pressure on the wrist.
You may need to adjust your grip slightly:
Under Pressure: A Small But Crucial Adjustment to Your Get-up | StrongFirst

A sweatband can sometimes provide enough padding to make the Get-up more comfortable.

 

[North Coast Miller]

This isn't really a solution, but I noticed as I worked up to heavier weight it was more comfortable to stack KBs than to use one single bell. This keeps the load closer to your arm - the same weight stacked vs single bell I could reliably do more reps or tolerate more TUT.

You have the added complication of holding multiple bells in one hand and that is not the safest thing in the world to do either. As Brett pointed out, a different bell design might make all the difference, but it isn't easy to shop around and try before you buy.

 

[Alexander Halford]

It could be the design of the KB—some larger handles place the bell too low on the wrist and some "smaller/shorter" handles can place the bell too high on the back of the arm and create a lot of pressure on the wrist.

Very valid point...I change my hand insert and handle angle inside the palm with the different size of bells/openings.

 

[Oscar]

Hello everyone.
I've looked to see if anyone had the same problem or if it's been discussed but couldn't find it so this is my issue.
I'm currently working on achieving Sinister. My 1H swings at 48kg are going very well ( some days harder than others) but its great, my main problem is the TGU.
At the moment I'm working with a 40kg and 44kg and the main issue is that the weight feels uncomfortable on the forearm, the pressure from the bell hurts my forearm,
so I can basically train max 2 times a week with TGU. The reps go smooth when I train, I can do the 10 reps in 10 min @40, but then my forearm is in pain for a few days, and if I do a wrong clean Oh God it hurts.
So my question is if any of you when moved towards bigger bells had this problem and how did you fix it? I thought my body would adapt but its been 3 weeks now with the same issue which also affects my Bench press.

Live Strong

An idea you can consider is to attach two plates of 5 kg to your 32 kettlebell, to be able to train heavy why you solve the forearm pain with the bigger bell. This is not really a solution to the forearm pain, but it will keep you training while you solve it.

This is, of course, under the premise that the 32 isnt hurting you. I have attached weights to my 32 with good results for TGU.

 

[Daniel Vintila]

Daniel
There could be a couple of things going on:
It could be the design of the KB—some larger handles place the bell too low on the wrist and some "smaller/shorter" handles can place the bell too high on the back of the arm and create a lot of pressure on the wrist.
You may need to adjust your grip slightly:
Under Pressure: A Small But Crucial Adjustment to Your Get-up | StrongFirst

A sweatband can sometimes provide enough padding to make the Get-up more comfortable.

Thank you very much for your reply and for the great article. I was actually looking into that the other day and it occurred to me that I am trying to grip the 40KG same as I do with smaller sizes. I usually have my wrist bent a bit towards the inside and I've got used to it that way, but I figured that with a 40kg+ I need to have a more neutral wrist ( in a straight line ) that will take some of that pressure that creates when I tilt my wrist towards the inside. Also never considered much paying attention to my starting position on different bell sizes cause it all felt pretty good and normal up to the 40kg and this will be something I will also work on. Small details make the biggest difference.
Anyway thank you so much for your info and your support. Road to Sinister continues !
Live Strong !

 

[Daniel Vintila]

Daniel,
I was (and still a little bit) in the same situation, due to the minor condition at the left wrist.
Wrist guards are ok to use, I do it myself - sweat bands mostly, but don't let this deceive you - it won't fixed your problem, as it didn't fixed mine. Even more, it numbed the pain and allowed training, but I ended up with 3 months forced break. You don't want to get there.
I saw your get-ups. You are strong guy, your technique is very good. At some reps it just seems that the weight feels heavy.
Take bigger breaks - after the swings, and between the get-ups. As big as 5 minutes, treat it like serious strength work. This will allow you to build your strength slower, but pain-free, and, as Mark mentioned, to strengthen connective tissues, tendons properly. Keep swinging heavy, it will build your grip as well.

Thank you for your feedback. Yeah as the weight gets bigger there a few things I have to adjust. Its just that up to achieving timed simple at 36kg everything went smooth, so now I found myself in a different situation where some issues that need a different approach came up.
I will definitely change my approach for now and you gave some great advice. Thank you
Live Strong !

 

[Daniel Vintila]

This isn't really a solution, but I noticed as I worked up to heavier weight it was more comfortable to stack KBs than to use one single bell. This keeps the load closer to your arm - the same weight stacked vs single bell I could reliably do more reps or tolerate more TUT.

You have the added complication of holding multiple bells in one hand and that is not the safest thing in the world to do either. As Brett pointed out, a different bell design might make all the difference, but it isn't easy to shop around and try before you buy.

My hands are quite small ( you know what they say about small hands hahah...small gloves) but I could hardly perform a TGU like that. Anyway I found a lot of info and ways of improving my TGU.
Thank you for your reply.
Live Strong !

 

[Jean-Marie]

Hello there,

I encountered the same problem with the 32kg, I have very thin wrists. After a few weeks of taking it slow I’ve overcome most of my problem and no longer need wrist bands.

Some insights:

-The set up is very important and has to be dialed in without load when you still lay on your side, one may easily overlook that part but it’s very worth it to grab the KB like a warrior when it’s still resting on the deck. Hand placement in the handle and wrist alignment. I found out that placing the handle in a diagonal feels better on my forearm but I don’t like the overall balance when I stand up, it may be worth trying though. It is very helpful to get your wrist in line when you’re not under load. If you adjust when you’re already loaded some precious degrees of alignment will be lost for the rest of the rep.

-One more cue which is used for the press has been also helpful to me. Push the bell with your forearm. Don’t be passive. Your wrist will be more resilient if you imagine this. Don’t be passive, don’t let the kettlebell hurt you but aim at hurting the kettlebell.

-Don’t spend too much time laying on your back with the KB overhead assessing the pain in your forearm with tension only in your arm. Get full body tension and start rolling to the elbow position. Much of the pain disappears as soon as you get your body under tension. It may be tempting to jerk the first steps which can become easy overtime. But focusing on tension, as if the weight was much higher makes the whole body more resilient.

hope that helps a little bit.

JM

 

[barrak]

I mentioned earlier that I was not able to hold a 32K to floor press it due to the painful pressure on my forearm. I stopped trying since late August... until today. I tried it and had no discomfort whatsoever with either hand. I was even able to actively lower it with one hand after an assisted floor press.

The only thing I did between then and now which might explain this improvement is the three weeks so far of doing Q&D snatches three times a week... using a 16K bell!

 

[Foreverlostdan]

This may sound odd but have you tried a Bell with a plained face Like the rouge style KB's have? It spreads the load across the forearm and when you use a wrist guard makes it a lot more tolerable? Not a plug for them but I picked one up in 24kg out of curiosity and there is a big difference in comfort when I perform Get ups with this style of bell as opposed to my other 24kg in the classic or competition style bell bodies.

Search results for: 'rogue competition kettlebells' | Rogue Fitness

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