Big Bicep problem!

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matt_rugby

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hello :) hope you can help me out here.

On friday i did a weights session, mainly working on my biceps. I woke up saturday morning, with my elbows absolutely killing me. Whenever I try and straighten my arm at the elbow, it causes some nasty pain, and it happens in both. I am just wondering if this is common because its really painful, and im fearing the worse. hope ive not buggered anything
 
sounds like you over did it. here's my advice: lay off arms for a few days, and if you want big biceps, do more heavy compound back exercises, and limit biceps to 1 or 2 exercises of a couple of sets each, max, and don't train them more than 2 times a week.

biceps are a tiny muscle group, that should get 60% of their workout from freeweight back exercises, not ass loads of bicep curls.
 
Well if you did biceps only, depending on the weight, reps, sets and exercises you performed, it sounds like you have over trained them. It has been said by several other members that you should feel a little tight the following day but not in any pain. Give your muscles a few days to recover and see how the feel. You do not need to isolate your biceps like that unless your very advanced in your training, which I suspect your not. Stick with your compound movements for they will work your biceps just fine. You can throw in 1 isolation exercise at the end of your workout to hit them a little more if you feel the need.



Edit: Sorry Malkore, you must have posted as I was typing my response. :D
 
malkore said:
sounds like you over did it. here's my advice: lay off arms for a few days, and if you want big biceps, do more heavy compound back exercises, and limit biceps to 1 or 2 exercises of a couple of sets each, max, and don't train them more than 2 times a week.

biceps are a tiny muscle group, that should get 60% of their workout from freeweight back exercises, not ass loads of bicep curls.
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That's right. Many people overtrain trying to get big arms when muscles like biceps are TINY compared to gigantic muscles such as quads, chest, or back. Did you know when you lift somehting heavy, it's mainly the big muscles that do the work and the tiny muscles such as your biceps just support?
 
Ahhh..I love seeing teh crap that goes on in gyms all the time. Last nite at the gym, 3 college kids were "lined up" at the squat rackall doing endless sets of biceps curls. So sad.....

if you have swelling or bruising around your elbows, ice them periodically. If it hurts to move, use a heat pack and gently move your elbow. Don't train elbows again for a week and don;t do more than 6 overall sets.
 
It's sadder when you have a better workout than some of the sports team members at your college.

IE, hitting curls while throwing your back into it as your very first exercise.
 
Also consider this....

I have had it in the past....if you have a 'death' grip on the bar when curling, you are really straining the tendons in your elbows a lot. You need to loosen your grip a little and when you set the bar down, slowly relax your grip rather than putting the weights down and immediately letting go....sounds to me like you have strained your tendons more than your muscles. Also, if you are taking anything like CREATINE (just a guess) you have to pound water continuously to prevent from getting dehydrated (especially your tendons). A severerly dehydrated tendon will easily get strained and torn if you are not careful....
 
i have done this before as well. It suuuuuuuuuucks and you're probably going to be in pain for a few days, maybe even up to a week. I never had mine diagnosed but it feels an awful lot like a case of tendonitis (sp?). I did mine the same way, doing lots of curls. You should take a week off from any weight lifting unless its lower body. Rest is the best thing for your elbows right now. Don't rush it, you'll get better. Load up on ibuprofen and stretch your arms when you can.
 
hey thanks for the advice:) Ive definitely learnt my lesson after that. The pain has completely gone now, thank god! Im joining a 'proper' Gym on friday, instead of just using the school one. DO you recommend just 2 days of bicep training? I think someone said that earlier..
 
matt_rugby said:
hey thanks for the advice:) Ive definitely learnt my lesson after that. The pain has completely gone now, thank god! Im joining a 'proper' Gym on friday, instead of just using the school one. DO you recommend just 2 days of bicep training? I think someone said that earlier..
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you workout your biceps on days you workout your back that's the optimum way to do it.

I noticed now that the less arm workouts i do the bigger my arms get.
 
Overtraining is the number one mistake made by lifters.

How often you train also depends on what you are trying to do with yourself. If you are trying to get more endurance or define yourself then training your arms more than once a week is a good idea, or even for strength, but when training for strength you dont do many reps. If you are training for size on the other hand then training more than once a week on the same muscle group is not always a good idea. The longer that your body has to rest the more energy it can use to build the muscle back up.
 
Nick,

but, if you're not a somewhat advanced trainee, hitting each muscle group once a week isn't enough.
Long time lifters have body's that adapted to the workload done in a session...so they have to increase the workload to induce hypertrophy, and eventually that workload can hit a point where you need a solid 5-6 days to fully recover a muscle group.

newer trainees don't need much of a workload to hit hypertrophy, and also will repair faster since less damage was done...so they can usually hit a muscle 2 or 3 times a week.

it all depends on the individuals level of training and their goals.
 
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