Outer Bicep Sore & Can't Train As Hard Now

[joeblatz]

It seems I better say hi, hehe, im in my 40's and started working out about 1.5 years ago. As I was going through a divorce I hit things rather hard, 3 times a day was not uncommon, working my upper body. It paid off in appearance but also with pain. Im now down to lunch hours and sometimes an hour at night maybe 5 days a week.
The biggest reason I sought you folks out is that my left bicept is very sore towards the outside just above the elbow. Its very tough to flex it much at all, to do a pullup is not an option and I get very sharp pains from time to time. I havent lifted for about a week i've been working on my lower body to give my arm a break. It does not hurt as often but I still cannot flex it and wont attempt a pullup.
Just wondering if this is a common thing, I had been doing alot of 35lb/side preacher curls, not uncommon to do 10 sets of 10 and that does push my limit. With this I also stopped my inclined benches, over the head, pretty much everything with free wieghts as im not real sure what makes this worse.
Any advice is greatly desired, thanks...

[gymBum]

hey whats up man,
Welcome to the forums!

From what you've explained it sounds like you are definitely overtraining in some areas. I personally couldn't diagnose why your arm is in pain, but as far as training your arms goes, 10 sets of 10 on the preacher bench alone is not necessary. Your bicep is not a huge muscle and does not need huge amounts of training like your chest.

As far as your lower body goes too, check out these threads on the benefits of working your lower body (you may already know some of this, but you said you were doing mostly just upper body for a while)
http://www.chronicfitness.com/forum/...tosterone.html
http://www.chronicfitness.com/forum/...ut-matter.html

peace
John

[Chris]

From the sounds of it that is accute pain that is most likely not due to muscle fatigues/soreness. That sounds like it's more joint/ligament pain. I would definately see a specialist & get it checked out and at the very least discontinue movements that cause it pain.

Regarding your training...there is no reason a natural trainer should be weight training more than once a day. Weight training once & cardio once a day at the very most with at least one full day off with no training whatsoever per week. Remember that weight training is only the stimulous to growth. That growth will not occur unless proper rest and nutrients are then supplied after the training. Your body & your mind need time off as well. Best!

[71DarkHorse]

That is definitely a ligament. Do you ever do any kind of throwing motion excersises? It's a common ligament soreness in baseball players. As a baseball payer, I don't even do curls as it's so hard on the elbow.

Anyway, you definitely should not be overtraining like that. You muscle fibers must have time to rebuild and flush themselves before training that hard again. Oh, and don't forget that your nervous system (probably the most important!) needs time to rest.

You are obviously going to have to give it a few weeks of rest. By stretching your tripceps and forearms, it will stretch those ligaments and tendons in your elbow.

You should do lots of good running as well. Running is a key role in muscle / connective tissue recovery, as the blood circulation speeds up the process to help your connective tissue heal by carry away the acids/dead cells and bring your body the 'ingredients' it needs to quicker recovery. Good diet is always essential.