Bicep Tendon Slipping in Shoulder

Bigger Stronger Leaner Injuries and Rehab
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I did a search and found a couple threads that were similar, but I would like to see if anyone around the forum currently has had this same issue and could offer any experience.

When I move my right arm back with my elbow flared way out, I can feel that bicep tendon popping over the bone and back in. It slides out every time.

I’m lucky that my problem seems to be pretty minor, since when I move my arms in the bench range of motion or even the shoulder press range of motion, it stays in. But still, there are ways that I move my arm that it happens and it doesn’t happen in my left arm and I don’t like it.

Even though I can’t feel it popping on bench, after bench day, the front of my right shoulder doesn’t feel good. I wouldn’t even quite call it pain, but if there is a line between soreness and pain, the right shoulder is WAY closer to that line than the left one. I haven’t even noticed any weakness on the right side, but still, the right side doesn’t feel as solid and tight as the left.

Some people might not even consider this an injury, but I am honestly just worried that this will worsen over time and start happening in my bench range of motion and create tendonitis or worse. I want to know if anyone has had this kind of loose biceps tendon action in their shoulder and what you did to tighten it back up and if you have no issues with it anymore.

Do any sort of shoulder raising motions? Shoulder dislocations for flexibility (or would this fuck it up more?)?

I do as much pulling as pressing. This issue stemmed from a ballistic injury from catching myself on the ground after falling and stopping my momentum with my arms (mostly the right I guess). Not really pain, no weakness, and no loss of range of motion. I just want the tendon to tighten back up and stop moving out of place so it doesn’t become something worse.

Thanks very, very much to anyone who has had experience with something like this.

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I had shoulder pain and mysterious weakness in my hands.
I went to my specialist for manipulation, and he said the pain was because my bicep tendons were out of place and not tracking properly. He PAINFULLY made the manipulation adjustment, at which point the weakness disappeared from my hands! He then told me to do 30 reps of hammer curls EVERY DAY to keep it strong and in place.

He also said not to bring my arms too far back for 4 weeks. And especially NO shoulder dislocations! He suspected that THEY were the reason for off-tracking my biceps.

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[quote]Iron Dwarf wrote:
I had shoulder pain and mysterious weakness in my hands.
I went to my specialist for manipulation, and he said the pain was because my bicep tendons were out of place and not tracking properly. He PAINFULLY made the manipulation adjustment, at which point the weakness disappeared from my hands! He then told me to do 30 reps of hammer curls EVERY DAY to keep it strong and in place.

He also said not to bring my arms too far back for 4 weeks. And especially NO shoulder dislocations! He suspected that THEY were the reason for off-tracking my biceps.

[/quote]

Hey thanks for sharing your experience. I didn’t hurt my arm doing shoulder dislocations, but I was worried that they could potentially exacerbate the problem. I’ll lay off of those until the tendon is tracking more solidly again.

I can definitely do me some hammer curls too lol.

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[quote]csulli wrote:

[quote]Iron Dwarf wrote:
I had shoulder pain and mysterious weakness in my hands.
I went to my specialist for manipulation, and he said the pain was because my bicep tendons were out of place and not tracking properly. He PAINFULLY made the manipulation adjustment, at which point the weakness disappeared from my hands! He then told me to do 30 reps of hammer curls EVERY DAY to keep it strong and in place.

He also said not to bring my arms too far back for 4 weeks. And especially NO shoulder dislocations! He suspected that THEY were the reason for off-tracking my biceps.

[/quote]

Hey thanks for sharing your experience. I didn’t hurt my arm doing shoulder dislocations, but I was worried that they could potentially exacerbate the problem. I’ll lay off of those until the tendon is tracking more solidly again.

I can definitely do me some hammer curls too lol.
[/quote]

It wasn’t the dislocations that “hurt” my shoulders. But they certainly didn’t help keeping them healthy. I did them religiously every day for over 2 years. That kind of repetition can’t be good! lol

Oh, and the hammer curls are with light weight.
Incidentally, there’s a powerlifter at my gym whom I’ve observed training on his chest day. Between sets of bench presses, he was doing light hammer curls!
My assumption is that he was keeping his biceps tendons in place and healthy, subsequently keeping his shoulders pain-free.

5

[quote]Iron Dwarf wrote:
Incidentally, there’s a powerlifter at my gym whom I’ve observed training on his chest day. Between sets of bench presses, he was doing light hammer curls!
My assumption is that he was keeping his biceps tendons in place and healthy, subsequently keeping his shoulders pain-free.
[/quote]

Maybe but the back and biceps are the major opposing muscle groups involved the bench press. The stronger these muscles are, the more potential you have for adding weight to the bench press and developing the muscles involved in the movement. Benchers that have more of an elbow tuck and touch at nipple level can take advantage of a “swole” bicep to get some pop off the chest.

anyways, take care of those biceps tendons. As I type this I am 6 weeks post op from getting mine reanchored to the front of my humorous. TRUST me when I say it sucks…

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[quote]StrengthDawg wrote:

[quote]Iron Dwarf wrote:
Incidentally, there’s a powerlifter at my gym whom I’ve observed training on his chest day. Between sets of bench presses, he was doing light hammer curls!
My assumption is that he was keeping his biceps tendons in place and healthy, subsequently keeping his shoulders pain-free.
[/quote]

Maybe but the back and biceps are the major opposing muscle groups involved the bench press. The stronger these muscles are, the more potential you have for adding weight to the bench press and developing the muscles involved in the movement. Benchers that have more of an elbow tuck and touch at nipple level can take advantage of a “swole” bicep to get some pop off the chest.

anyways, take care of those biceps tendons. As I type this I am 6 weeks post op from getting mine reanchored to the front of my humorous. TRUST me when I say it sucks…
[/quote]

Damn, SD… that sucks! What happened?

7

[quote]Iron Dwarf wrote:
Damn, SD… that sucks! What happened?
[/quote]

Want to know this as well so I can not do it. I’ve still been training. Tendon doesn’t physically slip during training usually, but it feels sore after. Also my bicep always feels way more pumped than it should on that side…

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Ok guys, here’s what happened to me. 3-4 years ago I was visiting family in Norfolk, we were at this great little “shit hole” gym and it was the end of the training session. It was bench day and me and my little bro was doing Incline DB presses. My bro in law was talking shit with the old man of the gym, POPs as he’s called. Old Powerlifter who’s in his 70’s… fucker can still bench 365 once in an old worn out Inzer Phenom bench shirt.

I had 90’s and a miniband behind my back to overload the top a little bit. I was on set 4 and I was eking out my last few reps. My left arm has always been a tad weaker than the right so I was shaking a bit to complete the reps, going for 8 but I was at 5-6… Then suddenly my fucktard bro in law runs over to me from the other side of the GD gym to “spot me” I guess, grabs my wrist and pushes my elbow straight. I start yelling NO!!NO!! and POP goes the shoulder… sensation of fire ensued and I couldn’t lift my arm.

The rest of the day sucked and for a week or two I couldn’t hardly put on a tee shirt without hurting badly and wanting to murder my bro in law. I used lots of ice and rehabbed it back to near perfect health. I did not see a doctor because I’m a dip shit. According to my web surfing I determined that I tore my Labrum. Since I was able to live life nearly the same as before I didn’t sweat it.

Every now and then when I’d drive and turn the steering wheel my shoulder would catch and hurt a little bit. Heavy bench days hurt the front of my shoulder a bit too but not too bad. I have been guarding my shoulders like a mofo because of this and have been doing relatively well ever since.

FAST FORWARD to last January at the end of the month…

Ok so I’m a “powerlifter” at heart but will train any style on occasion for the oportunity to hang with new peeps or learn something new. So I hook up with a buddy who does MMA kind of stuff / crossfit and we train. I’m trying to lure him to the dark side of Powerlifting and he’s trying to make me his crossfit buddy ha. We do a routine and end the day with a conditioning circuit which included DIPS…every time I try dips my left shoulder would feel like ass, I tried to skip this but was called out for being a pussy… I did the dips and they felt ok I guess.

Later that night the shoulder felt like ass as expected but this time it was hurting and not just sore. Then that shit woke me up the next morning throbbing badly. Ice helped but it hurt. Sqauts from now on felt like a steak knife was stabbing into my shoulder. It hurt like hell at the front of the shoulder, between the Anterior and Medial delts down deep.

Got an MRI and it suggested I had a torn Labrum. I elected to not have surgery because I had done well last time right?? ha I cannot do straight bar squats, no problem I have an EFS Yoke bar and a Spider bar. No meets in my future so I just used those to save my shoulder.

Fast forward to end of May. Was doing heavy deadlifts. Shoulder the next day was obviously fucked up. Called the doc and scheduled the surgery. 2 days later I get the surgery. I wake up and I found out that not only did I have a torn Labrum, but I had a torn Rotator cuff and a frayed to shit / partially torn biceps tendon. I also had bad arthritic spurring on the front of my Acromion, which is what destroyed my tendon. ( This was shocking to me as on the previous Sunday, 2 days earlier, I had benched 315 x 8 x 3 sets).

Anyways, doc cleaned up the bone spurs, shaved off the tip and underside of my Acromion, repaired the Labrum and rotator cuff and then detatched the biceps tendon from it’s home on the Glenoid process, got rid of the frayed shit and reanchored it in a hole drilled in the front of my humorous. This Tuesday will be 7 weeks post op. Things are going well and I expect a complete recovery and eventually I’ll be able to fully lift again. Until then I’ve just been training what’s trainable.

Short and sweet story = Doc thinks I probably blew out my labrum and partially tore my rotator cuff back on the DB presses. Then when I did those dips I finished off the rotator cuff. (after that day of dips I could literally push my shoulder out of socket. It hurts so don’t do that unless you are a weird fuck like me :slight_smile: ) The biceps was just worn out from the bone spurs.

Sorry this was so long winded and I hope this may help someone.

SD