For months, I have been going to Muni every weekend and have developed distal bicep tendonitis. I might keep pulling the handle too hard, especially when riding on rugged terrain and steep hills. When I noticed this issue becoming more serious, I took a two-week break and did some rehabilitation exercises I found on YouTube. Additionally, I now consciously try to hold the handle more loosely and only pull hard when necessary. However, after a month, it seems that the pain is still there. Has anyone else experienced a similar problem?
I think I was on my way into the same problem two years ago. When riding challenging terrain I felt a cramp like tension building up in my right arm which I use for grip and brake. Until then I use the standard saddle nose and brake, and I felt a longer position for my arm would help with that.
I’ll give you the thoughts I have on the topic, some standard therapy, some a little out of the box.
- probably your muscle control got stressed, so you will have lost some on the quality to relax your muscles and allow regeneration.
- Exercise for that is training for biceps and brachioradialis:
- I would put myselft leaning back ca. 45° and go for two exercises
- some wheight in your hand, you could start with 2 kg and increase as feels ok
- rotate hand to neutral, you see your thumb all the time, then bend and straighten elbow
- the other, combine with hand rotation. You see the back of your hand when down (pronate), you see the palm when up (supinate).
- your goal is two sets each, 10 - 20 reps to reach exaustion, but start gradually. Some pain is ok, but should subside soon after exercise.
Also, manually work through your muscles with the other hand. It’s hard to break things, if it feels ok, it will be ok.
I moved my grip point down and some to the front, so I’m riding now with 30° or 40° instead of 80° to 90° ellbow flex, works much better for me.
And, I like to use a balance cheat. To the wristguard I use on my free left hand, I added some 300-400g of wheight, so I have more momentum for counterbalance, takes an edge of my balance stress, I’m less in a struggle and less tense in holding on to the bike.
For me, the problem was more on my brachioradialis than the bizeps. See how it works for you!
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Thank you for your detailed explanation; I really appreciate it. I will give it a try and see how it works out. Tendonitis pain can be pretty frustrating. By the way, I also experienced patellar tendonitis when I first started unicycling for about a year. It also took quite some time to recover through specific rehabilitation exercises. I might tend to put too much force than needed. I’ll have to ride deliberately more relaxedly.
The answer from ruka is pretty good. I had a similar tendonitis/overuse problem in my braking arm about 10 years ago, and it took about a full year for it to go away. It was quite frustrating as it was so bad I often had difficulties finishing a 3+ hour muni ride due to the pain. I can report that in the following 9+ years of lots and lots of muni I have not had a recurrence. 
You need to do 3 things:
- fix the posture/positioning problem. Mine was similar to ruka that due to the saddle and front bumper and brake position, my arm and wrist were at extreme angles with my wrist/hand about 80/85 degrees and my elbow also strangely contorted. I initially improved this by changing the saddle and adding a starfighter and moving the brake lever out a bit. This helped a little. I then changed the brake (Shimano Z) which also helped a bit. The I added the DIY brake lever extension from Timo by cutting old MTB bar ends. This completely fixed the problem (search the forum I think it’s described somewhere, or ask me and I’ll provide info - costs less than $10). Now since 2 years the even better solution for me has been the Ursli bar. Now my braking hand/wrist is maybe +/- 5 degrees!! Plus the Ursli bar (or Mad4-1) is generally comfortable and offers great control. But even if you don’t make that investment, you need to fix the cause (e.g. Timo’s extension).
- as long as it’s inflamed, you need to give sufficient rest and stretching. The exercise that helped me was where you put the arm straight out with you palm down and use the other hand the push your wrist down and in to maximum extension. I just did it now and if you have no problem then it is “easy”. If you have this problem then you feel the burn as the tightened muscles are stretched. I did that exercise maybe 5+ times a day for many months.
- long term I also think strength training helps as well (I presently do weights about twice a week and have a far lower muscle tightness or injury despite increasing age - much better now than 10-20 years ago in my 30s and 40s).
Good luck. I know it can be frustrating, often just as you are improving you then develop overuse injuries mostly due to bad posture or setup, that initially make no difference while you’re learning.
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Thanks for sharing. It’s quite encouraging to know that your problem has been solved, especially since you are now able to ride so hard and well.
Actually, I have used a medium-sized handle saddle on my 27.5er since I started muni about 3 years ago. So, I was thinking that switching to a traditional saddle would help. But from your experience, handle saddle is better, so I’ll have to figure out a better posture first.