Bicep tendon tear

Ouch. How did that happen?

Sorry no direct insights...

 

Wow. How much weight??? I just did arms at the gym tonight but dont go beyond 120 lbs (EZ curl bar)... but i certainly feel them extremely tight afterwards. I have heard of people tearing pecs with bench press but always seems to be really huge weight (well over 300 lbs).

Best of luck and happy it sounds pretty minor in the scheme of things. Maybe get a few docs opinions on best course?

 

ugh. Yes, this happened to me.

Was doing my normal workout, with dumbbells. The initial sound made me think I tore my arm off, the initial pain (and shock) floored me. I kept telling myself I would be fine, at least until I could physically see the deformation in the mirror (made worse by swelling).

Personally, I would get it fixed. I'm glad I did. It sucked during recovery/rehab.

I was lucky in that my orthopedist is awesome, and he does the "arms" for most of the local pro sports teams and athletes. His counsel was 1) you could live with it 2) it would suck now, and suck worse later.

It's hard to compare injuries and implications without looking at MRI and knowing the person and your lifestyle, but I needed my left arm to work as originally designed, so i did the procedure.

As with most orthopedic procedures, it's very....barbaric and gothic. He was eager to get on it ASAP before the tendon or muscle itself atrophies....sooner is better, as soon as initial swelling and inflammation is down. I was in the OR 5 days after initial injury; he prefers 3-4 assuming aggressive anti inflammatory therapy.

I have 2 incisions on my forearm, where they went in to "retrieve" the tendon, and then anchored it to my forearm bone. Immediate post-op pain was a 10, only because they wanted to check nerve function before they gave me a nerve block. Afterwards, I was in an articulated plastic cast, and gradually increased the angle by about 10 degrees per week.

Once out of the brace, I was on rubber bands and what I called "marching band" exercises (I.e. had to do range of motion exercises, I felt like a band leader). About 3 months later I was on light weights, after that I was good to go other than taking it easy.

doc's belief is that my injury was a combination of 1) heavy but not insane weight 2) probably a bit of slippery form (i.e. straight arm) that increased the stress on the tendon to zero and 3) probably the remnants of a mild prior injury (i.e. I played football and rugby for 13 years, if you ever arm tackled an elephant running by, you strain this tendon)

Me? I'd get it fixed. Make sure your orthopedist is an aggressive sports-minded doc how likes aggressive therapy.

Hope this helps

 

Not much to add to the previous posts other than sorry to hear about your injury and hopefully you'll be back to 100% soon.

A little late now but FWIW: slooooooooow down your movements when lifting - try changing to take 3 - 4 seconds on the positive and again 3 - 4 seconds on the negative part of the lift. This obviously will cause you to have to use less weight - but your muscle still gets as much (actually more) work done without overloading tendons, ect.

Best of luck!!

 

Glass half full person - I like this!!!

Hope you'll get good news next week and speedy recovery........

 

As a veteran of 20 orthopedic surgeries over time, I've become a student...

Unsure specifically about your injury, but in my case, we're 99.7% sure I had suffered at least a minor injury in the past (there was scar tissue), but very minor.

What we believe happened was I literally pulled too hard, too fast, with a straight arm (weight a the lowest point). At that point, the "lever" of my elbow was literally fully open, at 180 degrees, and my muscle was pulling the tendon as if it was pulling bone against bone.

Think about a door that is halfway open (90 degrees). Attach a string (tendon) to the door knob and pull - it will close easily. Now picture the door open against the building, at 180 degrees. Pull the same string on the doorknob, and you literally are pulling the door against the hinge...puts an infinite stress on the tendon and POP!

Had I started that one rep with a 5-10 degree bend on my elbow and kept it in tension, probably would have not happened. Pure form-related. Stupid, too, as I know better and lost focus.

 

Entropy has it right. Do a search of F-Chat, you'll find my thread on the distal bicep tendon rupture I had, and the follow up from surgery.

Ruptured my dominant (left) arm's distal bicep tendon training for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Pan Ams, it hurt so bad, I thought I broke the arm. The year was so loud, my training partner thought I ripped his gi!

Get it repaired - no question. Like Entropy, my surgeon was affiliated with one of the local NFL and NHL sports teams - gruff bedside manner, but was honest and very good.

If you don't repair it, other muscles will compensate, but you will notice it. In the case of the distal bicep tendon, supination (motion similar to bicep curl) will be impacted. Do it sooner - the tendons atrophy and it's preferable to use your own rather than source from a cadaver.

Post-surgery, your arm is going to look like a pencil. Joints will be stiff (if placed in hard cast, it's worse) and range of motion will be nil. Figure at least 6 weeks of physical therapy and it will be like new. My bicep profile is slightly different, but my left arm is still very cut / muscular - no one would notice but for the scar in the pit of my arm.

Make sure you get a good doctor and understand the options. Generally, there are 2 types of surgery - the 2 incision and the single ("s" shaped) incision. Each has their own unique potential complications, and you'll want to decide which is best for you.

The 2 incision surgery (what Entropy had) is more established and IMHO has the lower risk. I was supposed to have the 2 incision, but my surgeon said my body was aggressively healing (about as aggressive as he'd ever seen!) and he spent a lot of time clearing out scar tissue, so the surgery was improvised. He used a rotator cuff anchor (2x the strength of a regular anchor) to reattach it, and I have a single scar running across my arm. It's big, but I LOVE scars (I know, it's weird), so I'm cool with it!

Are you over 40? Realize that the chance of injury increases significantly once you hit 40, so advice from me (I'm 47 now, was 43 when I had surgery) is to adjust your training to mitigate any other issues (lower weights or different exercises). Some patients have a hard time with this, but as noted, it's age related.

There is a lot of information out there - a lot of guys are devastated when it happens. I found a great forum that educated me and prepared me, it might be of interest to you:

Distal Biceps Tendon Rupture - Index

No matter what, good luck - hope it works out for you. By all means, any questions - feel free to ask!

 

It doesn't take a lot if you are over 40. My surgeon explained the the tendons are like rubber bands being stretched, over time, the weaken and snap.

It impacts men more than women, and ego plays a factor. I'm a former competitive bodybuilder and jiu-jitsu practitioner, I see way too many guys lifting too heavy weights or improper form.

I'm not saying you or Crayzee are doing that, but I'll say to anyone that wants to listen - check your ego at the door, a ruptured bicep tendon will put you on the shelf and have a moderat impact on your life, even if short term.

 

Poor form is what happened with me as well, I was attempting to reverse my training partner, and in jiu-jitsu, you want to use leverage over strength. I tried to power through using my arm strength instead of using my hips to shift and WHACK! I ruptured my tendon.

Completely my "fault". It happens!

 

What mean " popeye muscle"
About a year ago.. My right bicep took on a different enlarged shape than my normal left bicep
More like a square brick inside than a round tennis ball
I thought it was just muscle growth. I am in gym doing all around machines 4 times a week.
Short mild painful period long gone now. But in reading this thread in retrospect... Maybe i did rip something???

I think its time for " show us your bicep thread"..

 

Good luck Cray. Hopefully not too bad.

 

Yes, I totally agree. I see lots of people swinging weights in the gym to get the numbers up and I keep simple and proper form, and at weights I can control in both directions. I use spotters when needed, and respect my joints and tendons. I do push hard though but never even contemplated a bicep tear. That is the frightening part... not knowing where the edge is.

Thanks for the advice though (and the original post itself was good warning).

 

How invasive would surgery be? What isnthe downside of repairing it?

 

Wow, this is perhaps what happened to me over the summer but I've just dismissed as a temporary torn muscle. I was jerking up on an ATV to turn it sideways to roll it off a trailer (as it was a very tight fit). And then I had this excrusiating pain in my life because and stopped, didn't hear a tear.

I've been working out with a PT and while it can still be tender doing some exercises, and has been some months later I wonder if I should have it checked in to? I'm 48.

 

Ok - shoulder side isn't nearly as bad, and as you pointed out - might be minimal loss of strength. Still, it may impact the shape of the muscle - in the case of the distal rupture, the bicep rolls up towards the shoulder and looks horrible!

All of the surgery - even the distal bicep repair - is outpatient. Normal time under is about 1 hour, in my case it was 2 hours because of the improvisation / scar tissue clean up.

Having this type of injury drives the need to learn as much as possible, as quickly as possible! I had no more than 2-3 weeks to find a doctor, make a decision, and have surgery and I don't mind saying I was scared ****less!!!

Afterwards, I was online, working later in the day of the surgery. I was groggy and in pain, but I was functional. I didn't even use the pain meds.

Only you can make the right choice for you. If it were me, I'd do it, but you have to weigh all the factors.

 

OP has a proximal tear of long head of biceps tendon (shoulder end). This has very little in common with a distal biceps tendon rupture (elbow end).

Proximal biceps tendon tear is very easy to "fix" by reattaching it to the humerus near where it belongs, usually just under the pectoralis tendon. It never gets reattached within the shoulder joint from where it once originated. Functional deficits without fixing it are close to nil. Fixing it is almost purely cosmetic. Occasionaly these rupture and the person doesn't even know it ruptured, as I suspect one poster above who wonders why his arm looks different.

Cause: degenerative changes in the tendon which are usually age related, combined with some eccentric load to the tendon. This occurs when the muscle is contacting very forcefully while the muscle-tendon unit is lengthening. Usually this is right at the end of elbow extension when doing curls, right as the arm is becoming completely straight and the lifter slows the drop of the weight while trying to reverse its travel into flexion. This concept applies to basically every tendon tear there is.

How to avoid it: as one poster said, less weight and more reps as we age, and in all cases slower reps should do the trick. Many of these occur out of the gym however: wife puts another flat case of beer onto the one you are already holding with both curled arms...you flex hard to take up the weight, the weight still causes your elbows to extend, hence a forceful eccentric contraction...pop!

Bottom line: if you don't like the way you look, fix it. If you feel fine, it's still a surgery and none are risk free, so think about it.