Bicep Tendon Injury - Proximal?

[jwilso]

Hi Buckley,
there is still time for improvement and so my advice is to be patient. a steroid injection may help but there are risks involved. if you have a partial tear of your biceps tendon the steroid could weaken the tissue further and then you could end up with a complete rupture. Your consultant may refer you for an MRI but if this is on the NHS you will have a several month wait for this and so dont expect things to happen quickly. my advice to you is to keep going with the physio and see how things go. it is possible that you have impingement of either the biceps or the rotator cuff and this may be why you arent getting better. it may be a postural problem or like the others have pointed out tight pectorals or tgiht posterior capsule might be the problem. the aggravating factor needs to be established. good luck

john

[buckley187]

Konrad,
Yes I've been using a stability ball and also performing exercises that target my rotator cuff. I have also been stretching every night as I was told by my physio that I have a tight shoulder capsule (AC joint??).

It was considerably tighter than my other shoulder as well. If you can imagine laying down and putting your arm behind your head my arm only had something like 70% of the ROM that my right arm has. I could not get my hand to the floor and to be honest it's always been a lot less flexible than my other shoulder? But I've been stretching for the past month and it has improved a great deal. It's still not as flexible as the other arm but I'm getting there. It doesn't seem to cure the pain though?

Could this non-ROM have been the cause of it? I'm not sure?

Finally in response to John:

I have private medical insurance so I can have an MRI a couple of days after seeing a consultant so I've been advised. I'll keep going with the physio then John and take your advice on board.

How would you know if you have impingement or a tear? Do they feel different? Is the pain different that I feel as well. As to me it's very specific on certain movements, mainly supination or weight bearing.

How do you treat impingement and get rid of the pain?

Thanks again.