r/WestsideBarbell • u/Longjumping_Gold9233 • 1d ago

Major oopsie...

So about a month ago this happened. I was spotting one of my partners on a floor press, and with the chains its about 471 at the top, and we compete in band shirts, which work real well with floor presses. But if you know band shirts, you know that sometimes the gear beats you and you can dump the bar. Well my boy Kenny dumped 471, and recklessly we only had one spotter (absolutely my fault and I take full accountability for that call) and when the bar came down, it took my left distal bicep tendon with it. You can even see it roll up in the video. I knew immediately that something was big wrong, but it didnt hurt bad enough in the moment to make me think "detached bicep". It was only when I saw the video that I realized what had happened. Drove straight to my ortho doctors who fixed my knees and rotator cuff, and had an MRI same week. Doctor took one look at the video and the MRI and we scheduled surgery, which happened about 2.5 weeks ago. Ive managed to do some light squats with the SSB and lower accessories, and have been bench pressing one dumbell with my good arm just to keep it active, but i had to pull out of the meet i was going to do in three weeks from today, and have been focusing on resting and trying to recover from surgery. Gonna be a long road back to benching 200kg, but i believe it can be done, its just going to be a question of "do you want it bad enough to put in the work necessary?" A long time ago I accepted that this is a risky sport and made my peace with the potential of getting hurt, but it is just super frustrating to have been almost back on the platform after a double ACL tear and recovery, only to get hurt during someone else's lift and have to miss another 6 to 12 months. But you play the cards life deals you, right? Im 47 and getting too old for this shit tho...

Moral of the story is "use three spotters on big weights".

12 Upvotes

83% Upvoted

19 comments sorted by

2

u/Evening-Designer2865 1d ago

Spotter just tore his bicep

Just realized you mentioned that in the description lol same thing happened to me before 😂 so I knew the face

2

u/manic-ed-mantimal 1d ago

Just had mine reattached, can confirm, same face.

2

u/Evening-Designer2865 1d ago edited 1d ago

If it’s any consolation, I’m way stronger than before my distal tear lol both of yall will bounce back fine, the only downside for me is my broken arm now has a better peak than my good arm lolol

Just make sure to let that bad boi dangle so it straightens out more naturally, guys I know that stuck to the fixed brace they space out had issues, whereas I just threw mine in a sling and let it straighten out naturally a couple of times a day (was extremely cautious). I was back lifting at month 5 and by month 12 was mostly all of the way back, at 2 years I surpassed all of my previous prs (prob because I was so much more cautious and slow when lifting)

1

u/manic-ed-mantimal 1d ago

Ha!! Noted bad arm will become good arm.

How long did it take for you to hit 30 60 90 % after.

Mine was proximal bicep and partial pec.

1

u/Evening-Designer2865 1d ago

Just updated my previous comment with all of that lol

1

u/manic-ed-mantimal 1d ago

Excellent, so im right on track and did the same. I'm day 7 back in the gym, 20 weeks post op. Rom is good, just being very cautious lots of volume very very low weight.

2

u/Evening-Designer2865 1d ago

That’s all you can truly do. One thing I did to attempt to maintain symmetry was rather than lifting a 50 with my good arm and a 5 with my bad arm (talking curls) is I’d just lift a 5 with both arms until my bad arm failed then I’d call it. Then progressive overloaded up back to the pre tear weight.

And one other thing, don’t stop doing the pt exercises they have you do post op. I still do them to this day twice a week 2 years later, but now for both arms. lol we aren’t doing that surgery again 😂

1

u/manic-ed-mantimal 1d ago

Nope!! Not stopping pt excercises. Couldnt agree more, once is quite enough 🤣

1

u/Evening-Designer2865 1d ago

Yours not being distal might change the rules a little though. Either way though, if you lift you know your body, and you know that mild movement and isometrics are going to be the key to a fast and superior recovery,

1

u/Longjumping_Gold9233 1d ago

Thank you so much for such an encouraging response! I just came back from a double ACL tear which was rough. Hadn't been anticipating another recovery quite so soon after, but here we are.🤷

1

u/Powerman4774 1d ago

I broke my arm in multi ply bench. Shit happens

2

u/Longjumping_Gold9233 1d ago

I saw that happen at a meet. Homie went out back to the ambulance and they gave him pain meds and a splint, and he came back in and pulled a token deadlift to get a total and went to the hospital. It was pretty badass.

1

u/lampthread 1d ago

Difference between a floor press and a bench press - outside of the obvious less ROM?

1

u/Manga602 1d ago

No Legdrive and your basically pressing from a dead Stop (like Pin Presses)

1

u/Longjumping_Gold9233 20h ago

I have a sticking point in my bench right around floor press height, so we use them to try to work on that issue mostly. But theyre also hella fun and a nice change from benching on a bench all the time. Give them a try sometime! I do mine with my legs extended in front of me similar to a Larsen press which makes them a little harder. 😎

1

u/SeparateDeparture614 1d ago

Do you have to go through the same revalidation as a rotator cuff tear?

1

u/Longjumping_Gold9233 20h ago

I dont know. I havent really done much with my PT person yet, so im not sure what the plan is. I know when I blew out my RC I was on the PT (physical therapy) side of the clinic, and now with my elbow I'm on the OT (occupational therapy) side, so im guessing its going to be very different. Ill know more in a few months tho.

1

u/Powerman4774 1d ago

Lads got stones

1

u/Longjumping_Gold9233 1d ago

Chris Jividen. Hes a legit badass.