Hey guys, wondering if any of you have experienced this? Over the past month, every time I use an e-z curl bar for regular grip curls it hurts like hell on the ulnar side upon putting the weight down. I experimented today a bit, it hurts on regular grip and hammer grip with the dumbbells too, but reverse grip using the e-z curl bar or the dumbbells doesnt hurt at all. I’m unsure what could be causing this. Any thoughts?
[quote]pstruhar7786 wrote:
Hey guys, wondering if any of you have experienced this? Over the past month, every time I use an e-z curl bar for regular grip curls it hurts like hell on the ulnar side upon putting the weight down. I experimented today a bit, it hurts on regular grip and hammer grip with the dumbbells too, but reverse grip using the e-z curl bar or the dumbbells doesnt hurt at all. I’m unsure what could be causing this. Any thoughts?[/quote]
Bones bend.
Welcome to weight training.
Everyone and their mother has trouble with straight-bar curls, ditch them and go for DB’s, machines, whatever. EZ bars occasionally still give people trouble for some reason (in that case make sure it’s an actual EZ bar, not one of those cheap curl-bar things…).
Seems to depend on your bone structure…
Wrist wraps may help, too (check APT).
[quote]Cephalic_Carnage wrote:
Everyone and their mother has trouble with straight-bar curls.
[/quote]
Not me or my mother, seriously. 
Does it hurt near the Medial Epicondyle? If you bend your arm(like a curl), and push on the medial, do you feel pain? If so, might be Golfer’s elbow, which is what I’m dealing with now.
Or does it just hurt when putting down the weight, like you said? If that’s the case…you got me. Could be an ulnar problem.
[quote]austin_bicep wrote:
Cephalic_Carnage wrote:
Everyone and their mother has trouble with straight-bar curls.
Not me or my mother, seriously. ;)[/quote]
I’ve seen your mom spot you, but she weight trains, too?
I can’t get my mom to take a damn walk…
[quote]austin_bicep wrote:
Cephalic_Carnage wrote:
Everyone and their mother has trouble with straight-bar curls.
Not me or my mother, seriously. ;)[/quote]
Wait until you’re using 185+ for 8
Seriously though, some guys are built for straight bar curling… Others aren’t and get wrist issues…
make sure you do a lot of stretching before every workout and next time you might not have this problem.
it happened to me with tricep exercises for a while and went away after some good stretching.
[quote]LankyMofo wrote:
austin_bicep wrote:
Cephalic_Carnage wrote:
Everyone and their mother has trouble with straight-bar curls.
Not me or my mother, seriously.
I’ve seen your mom spot you, but she weight trains, too?
I can’t get my mom to take a damn walk…[/quote]
More or less like that Denise Austin light weight stay healthy shit. Not doing too bad for a 48 year old.
[quote]austin_bicep wrote:
Cephalic_Carnage wrote:
Everyone and their mother has trouble with straight-bar curls.
Not me or my mother, seriously.
Wait until you’re using 185+ for 8
Seriously though, some guys are built for straight bar curling… Others aren’t and get wrist issues…[/quote]
Only 40 more pounds brother, hopefully not too far off.
To the OP, I used to get a similar pain when I was curling every other day. Once I smartened up and got on an appropriate split with the appropriate rest I needed, no more pain and a lot more gain. I also second C_C about switching to some DB’s for awhile.
[quote]pstruhar7786 wrote:
Hey guys, wondering if any of you have experienced this? Over the past month, every time I use an e-z curl bar for regular grip curls it hurts like hell on the ulnar side upon putting the weight down. I experimented today a bit, it hurts on regular grip and hammer grip with the dumbbells too, but reverse grip using the e-z curl bar or the dumbbells doesnt hurt at all. I’m unsure what could be causing this. Any thoughts?[/quote]
I get the same pain on those bars with regular grip. I have to use close grip instead and that actually feels just fine.
[quote]Cephalic_Carnage wrote:
austin_bicep wrote:
Cephalic_Carnage wrote:
Seriously though, some guys are built for straight bar curling… Others aren’t and get wrist issues…
[/quote]
I solved my straight bar pain issues by curling in the squat rack. Something magical happens when you curl in there.
Sorry, I might have used the wrong words. I never use a striaght bar only the E-Z curl bar or the dumbbells. Both of which hurt if I use a regular (supinated) grip or a hammer (neutral) grip. However, neither the E-Z curl bar nor the dumbbells give me any trouble using the reverse (pronated) grip. The pain is actually more distal, towards the wrist, not the elbow.
Professor X, I’m not sure I understand what you meant by bones bend, beyond the obvious anyway. Could you clarify how it relates to wrist/ulnar pain?
hell my wrists hurt when using db for curls so lol
[quote]pstruhar7786 wrote:
Sorry, I might have used the wrong words. I never use a striaght bar only the E-Z curl bar or the dumbbells. Both of which hurt if I use a regular (supinated) grip or a hammer (neutral) grip. However, neither the E-Z curl bar nor the dumbbells give me any trouble using the reverse (pronated) grip. The pain is actually more distal, towards the wrist, not the elbow.
Professor X, I’m not sure I understand what you meant by bones bend, beyond the obvious anyway. Could you clarify how it relates to wrist/ulnar pain?
[/quote]
I wrote that because I have personally answered this question about 500 times on this board yet one of you asks it again every other month.
Your bones are elastic to some degree and heavy loads can cause a slight imperceptible bend that you will only register as pain when you release the weight and the bone goes back to its normal shape.
I would bet this is the cause of at least 80% of the people claiming they feel pain after placing the weight down when doing curls.
Over time, your body should adapt.
If that is not the cause of your pain then it looks as if we have a House MD mystery on our hands.
I’ll go grab popcorn.
I’ve had this. 3 things you must do:
- Wrist wraps
- Go easy on the weights… go steadily up… your ligaments need more time than your muscles to grow stronger
- Switch from EZ Bar to other somewhat equivalent exercises (DB’s have better freedom of motion) to give time for your arms to heal, then try to go back and if it hurts immediately stop… it’s not worth it.
Do mechanical drop set or other forms of arm exercises that does not require heavy weights (more reps, pre/post exhaust, giant sets, less rest, etc…)
[quote]Ramzy18 wrote:
I’ve had this. 3 things you must do:
- Wrist wraps
- Go easy on the weights… go steadily up… your ligaments need more time than your muscles to grow stronger
- Switch from EZ Bar to other somewhat equivalent exercises (DB’s have better freedom of motion) to give time for your arms to heal, then try to go back and if it hurts immediately stop… it’s not worth it.[/quote]
Don’t listen to this guy. Keep doing the straight bar curls, you’ll get used to it.
I had the same exact problem.
Hurts on the ulnar side but not only with weights, almost all the time. Even picking up something as light as a pillow hurts if I did it wrong. The pain only occurred with a supinated and a partially neutral grip.
I trained all bicep and back work with a pronated grip and started using wraps on heavy bench and my wrist is getting much better. I believe it was/is due to some heavy inflammation and hand tendons and dorsal wrist ligament injury too maybe.
Train the brachialis more than biceps for awhile and listen to your body.
I still managed to put on over 1/2 inch to my bi’s/brachialis with no direct bicep work.
I had this problem last year some time… Now… Not so much. Its only when i go heavy it hurts… I agree with Prof. You’l get used to it
[quote]Cephalic_Carnage wrote:
Welcome to weight training.
Everyone and their mother has trouble with straight-bar curls, ditch them and go for DB’s, machines, whatever. EZ bars occasionally still give people trouble for some reason (in that case make sure it’s an actual EZ bar, not one of those cheap curl-bar things…).
Seems to depend on your bone structure…
Wrist wraps may help, too (check APT).
[/quote]
Machine whore…