arm pain

Discussion in 'Injuries' started by bigredlemon, Feb 27, 2004.

  1. bigredlemon

    bigredlemon Regular Member

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    I'm getting sharp pains in my arms whenever I try to do overhead shots like clears and smashes. It's probably rotator cuff tendonitis, or else possibly an impinged nerve at the C5 vertabrae. In both cases the solution is rest from badminton. :(

    Anyone else have experienced something similar? How did you deal with it? How are you now? Thx
     
  2. Traum

    Traum Regular Member

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    Ouch! Sharp pains are never a good thing. Keep yourself off the court for your own sake, man!

    Where exactly is the pain coming from? It seems unlikely to me that you're suffering from rotator cuff tendonitis, since the rotator cuff muscles are sort of located on your upper back, around your shoulder, and at most extending into your posterior deltoid / infraspinatus.

    I strongly recommend you to at least visit a physiotherapist. Better yet, go see a sports injury doctor if circumstances allow. The medicial professions will have a much better idea of what could be wrong. Plus, they'd be able to give you the right treat to dramatically speed up your recovery.

    Take care, man. BF wouldn't be the same if BRL can't share his baddy stories with us anymore. ;)

    -Rick
     
  3. Kevin

    Kevin Regular Member

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    Dunno you have the same as i had, but the "doctor" gave me something to do on my arm, and i take a break for a week althought i needed longer, but i think i did correct, 'cuz I think when you take a break till it's 100% over, you will get it again & again. Now i can smash that hard i want, and I never had pain in my arm again. now it's my stupid feet :p.

    sorry for my english
     
  4. bluejeff

    bluejeff Regular Member

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    BRL, I have seen people wearing the arms-and-shoulders support. Maybe you can get one? That should help a little, but I am not sure if that will stop the pain (since damage is already there.)

    Let me find a picture on the internet..... :)
     
  5. frendies

    frendies Regular Member

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    You need rest ... and see the doc of course ... and then gradual return to activities. =P
     
  6. bigredlemon

    bigredlemon Regular Member

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    It's hard to localize the exact source of pain... i've been an idiot all month collecting all sorts of injuries all over my arm. I don't really think i need to see a doctor though... i'm sure there's nothing wrong if I take a break from playing.


    I've attached a pic... where i feel the pain is in cyan. The sharp pain is deeper below the muscle at first but now i feel some pain higher up as well now.
     

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  7. bigredlemon

    bigredlemon Regular Member

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    in the above, it goes from the shoulder down to the elbow, although the pain area is much broader near the shoulder and very narrow at the elbow. (like a long triangle.)


    in the forearm, i have light continuing pain in the #4 area. The weird thing is.... i only feel slighly more pain if I lift weights. I think it's just a popped veini or something. I can feel a small buldge spot there where the vein is.
     

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  8. bigredlemon

    bigredlemon Regular Member

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    What was it that your doctors asked you to do? Was it some rotor cuff exercises?

    BJ, i'm not sure if shoulder support is for me. It might make things better for now but whatever the underlying problem is would still remain. I'm thinking of doing some light rotor cuff exercises to strengthen that area.

    I'm 99% sure the injury came from lifting weights and not badminton. I just switched from barbell movements dumbell ones, so the smaller muscles are stressed a lot more. I should have given them time to recover first before stressing them again with hours of badminton all those weeks. :eek:

    i'm hoping it's just that and nothing more serious.
     
  9. blahz

    blahz Regular Member

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    wah...how do you pop a vein?! it seems like it can pop so easily...my science teacher's vein on her finger popped all of a sudden one day and I was wondering if mine would pop too -_____-''
     
  10. Traum

    Traum Regular Member

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    Hey BRL. The point of visiting a health professional is not that you *need* him to recover. It's just that he'll help you recover a lot faster. Less time being injured = more time playing baddy, right?

    I don't think doing rotator cuff exercise would help all that much though because the rotator cuff muscles are the ones highlighted in green in my modified diagram. You'd probably get strengthen the posterior deltoid muscles (yellow) as well if you do rotator cuff exercise.

    Having said that, rotator cuff muscles are extremely important to badminton players because the backswing mostly relies on them. Doing external rotations (of your arm) will help strengthen them.

    -Rick

    p.s. The purple area is the trapezious. Don't know why I coloured it though...
     

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    #10 Traum, Feb 28, 2004
    Last edited: Feb 28, 2004
  11. bigredlemon

    bigredlemon Regular Member

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    There's been alot of great advice in this thread esp. from Traum. If I still can play next week i think i might go to the doctor afterall. Haven't been there in 6 years :eek:
     
  12. superv97

    superv97 Regular Member

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    Hey BRL,
    I've had the same problem as you've had. They have not been quite as serious though. It is most likely your rotator cuff. It would be best to rest it a bit and then start doing specific exercises to strengthen it. I could explain the exercises, but it would probably be easier to go see a physiotherapist about it.
     
  13. bigredlemon

    bigredlemon Regular Member

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    Do you lift weights too?

    I think i've found my problem... part of it is not training the rotar cuff despite putting a lot of stress on it, and part of it being over-stretching the shoulder area by lifting from too low a position. A few other BFers seem to lift too so keep this in mind: for chest/shoulder exercises, try to keep the arm parallel or at most slightly lower.
     
  14. superv97

    superv97 Regular Member

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    Yes I do lift weights. I have very bad shoulders from hockey injuries. I have to make sure I keep my arms parallel when I work my shoulders. I also make sure to do rotator cuff exercises before I do my shoulder work out. This has helped out alot as I no longer get pains in my shoulder when I play.
     
  15. bigredlemon

    bigredlemon Regular Member

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    Sounds like a plan, superv97.

    WEll it's been a week since I've played badminton.... think it's time enough to head back? :(
     
  16. superv97

    superv97 Regular Member

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    I would imagine you'd be alright now, depending on how severe the injury was. I would just take it easy for the first little while. One thing you could try as well, is to use a really light racquet for a little while. I found it put less stress on my shoulder.
    Good luck and I hope your shoulder is better.
     
  17. bigredlemon

    bigredlemon Regular Member

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    I think taking it is definetly a good idea... too bad I didn't follow it. :eek: Things were going great until I decided to see how "back" i was... and ended up feeling pain again during a hard smash... and it was worse than before. :(
     

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