bicep pain

[prrc]

For the last month all of a sudden I have had some pain in my upper forearm and lower part of my bicep. I have tried giving it a rest for a couple of weeks. But no sucess. I have an elbow brace I have been using and it helps but still not the same as it was.
I have no pain when not working bicep's. Daily work is no problem. The funny thing is it's my left arm. Although I;m right handed my left has always been stronger. And now it gives out long before the right does. I cant seem to get a good pump working bicep's with out the pain. on a scale from 1- 10, ten being the worst. I would say its a 4. But just not the same stregth I use to have. Any ideas?
Thanks Tim

[ScubaDave]

Well...

Probably a good idea to see a doctor if you can. That being said, it sounds like a case of tendonitis (basically tennis elbow). The treatment for this is rest, ice and then LIGHT exercises after a couple of weeks rest. You can read up on it. but I'd forgo the bicep exercises for a while. However, always best to get advice from a doc.

Good luck

[Bando]

Is there a chance it's an elbow problem that's just presenting itself as forearm/bicep pain? What kind of bicep work are you doing?

[plumher]

got something similar OP.
Do you feel it when doing back work also? If so it could be your brachialis. its a pretty short muscle that originates midway on the humerous and crosses across the inside of the elbow and attaches to the ulna(forearm bone). I'll quote a post from another site that gives a good procedure to deal with it.


<quote from intense muscle discussion board>

Okay... here is what I would recommend: First - my standard answer of ice massage and cross fiber friction massage to the affected tendon. Because you mentioned that it was tendonitis, I am assuming you can find the point of irritation by poking around on the tendon? What you will do is take a block of ice (fill up a paper cup, freeze it, then peel off enough paper to expose the ice) and massage the area for 5 minutes, or until it is bright red and numb. Then you take your thumb or your index and middle finger and push into the area of tenderness that you found before - you are going to push hard - and move side to side going across the fibers of the tendon. This typically doesn't feel good - that is one of the reasons we ice it first. You will do that for 3-5 minutes, or until you get tired - then ice massage for another 3-5 minutes. Do the ice massage alone 2-5x per day, and the friction massage once per day with the ice massage.
This will help to "break up" the damaged fibers. The ice helps with the pain, and stops the proliferation of abnormal blood vessals that come along with tendonosis and weaken the tendon. You continue to exercise with relatively lighter weights - and the tenson on the muscle/tendon will help the tendon to heal with the fibers in proper alignment, and hopefully without pain.
If you can get ahold of an e-stim machine that does interferrential electrical stimulation - use it. That is going to help with the healing and the pain.
Also look into the elbow sleeves that InHuman is always going on about - those will keep the area warm while you workout which may help... I know the knee sleeves helped immensely in dealing with my knee issues.

[gymcandy10]

hi,
i think firstly u see the doctor and doing daily exercise and take rest. i think it relaxing u .

[justasquid]

Im actually resting a few weeks right now from the same thing as you described. Well, I also did something bad to my shoulder, so Im taking some time off.

I had it my right arm everyonce in awhile over the years, and now its in my left arm. I've tried to work through it, but it never gets any better unless I rest it. And it takes a good month of no bicep or back workout to get it go away. But, its always gone away with this method. Personally, I think its my own fault. I tend to go too heavy on days I feel really good. I can always look back in my workout journal and see some heavier than normal lift and recall the next day feeling the tightness start. And as pluhmer said, its really hard to do certain back excercises as well.

the funny part is, if I lift through the pain, after my first set, the pain subsides enough to continue through the workout, but my strength is way down like you describe.

[ChimarraoMate]

I pulled a bicept tendon neer the shoulder in the left arm. The doctor put me on NSAI drugs and said I could keep lifting. Within 2 weeks the pain went completely away, and now my left arm is much stronger than my right. I wish I had seen him sooner. I lifted with that pain for 2 months, only because I was still seeing gains, and the pain would kind of go away during workouts.

Pulled may be a bit strong, he said I put a small vertical tear in the tendon.

[ironwill2008]

For the last month all of a sudden I have had some pain in my upper forearm and lower part of my bicep. I have tried giving it a rest for a couple of weeks. But no sucess.

By what you've posted, it's obvious that whatever your problem might be, it isn't going to heal on it's own.

Time to see your doc. If you continue to attempt to self-treat, you may wind up with a chronic problem that dogs you for the rest of your life.

[prrc]

Thanks to all that have replied. Looks like I'm not the only one that has been down this road. Guess I trip to the Doctor is in order.
As some others have said after the first set the pain kind of goes away but just gives up the strengh much quicker than normal.
Thanks again Tim

[wild1poet2]

There is inflamation in there. When you work it the pain tends to go away. Very common. More difficult is what is causing it. It doesn't sound like tennis elbow because it is on the inside and hits your bicep. So it may just be strain on the bicep tendon and since you mention forearm pain I will guess it is in the distal bicep tendon area.

I have a partially torn right distal bicep tendon. I've had it for some time and the doc expected I was going to completely tear it off long ago. And then we were going to have to surgically reattach it. Because it is torn .... it easily becomes inflamed. Which sux cuz I cannot go heavy on bicep isolation work. My friend tore his distal bicep tendon clean off and had the surgery. Took a year to rehab but he is 100% now. I just hate the idea of a year rehabbing it. My doc wants to go in and slice the tendon the rest of the way and then reattach it. I keep postponing it.

You didn't mention that it came on suddenly so I am guessing you do not have a tear. It may be the way you are working it. Try an EZ curl bar. Try hammer curls. Experiment. Make sure you lower the weight slowly on the eccentric part of curl movements. Don't let the weight drop cuz this will your bicep tendon. Does it hurt when you do pull ups or chin ups? Usually pull ups are less strain on the distal bicep tendons than chin ups.

On deadlifts with heavy weight use an overhand grip instead of the staggered one. The overhand grip puts less strain on the bicep when deadlifting. You may need to use lifting straps when you deadlift this way with the heavier weight.
Good luck and be persistent.

[prrc]

Well here's the low down after taking a trip to go see the doc. today. Strained left bicep tendon.Doesn't feel its torn.
No lifting or very light for 4 weeks, Put me on anti inflammatories, He also said had I keep at it and the tendon had torn or separated altogether surgery would be in order and about a year to get back to normal.
Tim

[gittinbig]

Well here's the low down after taking a trip to go see the doc. today. Strained left bicep tendon.Doesn't feel its torn.
No lifting or very light for 4 weeks, Put me on anti inflammatories, He also said had I keep at it and the tendon had torn or separated altogether surgery would be in order and about a year to get back to normal.
Tim

Went through exactly the same thing and trust me, listen to what the doc says. I didn't and ended up having to take a couple months off from any type of upper body lifting. That pretty much put me back to ground zero and I had to start all over with my transformation. I am still fighting to get back to where I was 4 months later. I actually ended up tearing the muscle and the tendon by not listening to the doc. Very friggin painful and a very bad idea. Just take the time off now rather than extended time off later. Best of luck with it

[shlderpainrick]

Sorry to hear about your pain. The best thing to do is see a doctor. If that doesn't work and in case prescribed drug don't work. Maybe try getting a massage or sort of reflexologist. Also, you can take Simple Stretches, Range Of Motion and Strength Exercises. If all these doesn't work, I don't know what else to advice lol. I hope recover

[prrc]

Well 2 weeks off the bicep training. It's hard not to train back/bicep but I have 2 more weeks to go. The arm feels great. But I will hold off another 2 weeks before easing back into the swing of training. Still going to the gym on my regular training days just cut out back and bicep day. Doing cardio instead. Why? I guess because I can't do much else. Come on 2 weeks.

[prrc]

Just an update. started back in slow with training 3 weeks ago. First time very light weight to test the waters. everything seemed ok. Week 2 a little heavier sore the next day but not bad, a little pain. week 3 back to ground zero.4 weeks of physical therapy. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr......