Biceps tendon strength and rehab/prehab

This video is a simple series that specifically covers training principles and exercises that help beginners and injured athletes build their biceps tendons up so that they do not get injured again, and the training principles will help minimize the risk of injury for athletes who have yet to develop symptoms.

This video is for, well, pretty much everyone. Most people are pretty early in their planche and/or back lever training and this video is to get all of you in that category off to a safe and well-planned start to your training. To those who try to rush their training or perhaps just have unbalanced training that leads to elbow pain: this video will help you get back into the game!

Important basics:
Straight arm static holds (primarily the planche and back lever positions and any variations you care to think of) require very well-conditioned biceps tendons to perform correctly, meaning with truly straight arms. There's a problem: tendons take around 10x longer to heal than muscle tissue. That means you have to train with this limitation in mind.

We all know that the full lay positions require a large amount of muscular strength to perform, so it would seem that you just need to get strong muscles to do these things. Well, I've done that and found out the hard way that if you do this before you've put in the time to condition the biceps tendons to handle the strain you will end up with horrible tendonitis... EVEN IF YOU ARE STRONG ENOUGH TO HOLD THE POSITION!

You don't want that. I had to take a 5 month layoff on all straight arm work and a fair amount of heavier upper body work but even a 1 or 2 month layoff can be a serious setback both physically AND mentally.

This video is a simple series that specifically covers training principles and exercises that help beginners and injured athletes build their biceps tendons up so that they do not get injured again, and the training principles will help minimize the risk of injury for athletes who have yet to develop symptoms.

The principle, basically, is that you NEVER train straight arm work in a high intensity fashion. You train fairly low intensity (sets of 50% of your maximum hold time for a total of 60 seconds, in a position where your max hold time is 20s at a minimum) 4 times a week.

Keep in mind that the heavier you are the slower your progress will be. That is because your tendons need to become stronger than a lighter person's and they only remodel at a slow pace. Since a heavier person's has to undergo more remodeling, it will take longer.

Use the static holds as biceps tendon conditioning. Use OTHER MOVEMENTS to build muscular strength so that you do not injure yourself in the process!

For the most complete program in regards to bodyweight strength start doing the Workouts Of The Day at the Gymnastic Bodies Forum. On the main forum index you will find a sub-forum called Workout Of The Day. There you will find the WODS.

The WODs are a complex training cycle that builds explosive strength, reactive strength, maximal strength and strength-endurance all at the same time. This specific program was designed and has been used for many years to build a long line of state, regional and national champions in the Men's Gymnastics Junior National team from their first day in the gym to their last.

These WODs will help you immensely and still leave you with plenty of energy to play your sports and do whatever it is that you love to do!

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[barryvardypilates]

Mate look at your spine in that hang.  Think about spinal hinges.

[slizzardman]

@barryvardypilates My cervical spine is not in good alignment, this is true. These days it is much better, good eye! For everyone seeing this comment, try to keep your neck in a neutral position. Don't crane your head way forward like I am in this video, that's not good.

There are, however, no hinges in the spine unless you count the atloaxial joint, and that's just below the base of the skull (C1&C2) and isn't even a hinge, it's a pivot. Still, I think I know what you're getting at.

[leafar198866]

ive had tendonitis for about a year (i had an mri and they showed it in two parts, mainly where bicep tendon connects to shoulder and the other around the back somewhere), due to over training with weights and MMA. i didnt listen to my body and im payin for it big time. its gotten a little bit better. i checked progress today with 10 pound dumbell bicep curls and i had very minimal discomfort... is it common for tendonitis to take over a year..... ?? and do you think it ever goes back to normal?

[slizzardman]

@leafar198866 That's not tendonitis, that's tendonosis. Tendon degeneration, right? Depending on how severe it is the tendon can take up to 3 years to fully recover. The longer the condition has been around the longer it takes to heal, and even with single injuries that don't seem chronic a true 100% recovery typically takes at least 12 months. You can return to training fairly quickly if you're lucky, but you won't be 100% and training regimens will have to reflect that.

[ulykpain]

I ruptured my bicep tendon, are you SURE this shit is gonna help ?

[ryanjawad]

hi, thank you for this video. about 2 years ago, i started to have weird pain in my left arm that was worst at the inner elbow.  i never figured out what i did to it. i was doing tucked planches and one day decided to switch my hands around. i figured it wouldn't make much difference. i was very wrong. after doing that for a few weeks, i could not even open the fridge.

[slizzardman]

@gnostie I made everything. Those are my parallel bars. Buy pipe of the size you want (measure things out so that your feet don't touch the ground when you are in an upper arm support), 8 T fittings of the same size, and assemble with pipe wrenches. The pipe will likely be unthreaded but machine shops/hardware stores should be able to thread it for you for a small fee. Cut pipe and then thread. Width of p-bars should be length from outside of bent elbow to longest fingertip + 2-3 finger width.

[gnostie]

@slizzardman

There is a firm called Firetoys, and they sell a pullup bar just like that. I was wondering if the one you have is one of theirs. But it's not, clearly, so... where did you get all your nice gymnastics equipment? If you made it yourself, could you please post drawings with dimensions somewhere and indicate which materials you used? Thanks!

[slizzardman]

@gnostie A what?

[gnostie]

Is that a Firetoys pullup bar you've got there?

[gingowitch]

@BENNYNOCKIT masturbation damages tendons and elbows.