Torn Tendon/Ligament

[Jason Ackerman]

Has anyone ever seen the injury where the tendon connecting the bicep, tears and shoots up the arm? It happened to a member last night doing weighted pullups. Any ideas on how to recover from it? Also, what can I do to prevent something like this from happening again?

[Jerimiah Childress]

Yes, it is not an uncommon injury. You either get surgery to repair it or you just live with it. Prevention is a little more difficult. Weighted pull-ups are a really big tax on the biceps, and need to be worked up to slowly. You should have significant experience with pull-ups and build up slowly in weight on weighted pull-ups.

[Steven Low]

Yeah, that will probably take some surgery if you want it fixed.

I'm not sure you really did anything wrong though. Genetically the person could've had weak tendons... or even weak tendons because of years from playing sports... or tendonosis. I'm sure you're pretty good with working clients up into workouts through scaling and that's all you really can do besides making sure they have good form.

[Benjamin Wold]

That was me.
I've been doing pullups as a part of my workout for nearly 20 years now so I'm no stranger to them. Weighted pullups have also been part of my workouts over the years. I had been having some pain in my forearm, elbow and bicep for a few weeks and decided to give it one more workout before taking sometime off. I switched grips to a chinup to get one more rep and heard it tear immediately. At least the pain in the forearm is gone now. So I've got that going for me

I have to start listening to my trainer when he tells me to listen to my 38 y/o body.