Thread: Tricep injury, near armpit

sports doc!

Originally Posted by zartan01

Hoping someone can shed some light a recent injury.

About 6 weeks ago, I was doing seated overhead DB tricep extensions. On my last set, I came down pretty low behind my head. Pressing the weight back up, I felt a pain in the area where the top of the tri meets the lat. (Or perhaps the teres major area.) There was very little pain the next day. But when back/bi’s day came, pullups were a definite no go! On my first attempt, I felt the pain return ten-fold, radiating from tricep long-head insertion near the armpit down the back of my arm. So I terminated the workout and havent been back in the gym since. I saw a doc at 2 weeks removed from the injury, and he said to give it time. Well, its been 6 weeks, and I’ve had little to no improvement. The motions that hurt the most are swimming/pull-up type, and positions where my arm is extended in front or above me, like wiping a counter or window.

I’ve heard tears of the tricep long-head at the upper insertion can take really long to heal, and arent often operated upon.

Does anyone have any experience or insight into this type of injury? I’d really appreciate any comments. Thanks.

Well the first thing is a muscle injury can take 12-16 weeks to heel....6 weeks aint shit...plus you should not be training on it during those weeks off. See a sports Doctor or at least stop lifting!!!!!

I've seen a sports doc. He's the head doc for the university here. I've got an MRI scheduled. He was concerned that there was no improvement at all in the first 6 weeks.

Training around it a bad idea? Tough not being able to lift or surf for 3+.

3+ months.

If your body is busy repairing muscle tissue from a workout, how is it going to repair a more serious injury?

Originally Posted by zartan01

3+ months.

Yep, I tore my peck and it took 4 months to heel.....and it was not even that bad of a tear. If you have brusing it could be very bad.

Thanks for the replies.

No bruising occured. But damn the pain is intense when I do anything involving my arm being outstretched.

Anything helpful in speeding up the recovery process? Massage? Heat?

On the training tip, I switched from BB presses to DB presses after tearing the labrum in my right shoulder a few years back. While the DBs do allow a more natural plane of movement, they definitely tax the support muscles much more. The teres major and minor, the tri's... I think this contributed to the injury, as I was pushing some heavy DBs before working tri's. I've been working the chest/tri split for sometime now. Any tips on training chest and tri's on the same day that may help preserve tricep tendon health?

complete rest for at least 2 weeks then visit the doctor again...

just be glad it wasnt a tricep injury near your big toe! those are the worst!