Bicep tendon pain ?

[batty1of3]

I went to the gym for the first time on monday and did a pretty basic ciurcut on the site

Incline Dumbbell Press – 12 reps

Assisted Pull Ups – 12 reps

Tricep Rope Pulldown – 12 reps

Barbell Bicep Curl – 12 reps

Lateral Shoulder Raise – 12 reps

Jump rope for 60 seconds or do 50 jumping jacks

I've never really done any upper body workouts and part of my challenge is a damn pullup

yesterday I was fine today my arms are really sore especially what feels like the tendon that attaches my bicep to my lower arm. I want to go to the gym again so i dont break my momentum but i'm also worrying about hurting myself which would really suck

anyone have any advice mebbe i should do lighter weight today and a bit more on friday ? should i take an extra rest day ? suck it up ?

thanks in advance

[aj_rock]

Short answer: never ignore tendon pain; it can lead to bigger problems.

Long answer: would you describe the tendon pain as being along the outside, inside, or middle of your arm? I ask to identify what you did in the first place to injure your tendon.

[King_mob]

Put another way -

Short answer: 64 reps on upper body alone done as a circuit will leave you with a lot of muscle soreness.

Long answer: Your doing too much.

EDIT: OK as an answer that was impossibly curt of me, to the point of being useless. Here's the much more considerate version - muscle soreness will happen, if this is your first time doing resistance training then you will definitely feel it the next day. I remember my first time doing circuits during muay thai classes, many moons ago. I could barely lift my arms the next day.

I think your putting too many exercises in, in my opinion, assisted pullups by themselves will get you to your goal of a full pullup fine without the addition of curls and pulldowns. Pressing always goes well with pulling, so the DB bench is fine, though why incline over flat bench?

Here's what i would keep in the forefront of my mind when selecting exercises - do i need to do it? It's not laziness being efficient with your exercise selection. Don't be afraid to ask for input on programming, there are (literally) hundreds of members here who will give very sound advice.

[jdanger]

I'm in agreement with King_Mob. I suspect it's your Brachialis acting up. Does this look like where the pain is?

(hotlinked)

Probably just soreness and inflammation due to a relatively high volume of elbow intensive movement right out of the gate. Let it recover a bit and drop the total number of reps that involve elbow flexion next workout if you do any at all. This may be a good time to try a lower body workout while you recover. If it persists don't be afraid to ice.

[batty1of3]

jdanger yah thats it right at the white part attached to the ulna

i think tongiht i will work on lower body stuff squats and deadlifts etc and do less on the upper body on friday

gues i over did it

are there any stretches i can do to help with it too ?

[batty1of3]

I guess part of my goal is to build upper body strength and mebbe i was getting too excited and overdoing it right from the go

gotto mix it up and get the fitness down then i can focus . i just dont want to be one of those pear shaped guys

[jdanger]

Yup, that little guy will let you know when he's been turned on after sitting there relatively unused. This is common, especially when starting out on pull ups. Add in all the other elbow stuff and I'd predict this in about 1 in 3 people.

That sounds like a good plan. It should clear up in a couple days and ice can help alleviate the inflammation. Stretching can be done in various ways. Most of which are hard to explain beyond the standard "arm out to the side chest stretch" you can do on any wall or analogous surface. Those will hit the bicep group too and you can play with different angles to see if any position hits it more than the others (think snow angel).

[batty1of3]

King-mob and Jdanger i actually just looked up a basic workout on the main NF site and went with that for a try. now i knwo that its a bit too much to start with for me so i will look at mixing it up a bit more do you guys have any examples for a good circuit i was thinkign of doing like a pick a few using this article for a base http://nerdfitness.com/blog/2010/02/15/how-to-build-your-own-workout-routine/

i also do the basic bodywieght circuit fromthe site in the mornings on MWF and bike to work everyday T and Th i make it a more interval workout so my wife wanted to join a gym and i came along for the ride i just want to be able to have a good routine to use and not be that guy wandering from one machine to the next aimlessley

i hope my questions and stuff are not being too noobish

[jdanger]

Oh internet what are you doing to me today. I thought my last post got eaten so I made this one and managed to find a video of the stretch I was talking about.

So... hurray I guess?

[jdanger]

King-mob and Jdanger i actually just looked up a basic workout on the main NF site and went with that for a try. now i knwo that its a bit too much to start with for me so i will look at mixing it up a bit more do you guys have any examples for a good circuit i was thinkign of doing like a pick a few using this article for a base http://nerdfitness.com/blog/2010/02/15/how-to-build-your-own-workout-routine/

i also do the basic bodywieght circuit fromthe site in the mornings on MWF and bike to work everyday T and Th i make it a more interval workout so my wife wanted to join a gym and i came along for the ride i just want to be able to have a good routine to use and not be that guy wandering from one machine to the next aimlessley

i hope my questions and stuff are not being too noobish

Yeah that workout isn't terrible but it is pretty elbow intensive for a "zero day" type effort. And there's no such thing as too noob of a question. I haven't read that article in a while but I did read it a while ago and don't remember anything standing out as bad advice. Just watch the total volume on any particular body part for a while to minimize these sorts of tweaks. Think about the workout stated above, yeah you're doing different things and stuff but pretty much every exercise involves elbow flexion until a couple at the end. It might not even be a volume thing as it is just too much at once. Throw in a set of squats or lunges or jumping jacks or something between each of those exercises and maybe you come away without the soreness. So lesson: don't do more than one or two exercises per joint per workout for a while. This may change over time but to start it's probably a reasonable approach.

[This is Seth]

Quick question, did you purposefully find a video of that stretch done by someone who looks like Rose Tyler for the guy with a Tardis as his avatar?

Because if you did, you are the most thoughtful human being on the planet.

[jdanger]

Hahaha. It was not my original intention but I definitely clicked that one among the sea of other candidate videos because she looked cute and now that you mention it, it is almost uncanny sooo.. honorable mention at least?

[batty1of3]

hah she does look like Rose

definitely awesome

just finished the latest series last night cant wait for the christmas special

[67alecto]

If you haven't done any sort of arm work in a long time (or never), having "alligator" or "T-Rex" arms the next two days is common. This is that scenario where you carry your arms sort of perched at your side, since you can't extend them.

Don't skip the next arm workout, and as blood starts flowing to the muscle, it will feel better. The muscle soreness will fade and the length of time it sticks around after a workout will shorten.

[King_mob]

All advice given so far +2d10.

One thing to really consider though - what are you goals? You may not know yet, it took me a year of messing around and going nowhere before i even realised what goals there were.

But knowing your own mind and knowing what you want out of life are 50% of the battle, and having those ideas clear in your head will ensure you are never that guy walking aimlessly around the gym.

Tall order i know, so slim it down - What do you want regarding your fitness? To be strong? To be a better runner? Short sprints or long distance? Want to look better naked? Want to take up MMA? Want to wrestle bears?

[batty1of3]

ack i rolled a 23 oh well

my goals are pretty vauge the ususal lose wieght remove the gut be able to fit into my kilt again and build my upper body a bit

thats why for the 6 week challenge i went with lose 20 lbs and do the 1st pullup

or wrestle bears nekkid

[King_mob]

Ok thats a good start, however to gain muscle you need to gain weight, and to lose weight you well....need to lose weight.

So if your serious about getting trimmer and fitter looking, keep going for the conditioning circuits. Don't worry about how big your lifts are because at this point that needs to be considered another goal, with a different approach.

You WILL get stronger just doing conditioning, but don't make strength your goal while getting shredded or you'll end up pulling exercises out of a top hat and trying to make everything work at once.

Also, if your wanting to really loose some weight, sort out your diet. Don't worry about going paleo or low carb or anything like that, not right away. Just start eating whole foods and up the fruit and vegetables, cut out industrial oils and refined sugar. That's assuming you don't already though.

Above all else remember that its calories in vs calories out. You eat yourself into shape.

Imagine a guy running on a treadmill, with another man next to him eating a pizza. In the time it takes him to finish eating his pizza, is friend on the treadmill will have burned somewhere between 500 to 800 calories. The pizza itself is about 1200 calories. See my point?

[batty1of3]

King Mob agreed the cal in cal out approach is working for me going more low carb has definitely helped when i start eating carbs its a slippery slope for me one cookie and im in half the box but one boiled egg ... i'm good got the momentum going i think i will work with more bodywieght exercises i know my 275lbs makes for a pretty good workout and use the gym with my wife to help keep her motivated when body weight gets too easy then i'll work on more wieght

We did go to the gym yesterday and i did assisted pullups with 150lbs of assistance for 10 reps my arms are still sore but defiitely not as much

as far as food goes weight watchers helps keep me honest and tracking . makes it alot easier to keep up with my food choices though i do disagree with the amount of carbs and packaged food they advocate i just choose not to eat it . The meetings help keep me accountable right now my biggest challenge is cutting down on the artificial sweeteners

thanks for all the advice and encouragement i really appreciate it

[King_mob]

King Mob agreed the cal in cal out approach is working for me going more low carb has definitely helped when i start eating carbs its a slippery slope for me one cookie and im in half the box but one boiled egg ... i'm good got the momentum going i think i will work with more bodywieght exercises i know my 275lbs makes for a pretty good workout and use the gym with my wife to help keep her motivated when body weight gets too easy then i'll work on more wieght

We did go to the gym yesterday and i did assisted pullups with 150lbs of assistance for 10 reps my arms are still sore but defiitely not as much

as far as food goes weight watchers helps keep me honest and tracking . makes it alot easier to keep up with my food choices though i do disagree with the amount of carbs and packaged food they advocate i just choose not to eat it . The meetings help keep me accountable right now my biggest challenge is cutting down on the artificial sweeteners

thanks for all the advice and encouragement i really appreciate it

Diet is half the battle and it sounds like my earlier post was preaching to the converted. Good stuff. Keep on the path you already are and i dare you not to thrive.

Here are some decent bodyweight only routines you can do just about anywhere.

http://www.mymadmethods.com/workout-database/workouts-bodyweight-workouts/386-fat-loss-and-conditioning-workout-1-for-beginners

http://www.mymadmethods.com/workout-database/workouts-bodyweight-workouts/415-greenhorn-warrior-bodyweight-workout-1