Training While Recovering from Distal Biceps Tendon Rupture

Training Q&A [Moderated]
1

I tore my distal biceps tendon on my left (supinated) arm while attempting a 655lb deadlift in a mock meet on 1/27/18. I had surgery to repair it (single incision, endobutton) on 2/12/18. Currently still in a splint and I plan to follow my surgeon’s instructions for rehabbing the arm, but I’m hoping I can get some input on how to keep training the rest of my body productively in the meantime.

I ordered a safety squat bar and I figure that I can use that for squats and also good mornings to hit my posterior chain since I can’t deadlift.

I tried one armed deadlifts on 2/15, went up to 275x5. These felt awkward and I suspect that if I loaded them heavy enough to be a useful stimulus I would probably risk injuring my good arm/shoulder. Would you agree?

I also did some one arm dumbbell benching with my right arm. Is it a good idea to keep training my good side unilaterally? I saw someone suggest that training the good side could help minimize atrophy and strength loss in the injured side, but I don’t know if that’s true or just broscience. Would keeping one side strong cause problems when returning to normal lifting, or would the injured side be able to catch up easily? Any advice here would be greatly appreciated.

2

Very sorry to hear it, Tim. Glad you got it repaired and I’m confident you’ll be able to work back to your former glory.

I would agree with your approach - basically the more you can do, the better. If I were in your position I’d be on the SSB as soon as I could, leg pressing/belt squatting, maybe doing back extensions and/or SSB good mornings (which I don’t normally do), and yes, doing 1-arm rows and presses.

I recently re-tweeted a new article that may be relevant here, though I’ll admit I haven’t had time to read it in detail:

https://t.co/2viwXDGuNR

3

Thank you, that’s very encouraging. I will keep doing the unilateral stuff while my left arm is out of commission.

4

What am I going to do, not train?

1 Like
5

Tim, your balls are far heavier than that barbell.

6

Holy S*** man, that was hilarious, inspiring, and creative all in one shot. Gotta train and train you did!

7

Looks like you just invented the Belt Deadlift. Time to design a product, market and sell it.