JANMI Journal: When Forearms Become Too Famous

Dear reader,

A client walked into my Marylebone clinic with the kind of forearms that make Instagram algorithms smile. He is an osteopath. A good one. Slightly overweight, busy, caring. But he almost ruined his hands-on career because he got addicted to weight lifting after watching social media videos about building strong forearms.

For three months he trained like this:

Monday biceps and wrist flexors

Tuesday triceps and wrist extensors

Wednesday repeat first round

Thursday repeat second round

Friday repeat first round

Saturday repeat second round

Arms got bigger. Veins got louder. Then the body did what bodies do when they are ignored: it started sending invoices.

The symptom that broke the spell

He developed sharp right wrist pain, plus nasty discomfort when:

Extending fingers

Pressing into the palm

Doing hands-on manipulations at work

He became low and depressed, because if your identity is “I help people with my hands” and your wrist suddenly says “no”, it hits hard.

The anatomy behind the drama

Your wrist and fingers are controlled by a dense forest of tendons running from the forearm into the hand.

When you hammer curls, gripping, wrist flexion and extension, and repetitive arm days, you repeatedly overload:

Wrist flexor group (inner forearm)

Flexor carpi radialis and flexor carpi ulnaris

Palmaris longus (if you have it)

Finger flexors like flexor digitorum superficialis and profundus

These anchor around the medial epicondyle and run into the hand like strong cables.

Wrist extensor group (outer forearm)

Extensor carpi radialis longus and brevis

Extensor digitorum

Extensor carpi ulnaris

These anchor around the lateral epicondyle and cross the wrist like tight strings.

Now imagine this cycle every day: load, pump, recover not enough, load again, tighten, irritate tendon, tighten more. Muscle gets bigger. Tendon gets angrier. The wrist joint starts feeling stuck between two teams playing tug-of-war.

Why palm pressure became horrible

When you press into the palm during manual work, you are asking the wrist to stabilise while the hand transmits force. If forearm tissues are over-toned and irritated, finger extension and wrist positioning become provocative. This is why he could not treat patients comfortably.

My first recommendation (the unpopular one)

I told him to stop lifting immediately. And yes, I recommended cancelling his gym membership for now. Not because lifting is evil, but because he was in a loop, and loops do not negotiate.

What we did in JANMI terms

We did two sessions focused on calming the tissues and restoring normal glide and confidence. The goal was not to beat the forearm into submission. It was to reduce protective tone, settle irritated areas, and let the wrist stop bracing.

Then I gave him a light outdoor routine, because nature is brilliant at humbling the ego without humiliating the person.

Park routine (simple and repeatable)

Gentle wrist flexor and extensor stretches, short holds, many reps

Easy push-up variations without death-grip

Light pulling patterns only if pain-free

Finger extension work, rubber band opens, tendon glides, gentle dexterity drills

Walking for weight loss and nervous system downshift

No heroic numbers. No forearm obsession. Just restoring the normal human baseline: move, breathe, load lightly, recover properly.

The result

Two months later he was back to work comfortably. Confidence returned. Mood lifted. He stopped chasing the forearm fantasy. He kept functional outdoor training, lost weight, and did not look back to obsessive weight lifting.

If this sounds familiar

If you have wrist pain with gripping, finger extension, or palm pressure, ask yourself:

How many days per week do you train forearms or heavy grip?

Do you allow full recovery?

Is your strength plan actually a stress plan?

Are you building arms while losing hands?

JANMI Full Chain Reset in Marylebone is built for these puzzles: not just rubbing the sore spot, but tracing the whole pattern that created it.

Disclaimer

This is educational information, not medical advice. Wrist and hand pain can have multiple causes. If symptoms are severe, worsening, or include numbness, tingling, significant weakness, swelling, redness, or night pain, please seek appropriate medical assessment.

Until next time,

Paulius