Steve Cox | January 30, 2017
In 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 are a wide variety of potential causes. That’s what we’re going to get into here.
At Anaheim 1, 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.
PHOTO BY STEVE COX
So, what could be causing Tomac to get arm-pump? There are a multitude of things that can cause arm-pump, or even combine to cause it. And I have a lot of experience on the subject.
For myself, I’m “double-jointed” which means my fingers can be bent back to the point of touching 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 fingertips, 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 someone 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 weirdness, 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 cutting a steak, and we run into that white stuff that refuses to cut, which we call “gristle,” that’s fascia. Compartment syndrome happens 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 it open, usually in a few places, to provide more elasticity and thus provide more room for the muscle underneath. It’s possible that Tomac has developed compartment syndrome, but my bet is that this isn’t the case because it likely would’ve happened before the Anaheim 1 main event.
The Motorcycle
We reported last year on setup problems that Tomac was running into with his factory Kawasaki. He has had a year to learn, and at Anaheim 1’s press conference, he said that his bike is really good now. Of course, he said that last year, because most racers will not badmouth their motorcycle, since the manufacturer pays them a lot of money to endorse the product. It’s important for fans and motorcycle buyers to understand that Tomac’s bike suffering setup woes last year does not, in any way, mean that you or I would not like a new Kawasaki KX450F. Manufacturers still frown on it talking bad about bike setup, but in truth, the stock versions of all of the motorcycles on the track at any AMA Pro MX/SX event are good enough that 99% of us would be perfectly fine. And that’s not even bringing up the fact that Tomac is running parts that we would never run anyway.
That being said, it’s possible that Tomac is having some sort of issues with his setup still. Most of the time, top racers concentrate on getting a setup based on “comfort” before they start worrying about going fast. That’s because a comfortable racer is a fast racer. When a racer is “out of his comfort zone,” or is constantly correcting for unpredictable things his motorcycle is doing, he will hang on tighter, and sometimes even forget to breathe. Those things will cause arm-pump.
Arm-pump can be caused similarly by an engine that hits too hard, or has too much power, too. That’s pretty unlikely in this case, as most of these guys like their bikes to have a lot of power, and if it were too powerful for Eli, they’d have addressed that prior to Anaheim 1.
Supplements/Food
A few years ago, Davi Millsaps was suffering from arm-pump—it out of nowhere. It turned out he was taking a supplement that had changed its formula to include a substance called “creatine.” Creatine is a muscle-building supplement that helps muscles appear bigger by causing them to retain fluid. If you’re following me so far, you know why that stuff will give you arm-pump. And there are likely other foods and supplements that do similar.
As an aside, knowing about blood flow being an issue, I tested a medication for arm-pump a few years ago, and in my own case, it worked. This is not a scientific study, by any means—it’s entirely anecdotal—but the medication I tried was Viagra. Viagra is a vasodilator, meaning it opens up your blood vessels. That’s good for arm-pump, in theory, and it did improve mine. However, I knew I took it, so the placebo effect could’ve been at play as well.
Nerves/Pressure
The last cause is nerves. I found when I made a conscious effort to relax at a race, I would go much farther without arm-pump (and sometimes avoid it altogether). As a teenage racer, I won a lot of races after I gave up on trying to win races out of frustration. I’d get arm-pump every week, fight it out for fourth or something, and then after months of that, I’d show up at a race and just say, “Screw it. I’m going to go have fun.” I’d win those races almost every time. Sometimes trying to push that extra couple feet into a turn before you brake, and get on the gas earlier, and overall push just a little harder than you’d normally push, will lead to you riding “tight” and getting arm-pump. This is a possibility for Tomac, too. It’s hard to say how likely it is, but it’s possible that he is trying harder or feeling more pressure than usual.
Any of these can be the problem. Actually, they could literally all be the cause of the problem for Tomac, as none of them exclude any others. Hopefully, Tomac can get past whatever the cause is soon, because this championship will be out of reach within just a month or so at this rate. CN