Dealing with Tired Arms & Hands: The Cause and Countermeasure

One of the common physical issues that many riders struggle with is aching legs and knees, mainly due to a poor setup with the lower body which puts an unnecessary stress on the legs.

This poor lower body setup can also have a knock on effect to other areas of the body, namely the arms and hands.

Getting what feels like completely spent muscles in the arms is not a very nice place to be, chiefly because your ability to use the bike’s controls is massively hampered. Stuff like squeezing on the brake lever become very difficult, or even throttle roll on can feel restricted.

But while a poor lower body setup will be one of the main culprits, it isn’t the only one.

Why Do Your Arms Get Tired?

The continued use of your forearms and hands to operate the bike’s controls is naturally going to mean you begin to really work your muscles.

In heavy braking zones in particular you expel a lot of energy to pull on the brake lever and support your body. Then only a few seconds later you are getting back to the gas and engaging the muscles again to modulate it.

However, riders make the situation ten times worse by riding too stiff on the bike both in and out of the bends.

This stiffness can come from a few places.

Poor Lower Body Setup

First, as I alluded to earlier a poor lower body setup that doesn’t act as a good foundation for the whole body means your grip tightens up on the bars. Particularly the inside bar as you use it for support during your hang-off efforts.

This is putting your arms under unnecessary strain, causing them to expel more energy and fatigue quicker.

Riding Tense

This one may be difficult for you to wrap your head around because if you are doing it, you probably don’t even know you are.

Some riders simply ride stiffer than others. This can be because they’re feeling nervous or uneasy, or another common reason is because they’re trying to ‘ride hard’ which causes them to tighten up as they enter their aggressive state.

Holding Your Breath

This can be very common among less experience riders, but holding your breath for long periods of time is not going to help your muscles one iota.

The muscles need oxygen. Even more so during physical exertion. Remember, breath and relax.

Bike Setup

Lever position is an important thing to have correctly set. Excess wrist bend is going to make it more difficult to operate the controls.

You can also change your clip on position to make yourself more comfortable and make it easier for your whole body to do its job of being stable and locked on with the bike.

Good suspension is also going to mean that your bike makes you work less in general. If it can better deal with bumps then those forces aren’t going to be transmitted into the chassis and then on to you, meaning your body’s own suspension systems won’t be working as hard.

Even well set up stock suspension will be an improvement.

Lack of Fitness

If improving any of the above doesn’t alleviate the fatigue you’re getting, it could just be that you are not ‘bike fit’ enough.

If your only exercise is a few track days a year (at pace) then don’t be surprised if parts of your body are struggling come the end of the day, or even the end of a session.

It’s Probably Not Arm Pump

Arm pump is a term you hear thrown around a lot in the racing world, and you may be forgiven for thinking that every man and his dog in top level racing paddocks have suffered with it at one time.

The trouble is because little is actually discussed on what arm pump is, and the fact that all you hear is that it makes it difficult for riders to use the controls, track day riders also begin throwing the term around when they feel their arms getting tired.

When top level racers talk about arm pump, what they are actually referring to is chronic exertional compartment syndrome.

The muscles in your forearms are contained within a membrane called fascia, which is kind of like a sausage casing.

Fascia is very strong and not very stretchy. When you begin to work your muscles their requirement for energy goes up which prompts an increase in blood flow.

This increased blood flow can increase muscle volume by as much as 20%, but being encased in a strong non-stretchy membrane means that things start to get tight and compact within your forearm.

This restricts the blood flow and in turn your body’s ability to get energy to the muscles. Not only do you have a lack of energy, but the swelling restricts the guiders in your forearm that operates your wrist and hands.

In motorcycle racing, it is the continued gripping and operation of the controls that start the onset of arm pump.

However, full on arm pump feels a lot worse than the muscles just being a little fatigued.

Some victims of serious arm pump will tell you that it can get very painful and sore around the forearms and hands, and that it doesn’t go away as soon as they hop off the bike.

It can sometimes continue like this hours/days after.

I would imagine it is the vastly higher forces that top level racers have to deal with as to why it is more commonplace there.

Try to Notice It

If arm and hand fatigue is something you feel toward the end of a session, to the point where your ability to use the controls in impaired, it would be a good idea to spend some time trying to figure out why.

Spend a session riding at your normal pace, but rather than focusing on your riding and pushing past your previous limits, focus on your own body and how you feel.

Notice if/when your arms are being called into action.

Is it as a result of simply using the controls as you should? Or do you notice that they’re tense when they don’t need to be.

Ideally, the muscles in the arms should be fairly relaxed at almost all times, apart from when hard on the brakes where they’re needed to really squeeze that lever and support the upper body. They will also be called into action during more difficult changes of direction too e.g. at high speed.

Be conscious of where your arms are tense and you should be able to figure out why.

It could really be as simple as just telling yourself to relax, but until you’re aware of it you’re not going to be able to do that.

While you can’t expect your muscles to be completely free from physical exertion and fatigue, if you feel that the fatigue is excessive then it likely is, and at the very least it can be reduced.

Photo by Jerko