Biceps Soreness - This Is A First For Me

Bigger Stronger Leaner Ellington Darden HIT Coaching
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I have been training HIT for 35 years, mostly using Nautilus machines. I have tried a wide variety of training routines including pre-exhaustion, double pre-exhaustion, negatives etc. Not one of those routines made my actual biceps muscle sore, not nautilus biceps, immediately followed by negative chins, nothing. Sure there was soreness when I bent my arm but it was in the joint not in the biceps muscle. That changed on the weekend when I tried a 60 sec up, 60 sec down curl on the Nautilus Power Plus Preacher machine, followed immediately by 30-10-30 behind neck pulldown with a parallel grip.

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Wow I can’t understand this at all ? I’ve been sore in the bicep muscle so many times I can’t count it, at least it seems I have? Of course that didn’t exactly translate into any kind of serious gains . I’ve got to go try that 60 second stuff!
Scott

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Scott, are you sure it was your actual biceps and not the tendons? I have had my arms incredibly sore but not in the actual biceps.

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I guess that’s a hard thing to tell if it’s the actual bicep muscle or the tendons running underneath that is sore? I don’t recall many times where it was sore near the end of the bicep in the joint near the forearm ? Why do you think your bicep is sore this time after not being sore from all those former tough workouts where it didn’t get sore .
Scott

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Previously after some brutal negative chins, I would experience soreness when I bent my arm. If I tightened my bicep with my arm bent, there would be no soreness in the actual bicep, now I have soreness in the bicep with no soreness bending the arm. I am going to chalk up the bicep soreness to the actual arm workout itself. Least us old guys got something to toss back and forth.

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I guess I have to get my bicep sore just to see where the soreness really is!
Scott

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Ive done the 30/30/30, but i think adhd would kick in b4 60 seconds!!

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So today just for you I over did it on biceps doing at least 4 extra hard sets to failure with a different grip trying to get them sore. So far nothing? Maybe tomorrow they will hurt?
Scott

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You’ve been training so long and so consistently, you may have to move Heaven and earth to feel sore and some people just seem to be super sensitive to soreness and others never do. Mentzer said he was the latter… Heck I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know

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I read a long time ago to do one exercise for the specific body part for about 10 sets to determine what part of the muscle becomes sore…if you are not sore, then try a different exercise

I can’t remember where I read this

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So today, the day after my workout if I flex my bicep hard I might feel a tad of soreness in the muscle but nothing at the elbow tendons ? Maybe tomorrow?
Scott

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So yesterday I was having an off day where I couldn’t get half my usual reps and instead of doing my usual 30 10 30 on pullovers I dropped the weight and did 30 reps to failure! Today as far as I can tell I can feel it in my lats but not the tendons . Are you interested in this Kim?
Scott

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That is interesting, in my prior experience high reps have always produced muscular rather than tendon soreness but I rarely employ that method of training. Several years ago I did Darden’s double 50 calf routine with my brother in law and the soreness in our calfs was so intense for a week that we could not straighten our legs and that was with doing some light calf raises to try and alleviate the soreness. Were you using a Nautilus pullover? I got my lats very sore with 1 set of Nautilus pullovers 10 reps to failure, immediately followed by pulldowns 10 reps to failure, immediately followed by negative chins, too hard for a 70 year too repeat very often.

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Do you want tendon soreness? I would think of that as a bad thing

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Look back at the original post, the fellow said he never got his bicep muscle sore just the tendons until he did something different for him. I don’t recall ever feeling anything in my tendons?
Scott

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I understand what the OP was saying, and I too have never experienced tendon soreness, but I certainly don’t want to either lol

At this point I don’t even get much for muscle soreness. I’ll be somewhat sore, but nothing close to debilitating or painful. I attribute this to the muscles being conditioned from each muscle group being trained 3-4 times per week. High localized frequency seems to be a great way to reduce soreness and also spread out weekly volume.

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I do have to say that I’m liking how sore my lats feel today after doing those 30 reps to failure. They haven’t gotten any where near this sore from my typical workout of 30 10 30 pullovers, rows and BNTA but maybe it means nothing ? Something to think about?
Scott

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Entsminger,

It means you have accomplished something new in order to surprise the musclegroup. Great strategy against adaptation, as long as the soreness is within reason. Keep varying your workouts.

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Dorian Yates did a YouTube video…there is no reason to vary workouts if what you are doing works, just vary your intensity

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In my experience soreness comes from:

  1. Doing things I’m not yet adapted to
  2. Dehydration
  3. Working a muscle I’m the stretched position (although this could just be number 1 in a different form)
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