How do you apply the brakes?

I was actually talking about this the other day with a bloke called Nicho from bike addiction.

I was complaining how much arm pump I got in the 6 runs I did at thredbo the other week. He said that half of it is just hardening up a little but that there was definitely a large gain to be made by ensuring that the levers were positioned correctly so as to not over extend the hand when braking. Come to think of it, it seems really obvious but I guess it was one of those things that I just didn't really adjust at when I bought the bike. I think some tinkering might be in order.

According to this book I have as well, for XC purposes the levers should point further downwards and the closer you get to DH, the further they should point to the horizontal.

at thredy the raw nrg dude was telling me to set up levers so pretty much only your index and possibly only your middle as well can reach the edge of the lever so as to gain maximum leverage and a furthest away fulcrum point (so moving the brake levers towards the headset) and it works a treat, definantly a 1 finger brake setup like that, and arm pump at thredbo? i hear ya buddy! i was in agony, admittedly i had the levers set up the old way as i didnt change them till after i got back lol..
also, have heard and since aggree, that heaps of push ups help with arm pump...at the end of the day though, a 10min odd run will make your arms sore, unless you do it, or such arm exercise, all the time! there was a racer dude who actually had the tendons cut inside the forearms so as to never get arm pump again, but maybe that is a bit of overkill?

Who told you that?

Sorry, just sounds like a bunch of twaddle.

Guess he plans on never being single again

There are various injuries that surgery may 'release' the pressure around the area i.e. the sheath or partial lacerations, usually once all non-surgical treatments have exhausted. As far as completely severing the tendon altogether, unless he/she is wanting a career as a lame sock puppeteer, I doubt he/she would be able to brake at all...
Come to think of it, wouldn't that make you a better DHiller?

I remember reading an article in a mx magazine a while back about arm pump, they explained it to be a muscular problem not tendons, their explanation said it was to do with the muscle pumping up with blood & the outer layer of the muscle not being able to expand causing the pain. They did mention in some rare cases that people had the muscle removed. Another interesting point they made was people that do a lot of weight training suffered more from arm pump.

Apparently its only a small muscle in the forearm & even they thought that removal of it was fairly extreme.
There were some exercises that were supposed to help but I cant remember what they were, maybe those hand crunch things?(its probably ten years since I read it).
I think the issue with weight training was to do with the more traditional body building types, they said something about all the extra muscle putting extra pressure on the problem areas.

I googled compartmental syndrome and it (at a quick glance) appears to be almost the opposite of what appears to be the main point of discussion.

A muscular "pump" is the increased blood flow to a muscle generally during exercise causing it to partially swell and to a small degree impede its function.

Have a look at the link below and it points to CS being due to a LACK of blood into the vessels, possibly causing collapse, that is due to swelling within the muscle.

http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/topic.cfm?topic=A00204...

Not being a myologist, the symptoms could be recognised as sounding similar but in actual fact being quite different.

I've been getting "leg pump" when I'm charging around Narrabeen lakes and slamming on the back pedal brakes, leaving skiddies everywhere. I can leave skiddies at will and my buddies now call me "The skid-miester" or "Skid -dynamite".

Man it's cool fun - dude.