Bicep Injury: Advice from the knowledgeable / experienced?

[XnavyHMCS]

Injured my L bicep this early evening; have not consulted my ortho guy yet.

After warming up, and working pulldowns, I changed to pull ups.

First set, third rep, I guess, I felt a tearing and sharp pain in the L UL (upper lateral) bicep. The muscle is fully attached, with the injury being distal to the insertion point of the tendon/s. Perhaps a partial tear or torn muscle. I was doing pull ups, and obviously engaging my biceps.

Now, 5 hours later, of course there is pain, bruising and inflammation. Along with a shift to the mid-line; to the peak of the muscle.

Ortho notification is forthcoming...


Anyone with any experience, please advise me:

What can I expect, prognosis; just off the top of your head? *Please bear in mind the aforementioned background.

Can you advise me on any exercises I can do for back, as I will need to pull?

I imagine I must abstain from biceps work. How long, from your past experience, and what exercises did you come back with (probably not pull ups)?

[SampsonandDelilah]

First off, sorry to hear you’ve hurt yourself. Those types of injuries are the worst. The bicep is almost impossible to remove from so many different exercises. The bruising is not a good sign and more often than not is indicative of a tear.

Good news is there is nothing coiled up, so it sounds like the bicep tendon is attached. If I’m reading correctly it’s the distal end of the proximal bicep tendon? If there’s not a tear, it’s a pain issue and you’ll have to ensure not making any movements that won’t exacerbate it or risk further damage. I’d rotate heat and ice, and look into dry needling and acupuncture. Of course can try some peptide therapy but you’re going to need an MRI my friend to assess the damage. You can babysit it all you want but imagery is going to let you know where you’re really standing. I’m sure they’ll X-ray it (which is stupid most of the time with soft tissue injuries- they just want to bill insurance- at least in the States they do) my guess is you’ll need to get in the tube. I’ve torn my hamstring (6 cm’s) and my groin (4 cm’s) and both were gnarly but I avoided surgery (not sure I should’ve with the hammy) PT helped for sure and staying off of them was the best I could do. They still bark occasionally and it’s been almost two years.

The good news with a bicep tendon is the surgery is quick and pretty easy, especially if it’s attached.

This is just my opinion and what I’ve experienced…the common sense in me says avoid using it, check the swelling, bruising and your pain threshold and get a hold of your Ortho buddy.

Hate when this shit happens to the good guys…fingers crossed it’s just inflamed and you’re good to go in no time.

Regardless, dry needling and acupuncture are tried and true for getting blood to the area and kickstarting the healing process.

Best of luck brother and I’ll be interested to hear how the follow up goes.

Best…