Long head of biceps tendonitis - any tips for getting back into training?
Hey Rip,
I finally decided to bite the bullet and see an orthopedic doctor about some long-term anterior shoulder issues I’ve been having (I’m a 21 year old male). He concluded that I either have tendonitis in the long head of both of my biceps, or a torn labrum in the same place on both shoulders - he said the former was more likely because the latter would be improbable. The injuries were the result of dipping/benching with poor form (pre Starting Strength).
His advice was to take around 6 weeks off from most upper body training, take 500mg NSAIDs 2x daily, and perform a pretty aggressive daily internal/external rotation rotator cuff routine. I definitely don’t mind taking time off if it fixes my damn shoulders, but I was hoping you might be able to give some tips for getting back into barbell training once I get the green light. Should I make training modifications like reduced ROM?
As you can imagine, benching and pressing are currently out, as well as deadlifting (stretches the tendon) and squatting (puts shoulder in awkward spot). So for the moment, the sum total of my workout routine is leg pressing, like a complete dork.
I also saw you talk about doing sets of 25 “90-degree-elbow barbell curls” on a previous post about this issue - they look useful, but how would you go about programming them? How many sets/how many times per week?
Any advice would be appreciated, thanks!