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Getbig Misc Discussion Boards => Powerlifting / Strongman => Topic started by: brent2741 on March 25, 2008, 05:26:57 PM
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Just tore my rt distal bicep. Just curious if anyone here has done the same and what kind of rehab time im looking at and how long out of the gym?
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have no fear. I tore my right biceps 2 3/4 years ago and my left biceps last november.
for both surgeries i had the same doctor. he made one incision in the bend of the elbow, another along the forearm. He drilled a shallow dip in the bone where the tendon needed to be reattached, then drilled three small shallow holes from the dip through the bone. He then placed the tendon into the dip and used the three shallow holes to run the "expensive fishing line" through to hold the tendon in the dip. He used no screws and that's important. It was out patient surgery. I wore a splint and a sling for the first 6 weeks. After the 1st week they will want you to take your arm out of the sling and use your good arm to slowly work your bad arm through a small range of motion, at the end of six weeks you will be allowed to fully straighten your arm. Long story short ( if you want the full story let me know) you will be back in the gym doing what ever you want or can do after 12 weeks. I was back in the gym squatting lite after 6 weeks, i was benching lite after 10weeks but didn't do any lat pulldowns or deadlifts or biceps curls over 10lbs until the doc said I could, which was at the 12 week period. 6 months post surgery your as healed as your ever gonna get and your chances of re-rupturing the biceps is less than when you tore it. because with my type of repair now there is more tendon contact to the bone than before, because it was placed in a dip the bone and blood healed all around the tendon.
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WTF man! There must be something in the air, I have a suspected tear in my left bi. I'm scheduled to see a specialist tommorrow to see exactly how bad it is. Nasht5, I may be contacting you in the future for inquiries about whatever it is the Doc wants to do.
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WTF man! There must be something in the air, I have a suspected tear in my left bi. I'm scheduled to see a specialist tommorrow to see exactly how bad it is. Nasht5, I may be contacting you in the future for inquiries about whatever it is the Doc wants to do.
lol what did i tell ya bro!
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lol what did i tell ya bro!
I know man, I know :)
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have no fear. I tore my right biceps 2 3/4 years ago and my left biceps last november.
for both surgeries i had the same doctor. he made one incision in the bend of the elbow, another along the forearm. He drilled a shallow dip in the bone where the tendon needed to be reattached, then drilled three small shallow holes from the dip through the bone. He then placed the tendon into the dip and used the three shallow holes to run the "expensive fishing line" through to hold the tendon in the dip. He used no screws and that's important. It was out patient surgery. I wore a splint and a sling for the first 6 weeks. After the 1st week they will want you to take your arm out of the sling and use your good arm to slowly work your bad arm through a small range of motion, at the end of six weeks you will be allowed to fully straighten your arm. Long story short ( if you want the full story let me know) you will be back in the gym doing what ever you want or can do after 12 weeks. I was back in the gym squatting lite after 6 weeks, i was benching lite after 10weeks but didn't do any lat pulldowns or deadlifts or biceps curls over 10lbs until the doc said I could, which was at the 12 week period. 6 months post surgery your as healed as your ever gonna get and your chances of re-rupturing the biceps is less than when you tore it. because with my type of repair now there is more tendon contact to the bone than before, because it was placed in a dip the bone and blood healed all around the tendon.
thanks for the info, i go in for surgery on friday so ill let you know how it goes. It is very encouraging to know that i wont be out for 6 months or something past that.
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I just got back from the Doc, left distal bicep tear. Surgery scheduled for this Tuesday. I try to look at it positively, my legs have always been smaller than my upper body, so I guess they will finally get a chance to catch up ;)
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I just got back from the Doc, left distal bicep tear. Surgery scheduled for this Tuesday. I try to look at it positively, my legs have always been smaller than my upper body, so I guess they will finally get a chance to catch up ;)
Thats ro0ugh news man, best of luck with the surgery and the recovery!
Jason
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Sorry to hear about all of the injuries guys... :-[ ...best of luck to you for a speedy recovery!!
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I just got back from the Doc, left distal bicep tear. Surgery scheduled for this Tuesday. I try to look at it positively, my legs have always been smaller than my upper body, so I guess they will finally get a chance to catch up ;)
Just don't rush back in the gym for the first two weeks. wait. don't go heavy and flex that biceps doing leg ext or leg press for the first 3-4 weeks, then you'll be ok to put forth some effort. Like i said, when my splint could come off i was squatting light, but still squatting, doing abs, reverse hypers and hypers, working the core.
You will be better than ever after this if you work smart.
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Thanks for the positive inputs, especially Nash. I'm sure what you have told us here will help us both recover and come back better. Trust me, I won't be working out hard, just light work to keep sane and some light cardio just to burn off a little fat.
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Just don't rush back in the gym for the first two weeks. wait. don't go heavy and flex that biceps doing leg ext or leg press for the first 3-4 weeks, then you'll be ok to put forth some effort. Like i said, when my splint could come off i was squatting light, but still squatting, doing abs, reverse hypers and hypers, working the core.
You will be better than ever after this if you work smart.
12 hours away from surgery and its very encouraging to hear you say these things, hope im not out to long or i think ill go stir crazy
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I had a complete distal rupture of the right bicep. Some guys have partial tears that aren't as bad. I got it deadlifting a commercial pool table of all things. I could see the bicep up toward my delt as it rolled up my arm. It's important to have a specialist othopedic surgeon. You don't want a jack of all trades. My doctor only operated on anything below the elbow.
I have been in contact with guys that have had the repair of a complete rupture years ago and the thinking then was to keep it in a cast after the operation for 6 plus weeks. The new thinking is to keep it in an immobile in a splint for 3 three weeks. The operation was conducted at a hospital where I was knocked out. The scar on my forearm (where the bicep attaches) is about 4 inches long. He attached a mental anchor to the bone and then tied the bicep tendon to the anchor. This kept the tendon attached to where it ripped out so it could attach again. He said it would take about 6 months for the tendon to fully grow and get strongly attached into the bone.
The arm hurt like hell trying to regain my strength. I couldn't fully open my arm for weeks. I also had nerve damage to my hand. It was all numb. The doctor warned me about being to anxious to get back because no amount of rehab will increase the rate of the tendon healing and again reattaching itself into the bone. He warned me that I could ruin his work by trying to rehab to fast.
I went to conventional rehab place and did everything they told me. I also had my own routine that I am not recommending. The first thing I did after the splint came off was to work on opening my arm. Every day I gained a little more range. It hurt. The rehab place had me doing tricep pushdowns and light wrist curls with baby weights. The tricep pushdowns got blood in the area and was great for stretching the tight bicep. I'm guessing it took about 5 to 6 weeks to finally curl three pound dumbbell with a decent range of motion. It was slow regaining my strength. I did become a cardio maniac during this down time by using a treadmill.
Some will say it's only a bicep but the bicep has an insertion and origin. My shoulder on my injury side was also incredibly weak and it hurt. To make this long story short it took me about 6 months to get back. It really was mentally hard to take benching an empty bar and curling baby weights. I didn't trust the bicep for a long time. The first time I deadlifted 405 on my way to recovery I knew I would come back. The only exercise I'm concerned with now is deadlifts because the suplinated hand( the curl grip) is the vulnerable one when deadlifting. You might want to do any deadlifts with a power clean grip where both hands pronated. Also don't do any jerking type pull ups.
I hope yours is a partial tear that will lead to a quick recovery. If yours is a mess like mine realize you can come back from this. Stay positive but I know that's easier said.
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So lets talk about some ways to avoid such injuries. How would you have avoided this? What exercises and techniques can one use to strengthen this commonly injured area?
Thanks guys!
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FULL RANGE OF MOTION on your curls, (which I did and still do...do (haha)).
Stretch the biceps before during and after training, (which i did and still do....do).
Don't get caught in the trap that you have to curl a ton of weight to have big biceps, YOU DON'T, you can have BIG biceps by doing 20lbs curls - it's all in the technique and form.
When deadlifting keep your arms straight, don't have any bend in the elbows, not even the slighest (like I did). Think of your arms as chains and your hands are the hooks.
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FULL RANGE OF MOTION on your curls, (which I did and still do...do (haha)). I always do that as well
Stretch the biceps before during and after training, (which i did and still do....do).I always stretch, feals good
Don't get caught in the trap that you have to curl a ton of weight to have big biceps, YOU DON'T, you can have BIG biceps by doing 20lbs curls - it's all in the technique and form.This is what got me, preachers curls with 155, wasn't trying to set a new PR or anything, was going for 7-8 reps and heard and felt left bicep pop on the first one. I had used that weight and more many times before, I think overtraining and leaning out in bodyweight while still trying to go as heavy as I did when I was a little softer is what took me down.
When deadlifting keep your arms straight, don't have any bend in the elbows, not even the slighest (like I did). Think of your arms as chains and your hands are the hooks.
Always do this as well. When I get back from this injury, I know I may be gun shy with heavy deadlifts for a while because my left bi is always in the supinated position. I may have to change that for a while just to put my mind at ease.
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Good stuff, Nash!
I definitely do these things already but it never hurts to have it reiterated.
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FULL RANGE OF MOTION on your curls, (which I did and still do...do (haha)).
Stretch the biceps before during and after training, (which i did and still do....do).
Don't get caught in the trap that you have to curl a ton of weight to have big biceps, YOU DON'T, you can have BIG biceps by doing 20lbs curls - it's all in the technique and form.
When deadlifting keep your arms straight, don't have any bend in the elbows, not even the slighest (like I did). Think of your arms as chains and your hands are the hooks.
Not doing this is the biggest destroyer of biceps ever. Im not even kidding.
Jason
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Just don't rush back in the gym for the first two weeks. wait. don't go heavy and flex that biceps doing leg ext or leg press for the first 3-4 weeks, then you'll be ok to put forth some effort. Like i said, when my splint could come off i was squatting light, but still squatting, doing abs, reverse hypers and hypers, working the core.
You will be better than ever after this if you work smart.
what kind of atrophy did you notice when everything was said and done? and what did you do if anything to help prevent as much atrophy as possible?
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what kind of atrophy did you notice when everything was said and done? and what did you do if anything to help prevent as much atrophy as possible?
Didn't you just have the surgery? How did it go? Mine is scheduled for Tuesday morning, go for my preop tommorrow.
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Didn't you just have the surgery? How did it go? Mine is scheduled for Tuesday morning, go for my preop tommorrow.
get this im in the surgery center im all ready to go, almost have the IV in and all of a sudden i hear the nurse say "wait a minute, change of plans" the doctor called in sick he couldn't make it. So we are rescheduled for wed at 7:30 am central.
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before surgery
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The atrophy after coming out of the splint after 6 weeks is pretty bad, don't worry. Muscle memory is for real and your bi's will respond to training.
155lbs on preacher curls is to much, i don't care who you are.
I forgot to mention hydration, DRINK PLENTY OF FLUID during the day - EVERY DAY - especially during a MEET...I know I didn't drink enough the day I tore mine and the week preceding.
that picture must have been taken the day you tore it, right? My arm was bruised all the way down to my wrist the next morning.
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The atrophy after coming out of the splint after 6 weeks is pretty bad, don't worry. Muscle memory is for real and your bi's will respond to training.
155lbs on preacher curls is to much, i don't care who you are.
I forgot to mention hydration, DRINK PLENTY OF FLUID during the day - EVERY DAY - especially during a MEET...I know I didn't drink enough the day I tore mine and the week preceding.
that picture must have been taken the day you tore it, right? My arm was bruised all the way down to my wrist the next morning.
this pic is about a week from the tear my bicep never really bruised that bad but my forearm was awful.
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Well, I just got back from my surgery a few hours ago. I can tell wearing this wrapping for the next week is going to SUCK. Everything went well, no problems, ang I feal okay right now. My left hand keeps falling asleep though and I'm having a hard time waking it up since i can't move my arm. Any suggestions Nash? Showering after the surgery was intersesting to, some easy day to day tasks should be an adventure this week. :)
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Well, I just got back from my surgery a few hours ago. I can tell wearing this wrapping for the next week is going to SUCK. Everything went well, no problems, ang I feal okay right now. My left hand keeps falling asleep though and I'm having a hard time waking it up since i can't move my arm. Any suggestions Nash? Showering after the surgery was intersesting to, some easy day to day tasks should be an adventure this week. :)
The wrap is going to be heavy, just let it rest in the sling this week like dead weight.
They probably put a local block in your shoulder to deaden the nerve for your arm, that should wearoff sometime tonight, GO AHEAD AND LOAD UP ON THE PAIN MED. I used the pain med for the first two days, after that I stopped. I had to sleep on my back for the first week with my arm still in the sling. I placed a pillow under my arm/elbow so I could keep the arm resting on my stomach. If you snore tell her to deal with it or for her to sleep on the couch.
wear a trash bag over your arm in the shower, get your wife or girl to wash you...pity sex ain't all that bad. ;D
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The wrap is going to be heavy, just let it rest in the sling this week like dead weight.
They probably put a local block in your shoulder to deaden the nerve for your arm, that should wearoff sometime tonight, GO AHEAD AND LOAD UP ON THE PAIN MED. I used the pain med for the first two days, after that I stopped. I had to sleep on my back for the first week with my arm still in the sling. I placed a pillow under my arm/elbow so I could keep the arm resting on my stomach. If you snore tell her to deal with it or for her to sleep on the couch.
wear a trash bag over your arm in the shower, get your wife or girl to wash you...pity sex ain't all that bad. ;D
Yeah, after I posted that, I realized it was just numb from the anesthitic and its back to normal now. I did the trash bag thing earlier and she did have to wash me and dry me off, felt like a King.........with a gimp arm. I'm about to take another Vicoden right now, probably sleepy time again. :D
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had surgery today, hurts a bit but not as bad as i thought it would be.
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You had surgery TODAY....the local ain't wore off yet, take the pain meds - get'em in your system, they will help you sleep. don't get me wrong, this ain't no painfull surgery and recovery. I've done it twice post op don't hurt, just take the meds for the first few days especially around bed time. be carefull sleeping THAT is the time you make rerupture it.
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I'm 3 days post op. and feel 10 times better than I did the first day. My shoulder hurts more today than anything, keeping it propped up all the time sucks.
So far, so good :)
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Well, I just got back from my surgery a few hours ago. I can tell wearing this wrapping for the next week is going to SUCK. Everything went well, no problems, ang I feal okay right now. My left hand keeps falling asleep though and I'm having a hard time waking it up since i can't move my arm. Any suggestions Nash? Showering after the surgery was intersesting to, some easy day to day tasks should be an adventure this week. :)
seems like you're doing no worse for wear HAHA... how long did the surgery take? what procedure did they follow?
Try squeezing on a ball or something to just pump a litlte blood in there...but a small easy to do foam ball or walmart exercise grip joke whatever they sell.
get better bro...but damn take your time! ;D
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seems like you're doing no worse for wear HAHA... how long did the surgery take? what procedure did they follow?
Try squeezing on a ball or something to just pump a litlte blood in there...but a small easy to do foam ball or walmart exercise grip joke whatever they sell.
get better bro...but damn take your time! ;D
I'm doing okay, bored as everything though. I think the surgery took a little over 2 hours, not really for sure though. The Doc told me the exact method after the surgery, but I was still out of it. If I remember, he said he used the 2 small incision way, like what Nash talks about in his post. I'm not going to use that hand until they tell me to. I can move my fingers, but I feal it all the way up and down my forearm, so I'm hesitant on doing ANYTHING with that arm, until they give me the green light. Better to let that one heal good so this doesn't happen again. I'll take my time, just gives me something to work towards when I get well. Later bro.....
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yes, it's too soon to flex the hand. just let the arm be dead weight this week. next week you can rotate the shoulder some and make a relaxed fist with your hand, that will help the forearm feel better like i said in one of the earlier post. the grip ball is a GOOD idea for about 3 weeks post op. have your girl massage your shoulder (while you can get some sympathy, lol)
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how is everybody after all the bicep surgeries?
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how is everybody after all the bicep surgeries?
How are YOU? :)
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Mine was in Nov and I've been back training since March/April. ;D
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How are YOU? :)
better, its been 7 weeks and my normal day to day life is back to normal. I have been doing all body parts except back and bi's since surgery, just now getting into light back and biceps. All in all i think that i will be back to normal in another 6-8 weeks or so depending.
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how is everybody after all the bicep surgeries?
I just saw this thread, been out of town for a few. Mine is like Brent's, pretty much back to normal. Still taking it very easy on upper body, I'm only doing pushing movements and haven't started on pulling yet, will start those relatively soon though. All in all, wasn't near as bad as I thought it would be. I got to give a HUGE!!!!!!!!!!! shoutout to Nash. This guy is a really great guy. I wore his PM function out by bothering him with so many questions. But he answered everything in great detail and very quickly. This is one stand up guy that goes to prove there are still good folks in this world willing to help there fellow man. So if you are ever unlucky enough to tear yours, Nash is the go to guy for getbig.
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Awesome to hear that you guys are all on the road to recovery. 8)
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I just saw this thread, been out of town for a few. Mine is like Brent's, pretty much back to normal. Still taking it very easy on upper body, I'm only doing pushing movements and haven't started on pulling yet, will start those relatively soon though. All in all, wasn't near as bad as I thought it would be. I got to give a HUGE!!!!!!!!!!! shoutout to Nash. This guy is a really great guy. I wore his PM function out by bothering him with so many questions. But he answered everything in great detail and very quickly. This is one stand up guy that goes to prove there are still good folks in this world willing to help there fellow man. So if you are ever unlucky enough to tear yours, Nash is the go to guy for getbig.
i agree, it is nice to see that among all the "people" here on get big, you can still run into some nice people with truely good sound advice!
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thank you both for the kind words. ;)
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I have a question... How do you know if you have a torn bicep? I injured my left arm about two weeks ago... if I bend my arm to 90 degrees and rotate the forearm it hurts. I cannot lift anything over my head or basically curl any thing. If I wear a elbow/bicep type wrap I can do cable pull downs with about 100 lbs but the next day the arm is sore. I tried elect stem (i have a unit at home) did not really help. I now put muscle relief cream on it at night but that does not really seem to help either. It does not hurt though to grab or rub the bicep I was just wondering if these are the signs or a torn bicep or not. Thanks in advance CL
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I have a question... How do you know if you have a torn bicep? I injured my left arm about two weeks ago... if I bend my arm to 90 degrees and rotate the forearm it hurts. I cannot lift anything over my head or basically curl any thing. If I wear a elbow/bicep type wrap I can do cable pull downs with about 100 lbs but the next day the arm is sore. I tried elect stem (i have a unit at home) did not really help. I now put muscle relief cream on it at night but that does not really seem to help either. It does not hurt though to grab or rub the bicep I was just wondering if these are the signs or a torn bicep or not. Thanks in advance CL
Hopefully Nash will chime in, but until then. When I tore mine I physiclly heard it pop. The night of the injury, I could look at it and it really did just look different. Like if I put my elbows at ear level and hands facing up, the torn bicep seemed to just fall over itself toward the ground, much further than the right. 3 days after I hurt mine, it had retracted toward my shoulder a couple centimeters. 4 days later which was the day of surgery, you could look at it and see it was beginning to go towards the shoulder. By the way I had a distal bicep tear, at the forearm. Go to an orthopedic surgeon, they can do a few tests and tell pretty quickly. A simple one is to supinate both wrists and watch your biceps, if they both move equally up and down during the rotation, you are probably okay. If one is torn, it won't move. You could have a partial tear as well, I think those are harder for the Doc to diagnose.
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I have a question... How do you know if you have a torn bicep? I injured my left arm about two weeks ago... if I bend my arm to 90 degrees and rotate the forearm it hurts. I cannot lift anything over my head or basically curl any thing. If I wear a elbow/bicep type wrap I can do cable pull downs with about 100 lbs but the next day the arm is sore. I tried elect stem (i have a unit at home) did not really help. I now put muscle relief cream on it at night but that does not really seem to help either. It does not hurt though to grab or rub the bicep I was just wondering if these are the signs or a torn bicep or not. Thanks in advance CL
if you supinate or pronate your arm at 90 degrees you should be able to see that the bicep tendon is either attached and moving or detached and not really doing anything at all. From what ive read i doubt that it is fully ruptured (or at least i hope not) but when in doubt stop all lifting and see an orthopedist asap. Even in a case of a partial rupture you can tear it all the way thru making iinjury much much worse. Be safer than sorry get it checked out.
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"brent" and "falsehood" both gave great information and both nailed it all right on the head. stop lifting, see an orthopedist - I doubt a regular internal medicine family doctor could help.
has there been ANY bruising on that arm? that's one big red flag that you tore it.
see a pro then we'll help you understand the process to recovery. All three of us have torn our biceps. ;D it's no big deal.
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"brent" and "falsehood" both gave great information and both nailed it all right on the head. stop lifting, see an orthopedist - I doubt a regular internal medicine family doctor could help.
has there been ANY bruising on that arm? that's one big red flag that you tore it.
see a pro then we'll help you understand the process to recovery. All three of us have torn our biceps. ;D it's no big deal.
no big deal is right, its been a little over 2 months and im back to doing what i love to do (not 100% yet) but def. not a death sentence like i thought at first.
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wow you healed quick :)
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wow you healed quick :)
You sure do! Good for you.
I tore mine and it really never did come back right! I can't turn my wrist palms up like when someone hands you change, I can only turn it to the handshake position. I tore it at the bottom of the bicep 100% tear rolled right up into my shoulder.. I looked like Popeye the Sailor!! all forearm & no bicep LOL. I was in a cast for 6 weeks alone! and even after months of physical therapy it never did get back to normal.
Even worse is it was my left arm.. I'm left handed :-\
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You sure do! Good for you.
I tore mine and it really never did come back right! I can't turn my wrist palms up like when someone hands you change, I can only turn it to the handshake position. I tore it at the bottom of the bicep 100% tear rolled right up into my shoulder.. I looked like Popeye the Sailor!! all forearm & no bicep LOL. I was in a cast for 6 weeks alone! and even after months of physical therapy it never did get back to normal.
Even worse is it was my left arm.. I'm left handed :-\
Did you have the surgery to reconnect it though?
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Yes they cut in front of the bicep and around the elbow in back