Hey guys I have a bicep distal tear and I have to get survey anyone have experience with this?
I’ve torn both biceps. Left distally, right proximally.
The don’t fix, typically, proximal tears and I didn’t have mine fixed.
The distal tear on my left arm, I got fixed within 2 days of the injury.
At the time I was scheduled to attend RKC Trainer certification just 11 weeks from the surgery. I was told not to count on being able to do it - - it’s 3 days of very physical kettlebell moves, pretty grueling.
I continued to train everything except my left arm. I increased my cardio, tightened up my diet. At 6 weeks exactly I started physical therapy. After two weeks of way too easy IMO therapy, I started training my arm directly again. And I started some kettlebell work, carefully.
When the time came to go to California for the certification weekend, I felt 60/40 I’d be able to do it. And I was able to do it. They call the RKC certification the “blackbelt of personal trainer certifications.”
Since then, it’s been a decade, I have some regular pain, minor, in my right arm around the elbow and shoulder. It gets tight and if I can really straighten it out, flexing the triceps, so that joint pops, it feels better.
Other than that, I’ve been good to go. As far as size, the right one (unattached proximal tendon) is definitely smaller. It’s consistently 1/2” to 1” smaller than the left one I had repaired (distal).
All in all, it’s not nearly as bad as I expected and as I’ve heard it could be. The key, as the doctor told me was repair it very quickly, especially for a bodybuilder. The longer the gap from tear to repair, the more the biceps shrinks up and harder it is to pull it back into place and reattach. My arms were pretty big, not huge, 19”, and the doctor said that I might not be able to straighten it out again after attachment. But I just focused on stretching it more and more as more time passed and I felt safe and confident doing so.
So get it fixed. Take it easy on it for a few months, and you’ll be fine.