How To Avoid A Bicep Tear When Deadlifting

How to avoid a bicep tear when deadlifting?

To avoid a bicep tear when deadlifting ensure you are deadlifting with completely straight arms making sure there is no flexion in your biceps. This will ensure your biceps are not handling any of the load when deadlifting.

Digging Deeper

Deadlifts often referred to as the king of exercises. A great way to work your whole posterior chain and demonstrate your raw strength. One ugly injury sometimes seen with Deadlifts are Bicep Tears.

How does a bicep tear occur during Deadlifts?

You might hear the bro’s in the gym talking about how it happens when the weight is too much for the bicep to handle. This is not the case, well in reality the weight you are deadlifting will often be too much weight for your biceps but you shouldn’t be deadlifting with your biceps in the first place.

Bicep tears usually occur when someone is using a mixed grip on the arm with the palm facing away from your body. The main issue is when you do not keep that arm straight putting an enormous amount of load on your biceps

3 Common Bicep Tear Causes When Deadlifting

Bent arm – It is important when you are setting up to keep your arms straight and locked. One common cue is thinking of your arms as rods and your hand as the hook. Or flex the triceps, if you flex your triceps you will not be able to activate your biceps at the same time which will prevent you from bending your arm and pulling with your biceps.

Hitching – This is often seen near the top of the pull when someone is trying to lockout the lift. Often times when people hitch it breaks your deadlift form and can cause you to bend your arm putting un wanted load on your biceps.
Uneven Pull – This one is as self explanatory as it sounds positioning your hands at un-proportionate points on the bar causing more stress on the bicep.