I had a complete distal (at the elbow) bicep tendon tear back in 2012. I tore it on a Friday at the gym, and had the repair surgery on Tuesday. Make sure you have the repair surgery as soon as possible after the injury, or else the torn ends of the tendon will scar up and as it stays retracted up the arm towards the shoulder, it will be harder to stretch back down and reattach as time goes on.
I had the repair surgery quickly, which was good, but because I had terrible insurance at the time, I couldn't find a good orthopedic surgeon who would take my insurance, so I had to use a surgeon who I don't believe was very experienced with the procedure, as he was the only one who would take my insurance. If I could go back in time, I would have paid for the operation myself, and used the experienced surgeons who were recommended to me. Although I can't prove this without an MRI, I suspect that the surgeon who reattached my bicep tendon may have reattached it to the ulna, rather than the radius, as the arm has never healed correctly, the muscle has stayed rolled up at the top of the arm, and I still can't supinate the hand completely (turn the palm up), which has made it impossible to do simple exercises like barbell curls. I can do light dumbbell hammer curls or Swiss bar curls with the arm in a neutral position, but nothing like a barbell curl with the palm turned completely up. It has restricted my range of motion and function and exercise selection, but I can still do trap bar deadlifts or double-overhand deadlifts (no mixed grip) or barbell or cable rows to train the pulling muscles of the back and arms. I can't imagine doing something like a barbell clean that requires explosive elbow flexions, as my arm just doesn't bend easily anymore.
The arm has never healed correctly, but maybe that's my fault rather than the surgeon's fault. I was a personal trainer at the time, and I kept on training myself, and training clients at the gym, even while my arm was in the cast and sling for weeks, and then the Bledsoe brace for more weeks. Because I kept on training, and doing things like demonstrating exercises for clients and handing them heavy dumbbells even while my arm was in a cast, I am sure I caused more trauma to the arm instead of letting it rest and recuperate properly. So maybe the reason my arm has never properly healed is my fault for training too much and too hard, or the surgeon's fault for doing a crappy job, or most likely a combination of the two.
So my best recommendations to you would be to find the best and most experienced surgeon in your area to do the tendon repair, even if you have to pay for it yourself, then let the injured arm rest as much as possible while it is in the cast and sling and brace. Give the arm time to heal, rest up, then when you are ready do your rehab, and eventually you will probably be pretty much back to normal, and you will hopefully have a much better result than I did.
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