Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/776700
P126 CN III EMPIRE OF DIRT BY STEVE COX I n California, we can be "pumped" by all kinds of stuff. Personally, I'm pumped about the new Brewhouse Bacon Burger at Jack in the Box. But in motocross, being "pumped" is often not such a good thing. Like arm-pump. Arm-pump is a real thing, and there is a wide variety of potential causes. That's what we're going to get into here. At Anaheim I, Monster Energy Kawasaki's Eli Tomac said in the press conference that he got arm-pump in the main event. He seemed surprised by it. A week later in San Diego, he had a similar performance, but didn't directly implicate arm-pump as a cause post-race. Considering the similarities, it likely was arm-pump there, too. So, what could be causing Tomac to get arm-pump? There are many things that can cause arm-pump, or even combine to cause it. And I have a lot of expe- rience on the subject. For myself, I'm "double-jointed" which means my fingers can be bent back to the point of touch- ing the backs of my hands. This is caused, at least for me, by a condition of ligament elasticity. Essentially, if you can imagine the ligaments going from your forearm muscles to your finger- tips, they should be like steel cables. Mine are more like bungee cords. Because of that, I have to put more physical effort into hanging on in order to get the same grip strength as some- one without my condition. That's a primary reason why I've always gotten arm-pump, unless I take precautions. That's not why Tomac is getting it, though. Besides my particular weird- ness, here are the other potential causes: COMPARTMENT SYNDROME This is a medical condition. Your forearm (and other) muscles are covered by an inelastic tissue called "fascia." When we're cut- ting a steak, and we run into that white stuff that refuses to cut, which we call "gristle," that's fas- cia. Compartment syndrome hap- pens when the muscle beneath the fascia grows larger than the fascia can accommodate, and when it runs out of room, it cuts off blood flow out of the area, so your forearms grow large, stiff, and your hands eventually lose strength and go numb. When you hear about racers getting "arm-pump surgery," that's actually a doctor going into the fascia itself and cutting PUMPED PHOTOGRAPHY BY STEVE COX We know arm-pump was factor for Eli Tomac's second-to-fifth- place finish at Anaheim I, and maybe even for his sub-par finish last week in San Diego. Almost all motocrossers have, at one time, suffered with the dreaded arm-pump.