Ruptured Biceps - rehab

[drivehard]

Going in for surgery on a ruptured biceps this afternoon. Any training advice?

Anything I can do while out of commission? I am thinking lower body will be ok...and maybe abs. Is there any other upper body things I can do?

Anything special I can do to speed recovery?

Thanks!
DH

 

[drivehard]

well, i am on the second day out of surgery.
lots of pain, but doing well. it took 2.5 hours.
i am in shoulder-to-hand half cast until Tuesday the 9th for now.

 

[Arbor]

Upper or lower? If lower, you won't be doing anything with that arm for awhile and the rehab (mine at least was) is brutal. I did nothing upper body due to obvious reasons....no right arm use, but did a ton of hiking and as much cardio as possible. When my arm was back up and running, I was ready to go. I don't mean to sound negative, but among the many fractures, injuries, surgeries I've experienced, the distal bicep rupture was about the worst. Good luck.

 

[drivehard]

yup, its the distal...
cant be any worse than the two ACL surgeries i have been through.
lucky, mine is my left (non-dominate) arm, which was always stronger for some reason...maybe they will be equal now ;-)

 

[Arbor]

My repaired one(right) is actually better than my left. I asked the surgeon to make sure it was strong, so he drilled 3 holes for the insertion instead of two. Strong as hell now.

 

[drivehard]

My repaired one(right) is actually better than my left. I asked the surgeon to make sure it was strong, so he drilled 3 holes for the insertion instead of two. Strong as hell now.

my surgen did the same without me asking...after he read how i did the injury, and that i want to return to strongman ASAP!

 

[Arbor]

Great minds think alike...lol. Good luck with your recovery. Take it slow....very painful getting rotation back. But now my repaired bicep even looks better than the other one. I't even shaped different now....fuller. Tough way to improve a bicep though!

 

[drivehard]

Update...

Well, I am 5.5 weeks out of surgery now. Gaining range of motion wasn't as painful as I had feared. I am 100% in all directions except straightening the arm out...sitting about 90% there.

So far my surgen has been WAAAAY too conservative. He wants me still in the half cast for another month. I ditched that about a week ago. My ROM improved every single day after I got myself out of it. Right now I am doing 6 sets of 50 reps with 3 lbs. Started that today, and actually feel a twinge of DOM's in that bicep!

All in all it has not been bad at all. I am basically back to normal life right now minus any lifting that uses the biceps. All upper body I am doing right now is light press work on hammer strength machines. Still squatting pretty decent, and doing other leg work. Been spending extra time on cardio to try to keep my weight in check...although its a losing battle without the hard-core workouts to tear me up.

I have to say its been a shot to the ego though. My wife was trying to give me a compliment by saying my arms look "normal" at least...you know, like a normal guy. Ugh...she didn't realize that was a shot to the nuts. Been wearing nothing but baggy long sleeved shirts since the atrophey has set in. I pray every day for a swift return to heavy lifting!

I'll check back later.