Bicep tendon woes

[Sam Crish]

Hi Mr. Rippetoe,
I have a biceps tendon problem - inflammation, tendonitis, or something. A couple of months ago my shoulder started bothering me on bench press, but not press or any other exercise. I felt it over the front shoulder where the biceps tendon is. I took about a month off of bench and the other day I benched again and it still is pretty painful. I have an appointment with my primary care provider which I can't imagine will be very helpful (stop lifting heavy or the like) and wondered if you had any advice on remedying this situation out as I imagine you've seen it quite a bit more than I have.
Any help would be much appreciated as I miss benching and was approaching a lifetime goal.

[Mark Rippetoe]

What was your bench press/press ratio wrt frequency and load? And what do you expect a doctor that deals with runny noses to say about your biceps tendinitis? Are you aware of the fact that ibuprofen is every bit as good an anti-inflammatory as any other drug on the market? Or do you think he has a secret about this that you don't know?

[Sam Crish]

What was your bench press/press ratio wrt frequency and load? And what do you expect a doctor that deals with runny noses to say about your biceps tendinitis? Are you aware of the fact that ibuprofen is every bit as good an anti-inflammatory as any other drug on the market? Or do you think he has a secret about this that you don't know?

Well the load was definitely skewed towards bench. BP doubles and triples w/ 300-325, presses were usually triples with 185 or so. Bench is how I hurt it but what is typically done now?

I don't know what I expected from her. That's why I asked you . She did the range of motion tests, referred physical therapy, and wrote a prescription for muscle relaxers...

I guess what I'm asking is is it typically just lay off bench and take ibuprofen like they were tic tacs? Or is there something more proactive I could be doing?

[Mark Rippetoe]

I'd up the advil, stop benching for 2 months, get my press up, and do a bunch of chins. This will let it heal and make it heal at the same time.

As I've said before, when you go to the family practice doctor for something like this you will always get muscle relaxers (fun with tequila), anti-inflammatories, and pain killers, along with the advice to stop doing the thing your were doing that "caused" it. Always. If this is your idea of how to best spend your time and money, enjoy yourself.

[Albert987]

I've had some recent problems with tendonitis... in both my elbows and left hip, left elbow was particularly bad and gave me a hard time when I tried to bench. Squat form problems caused it... elbows tended to come forward in the later reps of my sets as I got more fatigued and my knees came forward. Did my best to fix those problems.

I PMed TravisRussellDC for some additional advice. He suggested a lot of vitamin C, fish oil, and bromelain. I didn't do the bromelain, but I upped both my vitamin C and fish oil to about 4-5g a day, and took some Ibuprofen. It worked like magic.

[Sam Crish]

Will do, thanks for the advice.

[BigJavs]

Rip, whats the ideal bench to press ratio?

[Mark Rippetoe]

For most people, 1:1 frequency and a press of about 65-70% of bench press.