Home-made Forearm Machine

[spotly]

I came up with this idea quite a ways back but never got motivated enough to do it but today I finally got off the recliner and finished it up. It's mostly pine but the bar is oak and required quite a bit of sanding to get it through the bearings, which are mounted in pillow blocks that I found on-line for something like $5 each. Right now I have the weights attached with para-cord but thinking I might need something sturdier pretty soon. All total it was about $60 and 3 or 4 hour hours work. I used it today and got blisters so need to figure something out for the handles. I like that it works both sets of muscles plus the bar is long enough that I can turn it from the end like a screw driver.

 

Just thought I'd share. Yikes - sorry for the huge image!

 

Edited December 5, 2011 by spotly

[genepires]

Nice job.

 

Maybe if you enlarge the gripping surface to a larger diameter, the blister issue will go away. Maybe lots of duct tape where you grip the wood.

 

(uh...that just sounds kinda wrong to perverts)

[Kimmo]

that's cool. bigwallben who posts here and cranks hard used to do his roller bar exercises religiously after a day at the crag. i think mainly for tendinitis issues.

[layton]

simple forarm therapy modeled after some pretty expensive therapy (grason, iastm)

 

(sorry about my spelling, I'm typing quick)

1. warm the area (literally)

 

2.get a dull rounded surface that's still kinda "sharp" like the handle of a spoon. the broader, the bigger deeper muscles, the narrower, the more superficial/delicate structures (tendons)

 

3.at a 45 degree angle to the site, apply short forceful "scraping" motions in all direction. DO NOT LIFT UP

 

4. treat each area ~l minute. it could bruise or turn red with speckles (petechia)

 

5.stretch 2-3 times for 30 seconds

 

6.do mild exercises on the area

 

this self "massage" does quite a lot, google the benefits of graston technque for more info

(reduction of scar tissue, regeneration of injured tissues, proliferation of fibroblasts, remodelling of tissue in the correct direction of load, reduction of muscle spasm, blah blah blah)

[genepires]

unless I am missing something, put the hash pipe down Mike.

[layton]

a hash pipe would not have a sufficiently sharp enough radius

 

fwi, you can get some pretty cheap instruments online.

google gua sha (some pretty graphic pics too)

don't try and mimic gua sha therapy, it is way more invasive and has a different non-western goal in mind. Buuuuuuuuttt, basicaly close enough to the same thing. the redness can be similar to this therapy (instument assisted cross-frictional massage), but i wouldn't make it your goal.

 

girls, don't plan on wearing a cocktail dress any time soon if you're doing this on your shoulders.

 

anyway, one of those little "sharkie" tools, a dab of lotion and you've got something more effective and a shitload lot smaller and cheaper than that forarm massager pictured above

[genepires]

alright maybe I am severely mistaken, but I thought that the device in the photo was a small diameter wrist roller?

Mikey, are you thinking this is a self massage tool?

 

While we are at it,, what do the professionals think about the armaid and other things like that? (saw a review of these in climbing magazine a couple months back)

[layton]

hahahaaha I am retarded. I did indeed think that.

[spotly]

I love the direction this thread went. It's like 6 degrees of seperation only ... you know, 180 instead.

[bstach]

Pretty fancy-pants spotly. In Canada, we just use an old hockey stick - cut off the blade and attach a weight with a string. I use a crappy old plastic filled with concrete "Wieder" weight (not sure how else to describe it).

[spotly]

I tried the bar with string thing but found my other muscles wore out before I got a good burn in the forearms. I wrapped the bar with friction tape yesterday and it's a little thicker and easier on the hands now.

[bstach]

I'm having a hard time imagining what other muscles would wear out. I do this in a seated position with my thighs providing support for my arms. Though it could be because my forarms are too weak compared to my other muscles. A 5.12 climber i am not. But I do have a wicked wrist shot.