There are many reasons my clients feel like they’re taking forever to recover from what seems like a simple injury.
Biceps tendonitis has three primary reasons it’s taking forever to heal.
Reason #1: You keep aggravating it
Reason #2: You are only resting or stretching
Reason #3: You are choosing the wrong exercise to perform
In this article I’ll expand further into each of these reasons and how I help the clients that I’ve worked with over the past 5 years, get past these issues.
Reason #1
You keep aggravating it.
When I was in middle school and high school I was part of a church where we would have “Wrestlemania,” days.
Basically, all the guys would lay down mats (or no mats), and we would wrestle each other until we were exhausted.
There were several instances where I was maximally exerting my bicep muscles to try and pin and submit one of my opponents which resulted in a pretty major strain of my bicep tendon and muscle.
Instead of resting for a couple of days, taking some Tylenol, and then getting back to the gym, what’d I do?
I kept wrestling.
This continued to aggravate symptoms to the point where I’d get nauseous due to how painful it was.
Don’t be like me.
If you notice there is a specific activity that is making it way worse. Cut that out for a week or so and instead implement a different type of exercise or activity. I’ve written a few other articles on which exercises to try for bicep tendonitis that I encourage you to read after perusing this article.
If you’re wondering if it’s okay to lift weights with biceps tendonitis, check out this one.
Reason #2
You are only resting or stretching.
This is another error I see people making all the time. Instead of getting back to activity by slowly progressing back, you might be thinking that resting it for a few weeks and adding in some stretching is going to solve the issue.
You might have met some people that have found relief this way, however, in my experience working with clients like this, it often comes back as the underlying problem wasn’t solved.
If your bicep tendon is not prepared for the higher amount of load that you put through it, it’s at an increased risk of developing some pain/discomfort.
Think about it. If you go and run 10 miles, but you haven’t run at all for several years, that’s probably going to feel terrible. You might even injure yourself as your body isn’t ready for the load.
And then the opposite of that; what if you ran 10 miles every week and you’d been doing it for years? You’d likely have a much lower likelihood of developing any issues as your bones, ligaments, muscle, and tendons have adapted to the stress that you are placing on your body.
So the takeaway here is that you likely do want to rest a couple of days, and stretching is fine, however, you’ll want to add load and build up the muscle and tendon for a longer-term solution.
Reason #3
You are choosing the wrong exercise to perform.
My first recommendation is to start with bicep curls and to see how they feel. You might think it sounds strange to do bicep curls when you have bicep tendonitis or a bicep muscle strain, but, this has been shown to be very effective in reducing symptoms.
Our tendons and muscles were built to transmit mechanical energy (load) and they generally like it when they are asked to work.
If you’re mainly doing stretching exercises without any “activation,” or resistance training exercises then you are likely missing the boat. Hence why it’s taking so long to get better.
It’s also possible that you keep overexerting even when you are choosing the right exercises. So, make sure to start light and then work your way up to tolerance.
It’s completely acceptable to choose heavier weights to start with if you are comfortable with that.
Personally, I like to find the heaviest weight possible that is tolerable and then work with that so that I don’t have to do 20+ reps.
Bonus Reason
It’s not your bicep tendon.
It’s very possible that if it’s been several months and you feel like you’ve been doing everything right that it could be a SLAP tear or something else.
I’ve written about SLAP tears and you can read more about them through the link in this sentence.
SLAP tears are more common in overhead athletes and sometimes will require surgery.
If you have been trying to fix this on your own and still aren’t making progress, I’d recommend working with a physical therapist skilled in shoulder injuries.
Worried About Surgery?
Read this article about if surgery is ever an option for bicep tendonitis and SLAP tears to learn more!
Should You Massage For Biceps Tendonitis?
Deep friction massage is not recommended for a tendon injury, however light massage should be fine.
Newer data keeps coming out and it’s unlikely that you’ll do any lasting damage with a deep friction massage however the research hasn’t shown it to be that effective in treating symptoms.
Everyone responds differently to treatment so it’s worthwhile to test out different techniques for you and see if they work.
Any type of massage, ice/heat, etc, is likely just a temporary fix, a symptom modifier that can help to make the recovery process tolerable.
To get the complete scoop on current concepts in tendon rehab I’d recommend watching this video by world renowned tendon researcher, Dr. Jill Cook.
Key Takeaways
- Stop doing activities that aggravate it. You don’t need to stop these forever, just until you can get symptoms under control.
- Don’t rest and stretch for weeks hoping it’s going to magically fix the issue.
- DO start strength training and implement specific exercises like bicep curls, bent-over rows, and others that can directly load the bicep and bicep tendon.
