I have a mild bicep strain. I think I got it from squatting. Bench pressing seems to be out the question for the time being. I’ll deadlift with straps and squat with a SSB.
Is there any way to work on my bench pressing muscles? Upper back work feels okay while I’m doing, but I’m not sure if it’ll make it worse.
[quote]Fletch1986 wrote:
I have a mild bicep strain. I think I got it from squatting. Bench pressing seems to be out the question for the time being. I’ll deadlift with straps and squat with a SSB.
Is there any way to work on my bench pressing muscles? Upper back work feels okay while I’m doing, but I’m not sure if it’ll make it worse. [/quote]
I strained my right bicep a year or so back arm wrestling. Upper back actually felt fine like you said. Curls only irritated it a little bit. What killed it was benching. I laid off of pressing for a couple weeks. My advice, just go ahead and get it over with. Better to lay off for two weeks than to have sub-par training for 6 months because you never let it heal.
[quote]Fletch1986 wrote:
I have a mild bicep strain. I think I got it from squatting. Bench pressing seems to be out the question for the time being. I’ll deadlift with straps and squat with a SSB.
Is there any way to work on my bench pressing muscles? Upper back work feels okay while I’m doing, but I’m not sure if it’ll make it worse. [/quote]
Sounds like you are supporting the weight too much with your arms rather than letting your back support it and pulling down with your arms, may not be the case but it sure sounds like the symptoms.
My suggestion is to regularly ice it and increase upper back work. Band pull aparts, face pulls, rear delt raises, dumbbell rows, things like that. Light but with high reps.
If it does not feel any better after doing that for a couple weeks, get your ass to the doctor, or you could go to the doc right away.
Super light/high rep curl work like 2 pound dumbells for 100 reps can really help.
Also try get some ART therapy on the surrounding areas or even directly depending on how bad the strain is
Ha!
My shit’s been killing me for like the past four weeks, and I don’t think there’s anything mild about mine.
It hurts like the dickens when I barbell curl, do forearm work, pull-ups, etc.
The way I see it, I’m hurt…not injured, so it’s something I just have to work around.
Well… It’ll be an opportunity to practice my deadlift more and work on my back and legs. It would probably be good for general shoulder health to work on my upper back anyway. I’ll try some of these suggestions. At least it doesn’t bother me much at all if I’m not doing anything physical.
I think I got the problem from not warming up properly and torqueing my elbow too far forward and that’s what happened to give. I’ve also been deadlifting more frequently without straps which could be a contributing factor. And that was on high bar squats… Might be a time to focus on internal rotation ROM while I’m at it so I don’t end up this problem again or another.
What’s some good grip work that doesn’t strain the biceps too much?
Do you deadlift with a mixed grip? I know the whole mixed grip/biceps pain thing has been battered into the ground, but as soon as I switched to a hook grip last year, my biceps tendon problems disappeared. I had always attributed them to the squat but they seem to have at least originated in using a mixed grip.
[quote]Fletch1986 wrote:
What’s some good grip work that doesn’t strain the biceps too much?[/quote]
I hate to be a nuisance, but grip is probably the last thing I’d do haha. Grip can be extremely taxing on your bicep tendon. In fact if you get hurt with grip stuff it’ll most likely show up in your bicep area rather than your forearm or hand.
Rest is probably the best option, but I do wonder how it would feel using a slingshot/chains and shortening the ROM by doing floor presses?
[quote]MightyMouse17 wrote:
Rest is probably the best option, but I do wonder how it would feel using a slingshot/chains and shortening the ROM by doing floor presses?[/quote]
I can even feel strain from just supporting the bar with my elbows locked out. Of course it gets worse the closer the bar gets to my chest.
[quote]Fletch1986 wrote:
I can even feel strain from just supporting the bar with my elbows locked out. Of course it gets worse the closer the bar gets to my chest. [/quote]
Well that sucks!
[quote]RampantBadger wrote:
Super light/high rep curl work like 2 pound dumbells for 100 reps can really help.
Also try get some ART therapy on the surrounding areas or even directly depending on how bad the strain is[/quote]
Agree 100%. I did 5lb Hammer Curls for 100 on each arm every training day when my bicep tendon was acting up, and it helped a lot. Obviously, ice, rest and NSAIDs are going to help, as well.
Another thing to consider while you are off benching is isolation movements for the involved musculature, i.e., various flys, delt raises and tricep work.
But, if you can find a pressing variation that works, you should work that like a rented mule while you’re on the mend. Your injury sounds more severe than what I dealt with, but I was able to do light dumbbell benching in lieu of barbell benching. I also found that benching with very tucked elbows took some pressure off the bicep. Overheads are good here, too. Bottom line, If you can find a pressing variation that doesn’t make it worse, I would rely on that in the meantime.
[quote]Fletch1986 wrote:
I have a mild bicep strain. I think I got it from squatting. Bench pressing seems to be out the question for the time being. I’ll deadlift with straps and squat with a SSB.
Is there any way to work on my bench pressing muscles? Upper back work feels okay while I’m doing, but I’m not sure if it’ll make it worse. [/quote]
FWIW, my left biceps always hurt after benching and squatting. What worked for me was sticking a Yoga block from Wally World under my tee shirt. This “2” board press is a shoulder saver. That limited ROM really helped.
In my case My biceps tendon (long head) was frayed almost to the point of letting go. Only found out about it when I woke up from my rotatator / labrum tear surgury. See, I had some arthritic spurring going on in my shoulders and those spurs acted like a cheese grator on the tendon where it goes thru the shoulder.
Give the “manpon” a try to see if it gives any relief. Hope that helps you Fletch man.
EDIT - I almost forgot. When squatting I had a bad habit of holding onto the bar with my left arm while walking forward after the set. I was pretty much putting myself in a kimora, like a fucktard. Once I stopped that, it got “better” but with my issue I could get no real relief. Maybe you do something similar? IDK just tossing out ideas.
[quote]RampantBadger wrote:
Super light/high rep curl work like 2 pound dumbells for 100 reps can really help.
[/quote]
I just rehabbed some elbow/hammer curl muscle issues doing this. The rule of thumb I use if is it hurts less after you finish than it did when you started, you are doing it right.