I hate arm pump! What is your advice for exercises to better deal with it? What do you do to fight it? Yea, yea, I know... brake less 
exercises for fighting arm pump
- Thread starter wood-dog
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yeh that helps or you could just ride more.
Try wacking off with the opposite hand on alternating days.
Squeeze a tennis ball until you can't make a first anymore with each hand.
The search button will help also as this topic has been covered many a time.
The search button will help also as this topic has been covered many a time.
Also, try sitting on your hand for about 15 minutes before you start your whack session, it's called The StrangerJm_ said:
Seriously - just move the levers in as close as possible. Also, while your watching TV or something, slowly curl a barbell from the tip of your fingers to the palm of you and create a fist, then relax it slowly.
I'm a motocross guy so arm pump is a big problem in my sport for a lot of people. I used to get horrible arm pump when practicing and racing. It is much worse in MX because the bike weighs 10X as much, the braking bumps are sometimes 3-4ft deep and square edged, whoops sections, and worst of all clutching. 
What I do is honestly just train harder, after 20 laps if I feel like I'm about to fall off the bike cause I can't hold on any longer I go five more. You just keep building. It doesn't really effect me any more. As far as other options I use the hand squeezer strengtheners because you can develop muscle pattern memory so when you get out on the track it's nothing different for your forearms. There is also a new company offering one of the hand strengtheners with a brake lever attached. Forgot the name though if I find it I'll get it to you. Armp pump has never effected my DH but that is probably because of MX. Just train hard and gradually build strength against it. Good Luck
What I do is honestly just train harder, after 20 laps if I feel like I'm about to fall off the bike cause I can't hold on any longer I go five more. You just keep building. It doesn't really effect me any more. As far as other options I use the hand squeezer strengtheners because you can develop muscle pattern memory so when you get out on the track it's nothing different for your forearms. There is also a new company offering one of the hand strengtheners with a brake lever attached. Forgot the name though if I find it I'll get it to you. Armp pump has never effected my DH but that is probably because of MX. Just train hard and gradually build strength against it. Good Luck
Buy this forearm pumper device at Walmart.It has cables in it & adjustable tention.Looks like a letter "v".
Not the cheap spring ones.They wear out & are too small..
Levers closer to bar helps alot and also the "angle" of the levers helps tremendously ,angle them up because the bike is pointing downhill & you are off the back of the bike.dhbuilder told me this & it helped alot,even though he's like Simon off American Idol sometimes.
Not the cheap spring ones.They wear out & are too small..
Levers closer to bar helps alot and also the "angle" of the levers helps tremendously ,angle them up because the bike is pointing downhill & you are off the back of the bike.dhbuilder told me this & it helped alot,even though he's like Simon off American Idol sometimes.
i think the most helpful thing i ever did for myself (as far as bike setup goes) was move my brake levers in on the handlebars so that when you squeze the lever with you index finger you are pulling on the very end of the lever for maximum leverage. also, the better you get the less you need to brake which is also very nice.
keep your brake rotors clean. i use my girlfriend's nail polish and paper towel. but i suspect any good solvent will work - like brake cleaner! i do this once a week or so. you'd be suprised at how much more powerful your brakes will be, just by keeping the rotors clean.
more powerful brakes=less strain on forearms=less armpump
keep your brake rotors clean. i use my girlfriend's nail polish and paper towel. but i suspect any good solvent will work - like brake cleaner! i do this once a week or so. you'd be suprised at how much more powerful your brakes will be, just by keeping the rotors clean.
more powerful brakes=less strain on forearms=less armpump
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luelling
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You could do wrist rolls with weight. FYI my personal trainer advised me against doing wrist rolls becuase I ride, work on a computer and lift weights. He didn't want me to develope arthritis from over stress.
Ride Alot of XC on an XC bike in very rocky terrain.
Thats what I did this Winter and this is the first season in 10 years that I didn't get armpump the first month of the DH season.
I guess it gets your arms and wrists primed & ready to rock n' roll.
Thats what I did this Winter and this is the first season in 10 years that I didn't get armpump the first month of the DH season.
I guess it gets your arms and wrists primed & ready to rock n' roll.
hmm..I always found the solution to be a properly tuned fork and rear shock. Whenever I got arm pump I would re-think then adjust my suspension settings and the situation would fix itself...D
Just so you know, some people are more physically prone to it, and no amount of working out will help.
Ride more
take into account every suggesion posted in this thread and become the no-arm-pump-having-DH machine you have always dreamed of!
Read above. Sometimes, physiology has you owned.VegiBikerDude said:Ride more
edit: lifting too much weight can also cause problems, as you gain too much grip strength. You lose range of motion, blood pools and you lose oxygen to those muscles, also causing pump. ROM is key to reducing arm pump and is one reason those gyro balls are probably the most useful way of reducing it.
Everytime I buy a new motorcycle the same thing happens to me when ever I have to clutch and brake. But on a motorcycle I get used to it pretty quick because I am always braking and clutching. However, when it comes to Dh riding, I am not always riding so I do not get the chance to do it enough to allow my body to adapt to it. I have moved the brake levers in and that helped out quite a bit and others have suggested some simple exercises that will hopefully do the job. So we will see what is up this time next month
Powerballs. Have worked wonders for me and my mates. Once you get the hang of them you can really feel them working when on the bike.
bcd said:
riding trials also helps w/ all around handling skills. you will learn much better balance and it gives you a much better spacial awareness of what parts of your bike are where (where your wheels are, how many degrees you have your wheel turned, if your wheel is directly on something or on the side, the exact position of your cranks, list goes on)