Anyone ever tore their bicep from the bone?

[Doug Emerson]

I tore my bicep off of the bone this past weekend I am so bummed. 43 years old at the company picnic and tear my freaking bicep tendon trying out a stupid portable rock climbing wall.

Anyways I'm supposed to have surgery next Tuesday to reattach it. Has anyone gone through this? The doc said I should / could be back to normal in 6 to 8 months. I'm just bummed that I'll have to take a lot of time off from training. I know I can work on legs and core, but the thought of no upper body is a bummer.

Thanks for readin my sob story

[Doug Emerson]

Originally Posted by Doug Emerson

I tore my bicep off of the bone this past weekend I am so bummed. 43 years old at the company picnic and tear my freaking bicep tendon trying out a stupid portable rock climbing wall.

Anyways I'm supposed to have surgery next Tuesday to reattach it. Has anyone gone through this? The doc said I should / could be back to normal in 6 to 8 months. I'm just bummed that I'll have to take a lot of time off from training. I know I can work on legs and core, but the thought of no upper body is a bummer.

Thanks for readin my sob story

Logged into Crossfit fourm (haven't been there in a while) and found a few threads and some useful resources on there. Being injured sucks!!!

[Allen Yeh]

I really have nothing to contribute other than best wishes in your recovery. Remember take it slow and heal fast or go fast and heal slow.

[Doug Emerson]

Thanks Allen!!! I appreciate it

[Willson Doug]

Originally Posted by Doug Emerson

I tore my bicep off of the bone this past weekend I am so bummed. 43 years old at the company picnic and tear my freaking bicep tendon trying out a stupid portable rock climbing wall.

Anyways I'm supposed to have surgery next Tuesday to reattach it. Has anyone gone through this? The doc said I should / could be back to normal in 6 to 8 months. I'm just bummed that I'll have to take a lot of time off from training. I know I can work on legs and core, but the thought of no upper body is a bummer.

Thanks for readin my sob story

Hi
I am new to the forum and have just read your post regarding your bicep injury. I suffered the same injury about 10 years ago in a work related accident. My lower bicep was torn completely off of the bone. I had surgery the next day. I am 55 years old and competed back in the 1970's when I was in high school. I wasn't olympic lifting when I ruptured my bicep but I have started again about 1 year ago.

I can't remember how long my recovery took but I remember my surgeon telling me that if anything the muscle attachment to the bone would actually be stronger than before. The problem that can possibly arise that can affect olympic lifting is range of motion in the lower arm due to the muscle being a little shorter. This can possibley affect whether or not you can grip the bar when you have it racked on your shoulders in the clean position. It's difficult to explain but I'll try.

Hang your arm straight down at your side. Raise you lower arm until it is parallel with floor. Your arm should now form a 90 degree angle at the elbow. Rotate your hand so the palm is facing up. Do this with both arms. Now rotate your hands trying to have them facing palms down. (At this point in my case my lower arm will not rotate as far as my uninjured arm.) From this this position raise your arm until it is where it would be if you had the bar racked on your shoulders at the completion of the clean. This should tell your if you can hang onto the bar in the proper position.

In my case my lower arm just barely rotates enough to maintain a grip on the bar with my elbows nice and high. It actually hurts a little. I find that my grip width is critical. A little bit too wide or narrow and my arm hurts too much. I am constantly trying to figure out that perfect grip width because it is always a little uncomfortable. I put the bar on the squat racks with some weight on it, grab the bar and push up against it with my elbows nice and high (rack position of the clean) then I start moving my grip around to find the sweet spot. It always hurts a little and I look for where it hurts the least. Apparantly stretching exercises won't help this because (in my case) the whole muscle/tendon structure is a little shorter. The tendon was thread through 2 holes in the bone of the lower arm and tied off, or something like that, it's a long time ago and I can't remember exactly how the surgeon explained it.

Thats just my experience and hopefully yours won't affect your lifting at all. Best of luck.

Cheers

[Doug Emerson]

Wow! Just re visited this thread. I had not seen your response. I appreciate the input.

I am 7 months back from surgery. I am doing a lot of bodyweight activities, handstands, some pullups (not a lot) and not doing full ROM at the bottom I"m still a little nervous!

I have been working with Kettle Bells, doing swings, goblet squats, and presses. Not really doing any HEAVY KB snatches or cleans witht the injured arm yet, but working up to them.

I have not done any barbell lifts yet. Part of the reason for that, is because my twins have too many damn toys and have taken up too much space in the garage. I plan to resume that soon though.

I have also been surfing as much as my wife will let me I hope to be back to 100% by July 2013.

[Allen Yeh]

Glad you are on the mend!

[Willson Doug]

Glad to hear you are on the mend and keeping active. Hopefully you will not have any restriction in your range of motion in your elbow.

As I explained in my post a few months back I lost some range of motion in what I think is called pronation of the elbow. Forcing my arm past the range of motion when I have the bar in position after completeing the clean is putting pressure on my shoulder joint and starting to cause a lot of pain there and slowing down my progress, it's frustrating. I'm also afraid of causing damage to the shoulder joint. I'm going to look into physiotherapy and see if there is anything I can do to regain some range of motion. Unfortunately I think it's permanent and all I can do is keep the shoulder as healthy as possible.

If you are interested in Olympic lifting you may want to identify any range of motion issues early and address so they don't restrict you later. Just some thoughts based on my experience. Best of luck!

[Doug Emerson]

My elbow seems to have the same range of motion, but I'm not totally healed so I wouldn't say this is 100% accurate. I still have some weird pains in my wrist near the thumb in certain ranges of motion.

I've been working on building up my wrists lately. Trying to work up to doing pushups on the back of my hands. I found this on gymnastics bodies forum. I can only do them on my knees, but I can't do them 100% correct because I can't get the geometry on my injured arm the same as my good arm. (This probably doesn't make sense without pictures.) I think I could get the same angle on both arms if my wrist didn't hurt. I think the nerve is still healing.

I also have pain in the outer part of my elbow (arm hanging straight down naturally). I think this is because my arm was weak, and I was trying to get back into shape too quickly. I have tried to make myself slow down, but it's hard.

I hope you get your range back. This injury, has been really humbling. It makes you appreciate your health a lot more. I've had injuries in the past, but it has been a while. This one made me think about what is and what is not important anymore. I just want to be mobile, healthy, even if I am not as strong. I sit at a desk and don't play sports anymore, so I'm okay losing some strength. A few years ago, I don't think I'd be okay with that. Lol!