Weaker Right Bicep During Weight Lifting

[Outlook1958]

Hello folks,I have a question that's been on my mind for a week now: During weight lifting at the fitness center I have noticed that my right biceps is weaker than the left one. I can lift a certain weight maybe 10-12 times with the left arm, but only 7 times with the right one. The right arm isn't really weaker, it just gets tired more quickly. I tried this several times, also excluding that a previous excercise might have somehow affected the muscle. Weight lifting is the only excercise where I notice the problem, all the other excercises that do not have their primary focus on the biceps work fine.Now I have a theory about this: In the middle of December 2008 I had a severe injury of my right hand and couldn't actually use it at all for about six or seven weeks except for the fingers in the last weeks I had the bandage on. During that time I haven't done any sports which could mean that I'm generally a little out of training after that. Is it possible that especially my right biceps has suffered some minimal atrophy because I haven't used my arm for that long? It was only the hand that was injured, but I couldn't use it at all for six weeks - I couldn't hold or carry anything, so the biceps was almost idle the whole time as well. I heard that people who have for example broken their leg do have muscle atrophy in that area - not because the muscle is injured, but because of the lack of usage during the healing process. Same goes for people in wheelchairs - if the damaged spine is somehow repaired after years of being in a wheel chair, those people do not just stand up and walk around, they need a lot of time to rebuild the muscles. So... can my theory be a possible explanation? Do I just need some more time until the right biceps regains its full strength?I do not have any further problems with that muscle - the twitching there is minimal, I have less than 10 twitches in that arm per day (my twitches are primarily in the calves and thighs), I do not have any pain, cramps or unusual sensations there. And as I already stated, I get that fatigue only from that single excercise which has its focus on the biceps, not from the others and not in daily life.OK, I hope it doesn't sound too help-I-have-weakness-I-have-**S-like, after all I'm not too worried right now and would just like to hear your opinions on this... Just to be sure.

 

[kylespike]

My GP thinks exactly that - that ppl with BFS take longer to recover from injuries and setbacks. Its interesting that the places where I hurt and am weakest are parts of my body where I previously sustained martial arts injuries. After my brain surgery in September last year it took me much longer than expected to get back to 'normal'. In fact I'm still not there, even with things unrelated to BFS.

 

[Outlook1958]

Thanks for the answer! I however even think that I would have had the same issue even without BFS. Maybe it's just my hypervigilance and anxiety that made me really notice that weakness and think about it that much?

 

[LisaQ.]

I hurt my neck about two months ago and noticed that every time I tried to work-out, the pain and spasm got excruciating. So, needless to say, I had to stop working out. Now I've tried to start up again, and I notice a definite and noticeable change in my strength in ALL areas, though, in clinical terms we would not call this "atrophy," we would call it "deconditioning." That's not to say the muscle isn't shrinking, but it is only shrinking back to baseline, and not beyond that. Any time we have an elderly person in the hospital, we make certain their physicians prescribe in-house physical therapy, because it only takes a day or so of lying around in bed before their muscles and strength start to deteriorate. Consider also that the space shuttle pilots and passengers have to be carried out of the shuttle at the end of their missions, because their muscles get so deconditioned from lack of weight bearing activity in space. When you break a bone and have a cast on for months at a time, THEN your muscle can get some mild atrophy, but true clinical atrophy is pathologic and leads to significant loss of function. So, what you are experiencing is normal deconditioning from lack of exercise in that arm. Hope this helps, Blessings, Sue

 

[Outlook1958]

Thank you very much, Suzy!Your explanation helped a lot - "deconditioning" is a great description as it isn't noticeable at all under normal conditions and even when carrying heavy things etc. It's really that one single type of weight lifting where all the weight is held by the biceps. By the way, I didn't only not carry and hold things with that arm, I actually avoided any unnecessary movements in order to avoid hitting something accidentely with the injured area.I was just sort of unsure and surprised by that issue as I have never had such a movement-impairing injury and don't know much about the effects of training or lack of movement on muscles. I should have thought of the astronauts earlier... They really can bearly walk after their mission, and they don't even have to stay for years up there before it comes to that. The muscles seem to degrade faster than one thinks.