Bicep Tear

Anybody out there with this unfortunate experience willing share their story?

Seeing the doc tomorrow. Seems like surgery is common and recovery takes a minute!

All stories / perspectives appreciated!

Thanks,

Tim 

Tore off both proximal bicep tendons 2018-Had surgery to reattach-Doing great

Thanks to both of you for sharing.

Ruptured distal tendon in 2018. Surgical repair and then steady strength training for 3 months to return to climbing exactly 5 months after surgery. Important to get surgery ASAP 

Ruptured my left distal bicep tendon @ age 30

Had it repaired with an endobutton procedure within 1 week. 

Returned to light climbing 90 days post op.

Full strength (& more) in 8-10 months.

6 years post op, no problems at all. In fact I trust that arm more than the other.

Was your break distal or proximal? Dominant hand or non dominant hand?

Good luck!

Distal here as well. 3cm retraction from rupture. Surgery (button procedure) 4 days after injury. Was recommended to take 6 months off afterwards. They wanted the longer period due to fear Id re-injure.  Recovery went well despite PT being a bit of a joke IMOP. Mostly just mountain biked. Was bouldering double digits again ~9 months after the injury. I did have minor pain when I began climbing again. I do not feel that my injured arm is weaker than my non-injured. 3 years later, no issues. 

Tore one of mine in 2012.  Never had anything done, lost a tiny bit of strength.

Wow, thanks for all the stories, everybody!

Went to doc yesterday morning and I am so fortunate to say that I have only suffered a muscle tear and I’ll be back to tryin hard in 6-8 weeks. Was pretty sure I’d need something given all of the bruising and pain but doesn’t seem to be that serious in the end. 

Thanks again to everyone that shared here, happy to hear you have all made full recoveries and are trying hard!

Muscle tears can be worse if the muscle belly is fully torn. It’s really difficult to suture, like trying to repair wet spaghetti. Smaller muscle tears heal well on their own though. 

I'd love to hear how all of you actually tore the bicep muscle/tendon. So far I only know of people doing it with a mixed grip deadlift or like my grandpa who did it when he reached behind his back to grab a pillow. I'd love to hear some stories in between those two extremes so I know what to watch out for (I seem to be very injury prone in general and exercise a lot more caution in my movements than a lot of climbers). 

I tore the long head of my left bicep (dominant side) trying to be somebody while doing hang-cleans (improper catch). Many months later, and a second opinion, the long head of my bicep was repaired via tenodesis. Definitely worth getting done, and the recovery and bounce back were quicker than I expected. It's disheartening when it happens, but now it feels like such a short time that impacted my climbing. I got surgery on July 11th and was TR by the end of August and led some more mellow stuff by the end of September. I would say the full range of motion and strength was there by the end of NOV. The tear happened at 29, surgery at 30.

Awesome, thanks for the input. Happy to hear your recovery went well and you’re back climbing. Im feeling incredibly grateful for having just a muscular tear (level 2, apparently) which in the end requires a fair amount of rest and then slowly ramping up with isometric exercise and light band work, to start.
Kudos to all of you who have had to go under the bright lights and cold steel. Recovery times seem to be reasonable but just the thought of having to get surgery was mentally taxing. I’m super relieved. Happy climbing!

To respond to how I tore the muscle: I’m actually not sure. There was no specific moment. I was increasing my climbing quite a bit though, in preparation for a trip (climbing 8 or so pitches of 511+ up to 12d/13. I also work part time as an arborist. So I was definitely taxing my muscles heavily. If I did anything out of the ordinary it would have been when I was ascending a fixed line for tree work. I try to be very aware of using both my arms / sides of my body when lifting and using tools. Reality is that my right arm is weaker as it isn’t my dominant side. I decided to use my right arm to jug / ascend the line and that could have been the straw that broke the camel’s back. Again, I never felt anything tear or acute pain. I wasn’t until about 24/36 hours after that I noticed tension, a small bump presenting on the bicep and about two days later I had the common bruising around the elbow where blood pools and looks gnarly but isn’t a big deal in reality.

Thanks again to everyone sharing their experiences! 

Tim, I had a complete distal biceps tear about 13 years ago ago.  Had Surgery and was out for a few months.  No issues since

Here's another post with more details: mountainproject.com/forum/t…

David Deville wrote:

I'd love to hear how all of you actually tore the bicep muscle/tendon. So far I only know of people doing it with a mixed grip deadlift or like my grandpa who did it when he reached behind his back to grab a pillow. I'd love to hear some stories in between those two extremes so I know what to watch out for (I seem to be very injury prone in general and exercise a lot more caution in my movements than a lot of climbers). 

Pulling on a tufa in a roof with left while reaching up with my right and feet kicked off glassy limestone causing shock loading on tendon in a positoon that isolated the stress all onto tendon. Easy to imagine - reach up and rotate your hand as if you are holding a tufa and see what it does to the distal tendon  - all the weight onto one point 

Both my biceps are ripped.

David Deville wrote:

I'd love to hear how all of you actually tore the bicep muscle/tendon. So far I only know of people doing it...

I think a proximal tear and a distal tear (of the biceps tendon) are quite different. I know far more people who have had proximal tears - most elect to not have surgery and climb just as well as they always have despite an obvious deformity. 

I tore my distal biceps tendon on the Great Red Roof: underclinging -> feet cut -> sudden shock loading of the biceps -> pop. I think the classic way the distal tears is when you try to suddenly catch (eccentric loading) something heavy with your forearms externally rotated (think undercling position and catching a motorcycle or a mattress or piece of furniture that you drop). This is in contrast to lifting (concentric movement) something heavy.

Medical advice is if you're going to have surgery do it immediately: By two weeks out from injury it can become impossible for the doctor to retrieve the tendon stump for reattachment. My advice: If you're in an undercling on steep terrain and your feet cut, let go!!!

Josh Janes wrote:

I think a proximal tear and a distal tear (of the biceps tendon) are quite different. I know far more people who have had proximal tears - most elect to not have surgery and climb just as well as they always have despite an obvious deformity. 

I tore my distal biceps tendon on the Great Red Roof: underclinging -> feet cut -> sudden shock loading of the biceps -> pop. I think the classic way the distal tears is when you try to suddenly catch (eccentric loading) something heavy with your forearms externally rotated (think undercling position and catching a motorcycle or a mattress or piece of furniture that you drop). This is in contrast to lifting (concentric movement) something heavy.

Medical advice is if you're going to have surgery do it immediately: By two weeks out from injury it can become impossible for the doctor to retrieve the tendon stump for reattachment. My advice: If you're in an undercling on steep terrain and your feet cut, let go!!!

Good advice- exactly how I tore mine. I did let go but not quick enough. Felt like a bedsheet tearing. No real pain though