[MacBain]

A few years ago I used to train at home. All I did was curls. I never did anything else, I had no clue of bodybuilding. I used to do up to 200 curls every few days. Of course also without increasing the weight and without taking protein powder...
The problem is that I never stretched the biceps afterwards and now my biceps is shortened and I cannot extend my arm completely.I would say I lack 20 degree.What shall I do now? Will this go away when I strengthen the triceps?
The thing is that when I do curls now I have a limited range of motion and when I do scott curls I have to watch out not to let the weight down too much cause I'm scared I might tear my biceps, is this possible?
Today after doing curls my biceps was pretty shortened cause through the exercise the muscle becomes shortened anyway and then I took a very light ez-bar and sat down on the scott bench and then I used the leight weight to pull my muscles a bit and it also helped, it stretched the muscles a bit. But afterwards my arm hurt somehow. It went away after a few minutes. I also cannot say wether the chord hurt or wether it might simply have been the forearm muscles. Do you think this kind of stretching (using a light weight to stretch) might be dangerous? What would you do? I mean I have to stretch the arms after the workout cause otherwise it becomes worse and one day I cannot extend my arms anymore and this will look really dumb... :(

[Six]

Originally Posted by MacBain

A few years ago I used to train at home. All I did was curls. I never did anything else, I had no clue of bodybuilding. I used to do up to 200 curls every few days. Of course also without increasing the weight and without taking protein powder...
The problem is that I never stretched the biceps afterwards and now my biceps is shortened and I cannot extend my arm completely.I would say I lack 20 degree.What shall I do now? Will this go away when I strengthen the triceps?
The thing is that when I do curls now I have a limited range of motion and when I do scott curls I have to watch out not to let the weight down too much cause I'm scared I might tear my biceps, is this possible?
Today after doing curls my biceps was pretty shortened cause through the exercise the muscle becomes shortened anyway and then I took a very light ez-bar and sat down on the scott bench and then I used the leight weight to pull my muscles a bit and it also helped, it stretched the muscles a bit. But afterwards my arm hurt somehow. It went away after a few minutes. I also cannot say wether the chord hurt or wether it might simply have been the forearm muscles. Do you think this kind of stretching (using a light weight to stretch) might be dangerous? What would you do? I mean I have to stretch the arms after the workout cause otherwise it becomes worse and one day I cannot extend my arms anymore and this will look really dumb... :(

a friend of my was a bit in the same position. he couldn't extend his arm the way it should and he had short biceps. normaly short biceps ar genetic but u can change it a bit. u should stretch a lot (few times every day) then when you train your biceps you should extend your arm as much as possible. f.e. when you do barberl curls you should try to overextend you arm and than come slowly to 90° or a bit more. than you train te front part of the bicep and youre avoiding the pike. It worked good and he has no troubles anymore with his arms

[MacBain]

But I cannot overextend my arm. The maximum is maybe 160 degree.
I am also scared that if I use a heavy weight and the weight pulls on my biceps that it might tear.

[Six]

Originally Posted by MacBain

But I cannot overextend my arm. The maximum is maybe 160 degree.
I am also scared that if I use a heavy weight and the weight pulls on my biceps that it might tear.

thats why you have to stretch a lot! you have to watch out with heavy weight in the beginning.
take a heavy dumbell, put your arm on a flet bench, try to lower your arm to 180° -> good way of stretching. try different ways of stretching
you should notice after a week that you can extend your arm to maybe 170°

so keep stretching ! (no other way)

[Six]

its like :

if you wanna start kickboxing you should stretch your legs every day if you want to give a good high kick

same for gymnastics or other sports ...

just stretch tha shit :bananaroc

[MacBain]

I will try it but can you tear a muscle when you stretch it too much?
I don't have know far to stretch it. I mean you should feel something otherwise you're not stretching enough. But how much is too much?

[MaKaVeLi]

thats why you should warm up before you stretch

[Nothin' but a peanut!!]

you say 200 curls a day? along with stretching your biceps make sure you're also stretching your triceps and hitting them with heavy weights.if you were giving ur bi's that much work and without stretching naturally they would kinda stay in that position and your triceps would be kind of stretched and weak so by strengthening them they could maybe "pull" your arms back a bit...if that makes sense. its like somebody who keeps tearing their calves, its not necessarily the calf, but the tib anterior could be very tight. releasing the tib ant. would stop the calves from tearing ok aiii

[Uriel]

You do realise how extreme not being able to extend your arm is? (it simply means that you've NEVER EVER stretched your biceps even slightly (which is impossible since we stretch them naturaly in our everyday activities, unless you're the kinda guy who has rich parents and doesn't get his ass of the chair all day long) and you've never worked your triceps (which should be considered a crime IMHO)

Anywho, just stretch them. Stretch them every morning and every night (you do know how to stretch the biceps right?). In such an extreme case you'll probably need to stretch your brachialis too (extend your arm overhead, this will somewhat take the biceps out of the picture)(man this isn't even a real stretch, THAT's how bad your case is). And do yourself a favor: a few extensions everytime you work your arms.....