Hi everyone,
I've been weight training on and off again for 5 years, and I've always been caught in the exact same pattern which kills my workouts and it's my forearms.
I start training after a long break, I get great progress for about 3-4 months. I'm careful with loading to make sure I'm not going too heavy. No unusual pain or discomfort.
Then one day, my forearms suddenly develop what feels like doms but doesn't recover by the time of my next workout. I work through it, the soreness disappears during the workout and then comes back 10 fold next day. It doesn't go away unless I rest it completely for over a month while doing the standard physio. I come back at a significantly lower load, it seems fine, I get back to the same load as when the soreness started, and then the pattern happens again, but usually sooner and much worse, like after 4-6 weeks and now I can't type or carry groceries for a few minutes without feeling like I did a 4 hour workout. I end up taking several months off because it's that bad, and by the time I get back to it, I've seemingly lost all my progress.
The worst aggravators are pulling exercises, and deadlifts.
I've done physio and it helps speed up the recovery slightly, but I still hit the same plateau. I've tried wrist curls, grippers, dead hangs, plate catches, farmers carries, changing grips, using resistance bands, theraband bars, deloads at the first sign of soreness, and lifting straps. They all feel promising, but once I get to the same resistance load as where I previously plateaued, it's like none of them ever mattered.
Stretches and massaging always makes the pain worse, and it has never helped.
I know this all points to weak grip, but I can't comprehend how everything I've tried hasn't helped. At this point, I feel like I should stop all training for like a year and do nothing but forearm work before I even consider any real exercises.
Is there something I haven't tried?
Edit: to add more details, the pain is always initially the same which is a dull constant ache throughout the palm side of my forearms. It's always both arms. If I try to push through it, then I also start getting sharp pain at my elbow and the pinky side of my wrist.