Anyone have this injury?

[Lee_48157]

This is my MRI report from the radiologist I got this week. Anyone else ever have this Injury? Happened to me back in March doing DB incline presses. Arm just gave out, and it sounded like velcro. Took this damn long to get me In for an MRI, but here we are. Just curious if anyone else has had this happen & if they had to get surgery? I am scheduled to see the orthopedic doctor for follow up.

Since this I’ve still been doing a lot of front raises, lateral raises and chest flys since I can’t press. Legs train as normal, but back is kinda tricky because after a certain load it puts a strain on my arm pulling so I just do what I can.

Using this time to clean up & drop some BF. Brought my gear down to 250 test / 200 mg primo WK & 5IU GH ED. Down about 16 lbs (247 now ) since mid March feeling a lot healthier TBH.

Findings:

No abnormal marrow edema is appreciated.

There is no evidence of fracture, healing fracture, or AVN.

There is a partial-thickness tear of the posterior component of the distal triceps tendon. This represents a partial-thickness tear of the combined tendon involving the lateral long heads. The more anterior medial head is uninvolved.Surrounding soft tissue edema is appreciated. Follow-up with orthopedics is advised.

The biceps is intact. The brachialis tendon is intact. The common flexor tendon is intact.

Mixed signal in the common extensor tendon is appreciated. This represents severe tendinopathy with some intrasubstance tearing. The collateral ligaments appear intact..

Impression:

* Partial tear of the posterior compartment of the distal triceps tendon is confirmed.

Surrounding edema is noted.

* Common extensor tendinopathy with intrasubstance tearing. Follow-up with orthopedics is advised

 

[JDLift]

Have you tried using any variant of the Slingshot type band products? Or considered just getting a Bench Shirt? These things were initially made with the sole purpose of keeping the shoulders of lifters healthy, and while modern usage sees them as overload tools or competitive powerlifting implements they still do a great job of the actual original purpose they had. Plenty of times I've had to turn a raw session on bench into a semi-equipped one with slingshot type tools or boards so I could work in the same weights but to a range that isn't making something worse, then next session just go back at it raw and continue as normal or whenever it all feels better again. Pro tip: It all increases your raw strength and builds muscle the same way, probably builds even more considering the pec, shoulder, tricep and forearm mass on the top level equipped lifter guys.


"There is a partial-thickness tear of the posterior component of the distal triceps tendon. This represents a partial-thickness tear of the combined tendon involving the lateral long heads. The more anterior medial head is uninvolved.Surrounding soft tissue edema is appreciated. Follow-up with orthopedics is advised."

So at a glance we'd just write this off as a triceps tear, while it isn't the muscle I'd just treat it the same manner and avoid all movements that strain it. Tbh I'd say if you intend to lift weights in any capacity long term or for your foreseeable future you should STOP LIFTING ALTOGETHER with that arm. The spot you tore is going to be either a primary, secondary, or uhhh antagonizing/stabilizing? mover in basically everything that involves your arm. If you continue to try working through it as you are then it's not going to heal any faster and you likely will further damage it and reach the point of surgery being 100% necessary. I'm not a doctor, but.

"The biceps is intact. The brachialis tendon is intact. The common flexor tendon is intact."

All good on the anterior chain basically. The biceps brings the arm into flexion (wrist toward shoulder), the triceps brings the arm into extension (Wrist away from shoulder). This just says you didn't fuck up anything else basically. Good job!

"Mixed signal in the common extensor tendon is appreciated. This represents severe tendinopathy with some intrasubstance tearing. The collateral ligaments appear intact.."

In layman terms you've got a pretty rough tear in the tendon. Not exactly FUBAR yet but you really should follow the previous advice and stop using the arm, and that includes doing shit like attempting to strap or tether weights to your arm to do makeshift versions of pulling movements because the triceps activates in a way every time your lat is working.

"Follow-up with orthopedics is advised"

This part gets me. What were the doctor's thoughts after reading your MRI findings to you? Because this signals to me that they think you're going to need surgery to reattach the thing already. If they thought it was fixable through PT they would refer you to PCP and PT, but they suggest Ortho which highly suggests they're seeing the surgical route as absolutely necessary.

If I was coaching you I would take all your upper body days either completely out or insist you train only the healthy arm. Studies have proven that training the healthy side in these cases can get the body to promote quicker healing of the injured side, so I would recommend you doing strictly single arm isolations and keep the fucked up arm in a sling or have someone run ace bandages around from armpit to elbow and force it to stay straightened, whichever is more comfortable. Increase your cardio, add more leg days, blah blah or just lay on your ass because it doesn't take 1-2 months to ruin what you built over years of time.

Beyond this, a personal suggestion on things going forward since you are never going to have the same strength in that tendon as you did pre-tear is to invest in either a slingshot type product or a full on Bench Shirt for your pressing. These were both designed as aid devices to protect the lifter's shoulders and while they certainly can be used to overload and move retarded weights that is not their immediate function. I've had plenty of days where I warm up and realize shit is not feeling good, throw on a slinger and use my same weights/sets/rep scheme and call it a day. Still get the work done, still get the pump, much better than just scrapping the session. Also recommend looking at pin press and board press variations on your pressing movements post-recovery as you may find the arm is okay to a certain point then it hurts to go lower, well these alternatives will help you work just in the comfortable and safe range so you still induce growth and build the body back up. All of these are also quite fun, too.

 

[Lee_48157]

Hey man I really appreciate you taking the time to respond to this. Definitely made some good points, and brought up some interesting things that haven’t crossed my mind.

I have never used the sling shot, I actually just seen a good buddy in the gym using one last week. Perhaps I might ask him to give it a try when I can actually do any kind of pressing again sounds promising. As for the peg lifts that had not crossed my mind, but the floor presses were definitely going to be in rotation once I able to. Learned that from watching some of the mountain dog videos a long time ago.

I am going to take your suggestion to not use that arm and only train my good side. I have seen that study that says training the non injured side led to better muscle retention than not training at all even on the non trained side.

I have an appointment Wednesday with the surgeon, but like you said if they didn’t think I’d need surgery then why aren’t they just sending me to PT.

TBH though my strength in that arm hasn’t improved not even 5% & it’s been over a month so I’m not sure if PT would help or not. I’ve been doing little PT movements myself on a daily basis just to keep some mobility. However im definitely afraid of what might happen if I let them re attach it by surgery. I always fear the worst on stuff like this & often just deal with the pain like I did with my meniscus tear 6 years ago. They wanted to do surgery but I just did PT exercises myself and after a long time I am back to normal with that leg being even stronger for some odd reason now.

That is why I came on here asking for advice & if anyone has had this injury, the surgery or didn’t get surgery. I like to hear from people who do what we do not joe schmo who lives a sedentary lifestyle.

Thank your again for your insight on the lifting aids and training movements to invest in for my future lifting.

Have you tried using any variant of the Slingshot type band products? Or considered just getting a Bench Shirt? These things were initially made with the sole purpose of keeping the shoulders of lifters healthy, and while modern usage sees them as overload tools or competitive powerlifting implements they still do a great job of the actual original purpose they had. Plenty of times I've had to turn a raw session on bench into a semi-equipped one with slingshot type tools or boards so I could work in the same weights but to a range that isn't making something worse, then next session just go back at it raw and continue as normal or whenever it all feels better again. Pro tip: It all increases your raw strength and builds muscle the same way, probably builds even more considering the pec, shoulder, tricep and forearm mass on the top level equipped lifter guys.


"There is a partial-thickness tear of the posterior component of the distal triceps tendon. This represents a partial-thickness tear of the combined tendon involving the lateral long heads. The more anterior medial head is uninvolved.Surrounding soft tissue edema is appreciated. Follow-up with orthopedics is advised."

So at a glance we'd just write this off as a triceps tear, while it isn't the muscle I'd just treat it the same manner and avoid all movements that strain it. Tbh I'd say if you intend to lift weights in any capacity long term or for your foreseeable future you should STOP LIFTING ALTOGETHER with that arm. The spot you tore is going to be either a primary, secondary, or uhhh antagonizing/stabilizing? mover in basically everything that involves your arm. If you continue to try working through it as you are then it's not going to heal any faster and you likely will further damage it and reach the point of surgery being 100% necessary. I'm not a doctor, but.

"The biceps is intact. The brachialis tendon is intact. The common flexor tendon is intact."

All good on the anterior chain basically. The biceps brings the arm into flexion (wrist toward shoulder), the triceps brings the arm into extension (Wrist away from shoulder). This just says you didn't fuck up anything else basically. Good job!

"Mixed signal in the common extensor tendon is appreciated. This represents severe tendinopathy with some intrasubstance tearing. The collateral ligaments appear intact.."

In layman terms you've got a pretty rough tear in the tendon. Not exactly FUBAR yet but you really should follow the previous advice and stop using the arm, and that includes doing shit like attempting to strap or tether weights to your arm to do makeshift versions of pulling movements because the triceps activates in a way every time your lat is working.

"Follow-up with orthopedics is advised"

This part gets me. What were the doctor's thoughts after reading your MRI findings to you? Because this signals to me that they think you're going to need surgery to reattach the thing already. If they thought it was fixable through PT they would refer you to PCP and PT, but they suggest Ortho which highly suggests they're seeing the surgical route as absolutely necessary.

If I was coaching you I would take all your upper body days either completely out or insist you train only the healthy arm. Studies have proven that training the healthy side in these cases can get the body to promote quicker healing of the injured side, so I would recommend you doing strictly single arm isolations and keep the fucked up arm in a sling or have someone run ace bandages around from armpit to elbow and force it to stay straightened, whichever is more comfortable. Increase your cardio, add more leg days, blah blah or just lay on your ass because it doesn't take 1-2 months to ruin what you built over years of time.

Beyond this, a personal suggestion on things going forward since you are never going to have the same strength in that tendon as you did pre-tear is to invest in either a slingshot type product or a full on Bench Shirt for your pressing. These were both designed as aid devices to protect the lifter's shoulders and while they certainly can be used to overload and move retarded weights that is not their immediate function. I've had plenty of days where I warm up and realize shit is not feeling good, throw on a slinger and use my same weights/sets/rep scheme and call it a day. Still get the work done, still get the pump, much better than just scrapping the session. Also recommend looking at pin press and board press variations on your pressing movements post-recovery as you may find the arm is okay to a certain point then it hurts to go lower, well these alternatives will help you work just in the comfortable and safe range so you still induce growth and build the body back up. All of these are also quite fun, too.

 

[JDLift]

Yep, no problem. I'm still working back up after breaking my forearm and it took a loooooooong time now and not lifting with that arm or doing main (fun) lifts sucked ass but if I did it any differently I don't think I'd be where I'm at right now and might have just fucked it up even more. Patience is your best friend in these times!