Hey, a while back I posted a thread entiteled “busted bicep” which detailed my problems with what I thought was bicep tendonitis of the elbow. I received good feedbak (especially about ART whiuch I still intend to persue when I get some time off of work). The problem is now my brachiradualis (sorry spelling) has started to swell artound the elbow and I starting to suspect this is where the problem lies not in the bicep tendon itself. Any ideas, could I have torn my brachioradialis? I still working out, but no curls, and no movements that hurt at all. Comments, testimoniala, and or adivce (have already begun the process of setting up ART appt.)is more than welcom.
Ice it and immobilize it. And you probably won’t like to hear it but stop working out anything that uses that arm even if it doesn’t hurt. The problem with tendons are that they don’t heal as quick as muscles do from working out and therefore develop micro-trauma’s and tears that cause tendonitis. Even if you rehab this injury you will have to re-evaluate and/or modify your workout so as to accommodate tendon recovery. A good way to do it is to periodize your training including periods of total time off (Eg. week or two) every now and again so as to give everything a chance to totally recover and heal. Goodluck…tendonitis sucks.
Your’re right, I didn’t want to hear that I should not work out, but the truth hurts, so thanks. Iceing def helps, as does motrin, by the way whats the prognosis on tendonitis, am I goung to take 12 weeks off lose sustantial muscel that I worked hard to put on and then I have it flair up again as soon I start lifting. Just wish I knew the best course of action for this thing, besides the ice/motrin.
Went to the ortho today. He looked at my arm noted the inflamtion on the side of my elbow which mentioned was similar to tennis elbow except the inflamation was a littel further up the arm than usually occurs. He perfomed some hands on tests to further check my arm (making me work against his resistance, etc.) His conclusion: There are in his words “a couple of things going on with my arm” one invoving the biceps tendon/muscle and the other involveing the forearm muscle that runs slightly above my elbow. He said there wasn’t a tear and just kind of dismissed the bruise above my elbow joint (where the swelling is) as broken cappilaries (thought thats what a bruise was) and that my problem was tendonits/soft tissue injury from strong gripping and overuse when lifting weights. His recomendation: Continue working out!!!; just avoid any movements that agrivate it (he said I would know what they were), and to sart back into bicep curls gradually (I told him I could only curl 15 lb dbells without pain and that I hadn’t curled for several weeks). He said that if I continue to do things that aggrivate it while working out it will never heal and possibly become chronic (its been going on since January which he knew because he repeated it back to me-I thought it was chronic), but that i should continue to workout as it was an important part of the healing process (very different from alot of advice I have received about total layoff from upper body for a month or more)-so I have set up my workout to avoid anything that will overly stress my forearm (no heavy gripping, but some lighter stuff) and no heavy movements with back or bis (preexhausting with dbell pullovers). BTW, when I asked him about an MRI he said it was not needed at this point and basically recomened to me the R.I.C.E. advice which I am already following. He also gave me a script and 15 days worth of free samples of the anti-inflamatory Bextra Valdecoxib caps (20 mg) which he says are safer than Vioxx and you only have to take tham once a day. He seemed to be nice and knowledgeable, but also very busy, and although he was pretty patient with my questions, I could still tell he was trying to rush me through the system. Anyway, below is my nutritional and training plan of attack please critique:
3 Day Split (Bi rehab 2)
-4 weeks: 8-12 rep range (except bi’s)
-positive faliure on all sets without *
-ice left elbow immediately after workout for 20 mins, and 2-4 times a day every day
-take anti-inflammatory medication daily
-Glucosamine / Chondroitin apoximately 3 grams each
-3 tbls flax seed oil daily
-concentrate on form and feeling the muscle on all exercises
-Meals: 4x600 (approx.) +2 shakes (30+ grams protein per meal, 30- grams carbs per meal except after workout up to 150, no carbs for last meal of day).
-after 4 weeks take 2 weeks off
continue iceing twice a day
Monday
Back/Delts/Bis
D-bell pullovers 10-12
1.*60x12
1 min
2.*70x12
1 min
3.*80x10
1 min
4.80x
Bbell rows 8-12
1.*135x12
1 min
2.*135x12
2 min
3.*135x12
2 min
4.135x11
2 min
Hammer pull downs
1.*140x12
rest 2 min
2.180x10
Machine lat raise
1.*90x10
1 min
2.110x10
Rotary Delt Machine (Paramount)
1.*40x12
1 min
2.*85x10
2 min
3.130x6
1 min
D-bell curl (simultaneous)
1.*8x20
1 min
2.*10x15
1 min
3.*15x15
1 min
4.*15x15
1 min
5. *15x15
Tuesday
HIIT (20 min on treadmill)
Abs
SB LegLifts
1.1x12
Incline Sit Ups
1.1x12
SB Crunches
1.1x12
Crunch Machine
1.1x12
Vacuums
4x12
Wednesday
Chest/tris/forearms
Bench
1.*135x10
1 min
2.*185x8
1 min
3.*205x8
2 min
4.225x91/2
2 min
Incline Hammer
1.*225x5
2 min
2.225x6
2 min
Hammer Press
1.315x8
1 min 50 is the goal 1 min rest
Dips
1.12
2.9
3.10
4.9
5.10
1 min
Strive tri machine
1.45x8
1 min
2.45x8
forearm bbell curls (behind back
1.110x12
rest 1 min,
2.110x12
reverse d-bell
1.15x12
2.15x12
Thursday
HIIT (20 min on treadmill)
Abs
SB LegLifts
1.1x12
Incline Sit Ups
1.1x12
SB Crunches
1.1x12
Crunch Machine
1.1x12
Vacuums
4x12 (hold for 12 seconds)
Friday
Legs/Traps
Leg ex.
1.*
1 min
2.*
1 min
3.150x
Squat
1.*135x12
rest 1 min
2.*185x10
1 min
3.225x
2 min
Leg press
1.
Leg curl 6-10 2 min
-
90x10
2 min rest
2.130x8
1 min rest
SLDL
1.135x
Seated Calf Raise 10-12
1.
1 min
2.*
1 min
Calf Raises 15-20 2 min
1.*220x20
1 min rest
2.495x15
Shrugs on calf raise machine
1.*300x15,20
1 min
2.495x15,16
1 min
3.495x15,16
Hammer Shrug Machine
1.180x
Saturday
HIIT (20 min on treadmill)
Abs
SB LegLifts
1.1x12
Incline Sit Ups
1.1x12
SB Crunches
1.1x12
Crunch Machine
1.1x12
Vacuums
4x12 (hold for 12 seconds)
Sunday
Off
I would also be interested in this response. I have posted earlier that I am dealing with a diagnosed bulged disk in my neck that is causing pain in my right arm and a tingling thumb. I felt 90% on Sunday and worked out. I paid for it the next three days. I am going crazy not working out but I don’t want to make it worst. It seems like everything you do involves the bicep including lifting weights to load the bar for leg work. I am dying to get back into the routine but am afraid I will keep myself side-lined longer.
I know what you mean about loading the squat bar and feeling it in your bi’s. I’ve started stepping up on box keeping the 45’s at waist level and sort of useing one knee to push tham up and onto the the bar. As far as agrivating it in the gym, I thought the same thing, but the ortho said no I should continue to work out carefully, and avoid the one or two exercises that really hurt that area. For me that means no deadlifts or any other exercise were I have to pull heavy weights and most importantly pullups and heavy curls. Beisdes that I dont know what else to do, I’m constanly useing the arm at work to move metal signs and chains so I might as well try some moderate, theraputic workouts in the gym.I’m going to try the above program for 4 weeks and then reavaluate the situation. Ifs its gotten any worse I will defintely have to take another course of action. Take heart, where there’s a will, theres a way!
If you have pain in your elbow when squatting you need to move your grip out as far as possible and get some elbow sleeves.
I’ve heard that from researching for my own problem, but my swelling (brachiradialis?) comes from gripping heavy wieghts (also used to use the Captain of Crush grippers which probably made it worse)and the pain comes from anything invloveing biceps (but escpecially curls). Even so I can still strain that area indirectly when trying to bench heavy, etc. so now I’m concentrating on more moderate weights and ‘tight’ form.
To an extent, I feel your pain, dude. I’ll give you a quick list from head to toe of my issues: lower back tingling/stiffness, tendonitis in both wrists, left knee pain, and chronic shin splints. The back and knee were from ignorance and poor working out habits from my youth, the other issues were more from genetics/lack of flexibility (and a little bit of ingorance from not knowing what to do with this).
What I’m trying to do now is pay much more attention to warming up and stretching…the sucky boring shit that I need to make a priority in order for me to stop from adding injuries to the pile. For example, the wrist tendonitis completely kills me from bench pressing. Part of my warm up on bench/arm days are to do some extremely light wrist curls (4 sets of 20, with wrists both up and down)and putting on wrist wraps that are wrapped as tight as possible so that my wrist doesn’t bend back from the weight. It’s helping.
As other people have suggested,strenghtening the injury as well as the supporting muscles around it, as well as warm-up, stretching and paying extreme attention to what your body is telling you, should help a lot.
Wow, that list makes me feel like I’m just whinning, but still having a constant pumped feeling in part of my forearm is bothersome (so is the bicep tendon pain). Did you ever have to suck it up and take time off for an extended period if time?
Yeah, there is definitely points where you need to be careful and take a break. Another thing I forgot to mention…ice. Make ice your best friend. It throbs…ice it for ten minutes to reduce inflammation. It won’t cure it, but it could reduce the inflammation and save you from causing further damage.
I have a pain scale (the not healthy pain for injuries) and that’s how I judge. I’ve had some of these injuries for so long that I know each of them well and I can easily rate the pain level on a scale from one to ten…if something’s at an eight or higher, then I need to leave it alone.
With my back, where it throbs and tingles, I am going to try to develop it and see if that takes care of the problem. Doing labor work about ten years ago, the message from the bosses was all safety…“lift with your legs, not your back.” While it is true that people often have terrible form picking things up, I kinda got programmed thinking that the lower back needed to be treated kinda gently, and not pounded to develop your core! Now with the beauty of the internet, I’m finding sites like this where I am learning killer exercises…between proper ergonomic posture (sitting upright with heels off the floor and not slouching my back) and exercises like good mornings, deadlifts, etc., whether it helps the injury or not, I need to strenghten my lower back in a big way!!!
I was 135 lbs. in high school and way too overly barbaric (in a wreckless way) to gain strength, with no knowledge whatsoever about stretching, warming up, etc. I used to laugh at older people that complained about their aches and pains…then like a dipshit I would throw some weight around in a careless fashion…now I’m one of those people with aches and pains that I laughed at just ten years ago. There is no greater enemy to anyone then ignorance…
I feel the same way, about 10 years ago I thought I was invincible-now my body breaks down like all the older guys I used to sneer at.