What is arm pump?

 

Its when your riding in bumpy terrain for long periods of time and your arms are going with the movement of the quad and the constant movement causes pressure on the muscles and tendons. This is pumping.

Chet

 

you arm muscles will tighten up and you start to lose your grip on the bars and it gets harder to control what you are doing when it gets bad, almost like ur arms are getting numb! From what I have heard there are pockets in ur fore arm that fill with fluid and tighten up, and that is what causes it.

 

arm pump is when your body is telling you to let go of the handle bars but your brain won't let you. when i harescramble, i usally get it early in the race and then it slowly goes away, or i get used to it. (2 hour race ) what i do is try to shake or stretch my arms in a slow section to get rid of it. plus, your not really riding til you get arm pump. that's the way i feel...

 

Arm pump is a very natural reaction that occurrs when the muscles in your forearms get overworked and fatigue. Blood get rushed to the muscles to carry away the lactic acid build up, that occurrs as a waste product from muscle excertion.The blood pooling causes the pump,the burn you feel is the lactic acid build up. One way you can combat this is by relaxing your grip on the bars and by doing forearm and grip strengthing exercises such as wrist curls with barbell or dumbell, use high reps and medium weight. Remember these exercises will not stop the pump but can prolong its onset. Hope this helps you out.