I’ve been suffering from what I think is bicep tendinopathy for a while (I can trigger the pain by flexing my bicep)
I assumed it was due to low bar squat, so have switched to high bar, tried with different grips and loads with no luck.
I also get the pain when overhead pressing, but not when benching. Therefore I assume overhead press is the culprit - would you agree?
Perhaps, but whether the overhead press is the “culprit” or not isn’t a particularly important or useful distinction to make. It is more likely that there is not one single isolable culprit, but rather the cumulative load of the area over time has exceeded its tolerance.
What is more important is how you move forward from here. We discuss this approach in our article on tendinopathy; I agree with your plan to temporarily modify the squat setup and grip. You may need to modify your overhead press programming (or perhaps load, tempo, exercise selection - as outlined in our content on managing pain in training). You may also need to introduce some direct isolation work to the area, although the specifics of what this looks like will depend on your symptoms and tolerance.
Thank you Austin - have set up a plan to rehab it by modifying both the squat and press.
Regarding isolation work, I assume it’s hard to say but would you recommend this being focused around the shoulder, or also doing things like light bicep curls etc?
Symptoms are typically always present for me - pain in the arm in certain positions, hurts if I wake after sleeping on it, pain when I tense the bicep regardless of whether I’ve been training or not, and pain when doing curls.
I would also incorporate things like tempo curls, yes.
Nice one, thanks Austin
I had a similar issue a few months back. Felt pain 20-25 minutes into a workout everyday regardless of what exercises I was doing. Tried identifying which exercise was causing it and realized the source of my pain was jerking plates and dumbbells while racking/re-racking.
Thank you.
I’ve been focusing on really creating a ‘shelf’ when squatting, as I realised I’ve been holding a lot of weight in my arms - focusing on keeping super tight, as well as changing grip seems to have helped a little. Have also dropped weight on the press and increased reps to where the pain is either non-existent or at least tolerable - again, this seems to have helped a little.