I read Frederic Delavier’s book « Strength Training Anatomy » and I learned good stuff.
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Back exercises with very heavy weights can create injuries to the long head of the triceps. In fact, the latissimus dorsi is a powerful muscle and its function is to bring your arms close to your rib cage. It’s because your distal tendon anchored in your humerus.
It’s for this reason that it’s called the climber’s muscle. Your long head of triceps has the functions of extending your forearm to bring your arm nearer to your rib cage. It’s when you bring your arm closer to your rib cage that your long head of triceps and your latissimus dorsi work.
Usually, it’s when the long head of the triceps has not had a good warm-up or exhausted of having a tear. For example, imagine you do lat pulldowns. In the phase of the movement where you don’t use your latissimus dorsi, all the tension is on the long head of triceps. In a few thousandths of a second, it can tear your triceps long head. Usually, it’s located near the connection of your triceps long head and the scapula. Luckily, it’s rare to have a total tendinous tear.
This type of injury doesn’t have the same consequence as shoulder injuries. A shoulder injury almost forces you to stop training the upper body.
Despite the injury, it’s possible to do exercise with light weights. You can do exercises like low cable row, T-bar row and triceps pushdowns with the elbows along the body.
It’s recommended to have a rest period before to restart the upper body training.
Note
It’s possible a triceps long head tear with the barbell lying extension. To avoid this, it’s advisable to do some stretching exercises before training.
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-Steph