Bicep Blues

[Sleeper]

About three years ago after my elbow operation. I was doing some heavy barbell curls as my main bicep movement. After awhile my my right bicep started having sharp pains in it. I knew I had either severly strained it or partialy tore it. I would hurt bad on the outside portion especialy when trying to do dumbell curls. After awhile the pain went away. I got back into heavy dumbell curls full steam ahead. About a year later, boom it happened gain but off and on. Especialy if I tried close grip lat pulldown with a triangle bar. The same painfull tight feeling with dumbell curls. About 5 months ago the same thing only now I can do strict dumbell curls and bent rows but it hurts real bad if I do front lat pulldowns. It is very irritating sometimes. I was trying to do some skull crushers and when I would bring my arm down it would pinch. This situation is irritating to say the least. Any advise?

[Eric3237]

Originally Posted by Sleeper

After awhile the pain went away. I got back into heavy dumbell curls full steam ahead.

Oh boy. Judging by that statement I'm assuming that you didn't do any first aid or active rehabilitation. Probably what has happened is initially it healed but not in a good way. You probably put down a lot of scar tissue which constricts and tightens the tissue around it and is not as elastic, etc.

Since a year went by before you felt it again it could be that the initial injury was not too bad but since you wen't full steam ahead you may have been reinjuring it and laying down more and more scar tissue around the area and creating a "hot-spot" that is just now showing it's ugly head.

If you do front lat pulldowns with an overhand grip and you initially felt it on the outside bicep area then that would make perfect sense. It doesn't sound like it is too bad yet but your are going to have to start rehabilitaing it if you don't want to make it worse.

That means 1. You'll have to stop doing anything that actually hurts for a while. The weights will have to come down. 2. Since it is probably not an active injury (make sure you don't have bruising or swelling and that the pain is not persisting after you lift) you can use heat, massage, and stretching to try and begin remodeling the scar tissue (i.e. replacing it with the good stuff).

I'm not going to say don't lift weights but if it were me I might wait a few days and do nothing but applying heat, massage, and stretching it for while and then start back in with light weigths and using a grip that doesn't hurt at first. BUT you don't want to just stop using it again for a long time.

It's possible with injuries like this if you wait too long or mess around too much it'll never be 100%. Even now it is not certain you can get it back all the way. But I would be fairly confident in this particular situation.

Look in the injuries thread to get some ideas.

*Edit*I keep adding to this as things occur to me. You notice I said you could apply heat. What I meant was that you would heat it and then massage it, then stretch it. It's good for getting the tissues warm and soft.

If you are feeling pain then I would go ahead and ice it. Otherwise if it is just scarred and tight tissue you are feeling and not a re-injury then I'm not sure ice will do much except it could aid in recovery AFTER you work the bicep in which case you could try an ice rub but you should stretch it first while it is warm (very gently at first).

[verbatimreturned]

My advise would be go to a doctor We can all make recommendations, but I think it would be best to see someone.

[Eric3237]

I can certainly understand where your coming from Verb and it could be warranted if he thinks the problem had something to do with the previous elbow operation especially. However as it doesn't sound like there is a tear now I think there are many of us here that can attest to the fact that there is not much a doctor would do....it's not like it warrants an MRI.

I'm not someone that would tell someone not to go to a doctor, I'm just saying probably not much would come of it. About the best reason to go would be to get hooked up with a physical therapist or similar professional to help with proper rehab.

[Sleeper]

Hey training gurus,
I enjoyed your replys. I have decided to leave my upper body aloan until the first of August as far a weight training. I think I might have a stage II injury. I feel any further weight training would just aggarvate the imjury. I do plan on doing some daily stretching though. I will do plenty of isometric light flexing and passive stretching. I am going to read up on some good stretches and I might start hitting the whirlpool. I think sometime a trainee needs to just step back, let mother nature heal itself, and re-evaluate my training. When I come back in August I am planning on starting out at about 50% less weight and doing some super high reps for awhile. What would you do?
Thanks any advise appreciated.

[Eric3237]

Sounds a bit worse then what you originally described. Your plan sounds solid. When you say super high reps probably something in the 12 to 15 range is good. Maybe somewhat higher. HST would be a good choice. Seems to have worked out very well for 0311's pec tear.