How to avoid stretch marks? 7 useful tips for athletes and more

The appearance of stretch marks on the arms does not in any way affect their physical functions, but can cause a lot of psychological discomfort and also cause complexes. Often people, having these formations on their hands, are simply embarrassed to wear open summer clothes. If you are faced with a problem in the form of stretch marks, you should not despair, the main thing is to identify the cause of their appearance in time, and then begin treatment.

The lines on the body that everyone tries to fight.

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Most often, when it comes to stretch marks, pregnant women come to mind first, but in vain. Almost every person has them, and that's normal.

You may notice stretch marks on your body after gaining or losing weight quickly. Some people develop stretch marks during growth spurts, such as puberty. Bodybuilders notice them after a period of intense training or steroid use.

Regardless, if you're worried about those white lines, know that preventing stretch marks is easier than getting rid of them, and here are some tips on how to do it.

Reasons for education

The appearance of stretch marks can be caused by many factors, so it is necessary to find out what led to this defect.

• Body-building;
• Hormonal changes;
• Excess weight;
• Adolescence;
• Hereditary predisposition;
• Pregnancy;
• Wrong diet;
• Bad habits.

Among all the listed reasons, bodybuilding is the most common, since playing this sport leads to the appearance of stretch marks on the biceps. This occurs due to the accelerated growth of muscle mass and the rapid stretching of the skin. It’s just that at this time collagen and elastin do not have time to be released in the required quantities.

Often, when engaging in bodybuilding, athletes consume anabolic steroids to accelerate muscle growth, and this in turn also causes stretch marks. New formations have a bright red color, due to which they stand out, but after a certain period of time they fade, becoming less noticeable.

Eat nutrient-rich foods

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Stretch marks can also appear if you are deficient in various nutrients. Make sure your diet includes foods rich in:

• vitamin C;
• vitamin D;
• vitamin E;
• zinc;
• protein.

One way to make sure you're getting enough of a variety of nutrients is to eat unprocessed foods in a variety of colors. For example, make yourself a breakfast of eggs, whole wheat toast and various berries.

Salon treatments

You can contact a beauty salon that will help you deal with stretch marks by offering several methods:

Chemical peeling

It acts by destroying scar tissue. Instead, renewed tissue is formed, which is located at the level of the surrounding epidermis and has the same color.

Microdermabrasion

It belongs to the category of chemical peeling but has a gentler effect, stimulating tissue regeneration and removing the keratinized layer of cells.

Mesotherapy

Injections consisting of peptides and hyaluronic acid are injected under the skin. This composition acts on the skin as a moisturizer and regenerator. After the procedure, the epidermis becomes softer, firmer and more elastic, acquiring a healthy color.

Therapeutic salon procedures are carried out in a course and last quite a long time. So don't expect to be able to forget about stretching after one event.

As you found out, there are not many ways to remove stretch marks on the biceps, so you should be more careful about preventive measures.
And if there is a need to remove stretch marks, you should stock up on patience and time. Only in this case is there a high probability that you will become the owner of a beautiful body without defects. [carousel-horizontal-posts-content-slider]

Eat foods rich in zinc

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Zinc is an essential nutrient for skin health. It helps reduce inflammation and heal wounds. To date, there is very little evidence of a link between zinc and stretch marks, but including zinc-rich foods in your diet, such as nuts and fish, can help keep your skin healthy.

Home remedies

To remove stretch marks on your hands yourself, you need to approach this event comprehensively. Getting rid of stretch marks involves performing several procedures:

Massage

Include massage therapy into your daily activities. The procedure using honey gives very good results:

• Warm up the skin on your hands with light pinching and rubbing;
• Next, pour a little honey into your palm and apply it to the stretch marks of the opposite hand;
• Spread the honey over the surface and massage the area using quick light pats;
• As a result, the honey should be absorbed into the skin, and a white mass will remain on the surface;
• Do the same with your other hand and take a cool shower.

This massage promotes improved blood circulation, destruction of subcutaneous fat and saturation of the epidermis with microelements and vitamins.

However, please note that there are a number of contraindications for this procedure:

• Pregnancy period;
• Allergic reaction to honey;
• Skin injuries.

Scrub

Using a homemade scrub will also help remove stretch marks on your arms. To do this, you will need to mix 1 cup of sugar and salt with 0.5 cup of olive oil. This product must be rubbed into the damaged areas after taking a shower for 3 minutes 2 times a week.

This method stimulates the release of collagen and elastic, making stretch marks less noticeable and significantly narrower. Contraindications are diseases and injuries of the skin.

Nutrition

To improve the condition of the epidermis, you need to include fatty varieties of sea fish, fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as cereals in your diet. And do not forget that the amount of liquid consumed per day should be at least 2 liters.

Ways to eliminate stretch marks

The fight against stretch marks must be carried out comprehensively. Here are the basic skin care steps that will help correct existing stretch marks and prevent new ones from appearing.

• Exfoliation.
• Massage.
• Moisturizing and strengthening.

We have collected all the necessary tools for you in one set.
The complex for correcting stretch marks includes a dry massage brush, stretch mark oil, raspberry cream scrub and lifting cream.
Let’s take a closer look at effective procedures and products that will help you make stretch marks almost invisible on your own.

How to stretch your biceps: 5 exercises

Exercise 1

• Place your hands behind your back. Turn your palms so that they face the floor.
• Raise your arms up until you feel tension in your biceps.
• Stay at the top for a few seconds and return to the starting position.

Exercise 2

• Stand in the doorway and grab the doorframe so that your hand is at shoulder level. The thumb should point down.
• Start turning your body in the opposite direction from the joint, feel the tension in your biceps.
• When you feel tension in the muscle, hold for 15-30 seconds and return to the starting position.

Exercise #3

Exercise #4

• Sit on the mat, bend your knees, and place your arms behind your body so that your hands are parallel to your body. Distribute your weight evenly between all support points. Keep your back straight, your neck should be an extension of your spine.
• Pull your butt toward your heels while maintaining the position of your feet and hands.
• Feel the stretch in your biceps and stay in this position for 15-30 seconds, then return to the starting position.

How stretch marks appear

The formation of striae goes through several stages. At each stage, stretching has its own characteristics.

• After the elastic cover ruptures, connective tissue is formed, penetrated by blood vessels. Striae have a purple or red tint.
• Over time, stretch marks lighten and turn pink.
• Old scars completely lose their pigment and the color of the stretch marks becomes white.

Of course, it is easier to deal with “young” stretch marks and you need to take action immediately after they appear. If stretch marks have formed for a long time, it is quite difficult to completely get rid of them.

It is impossible to get rid of stretch marks forever and restore ideal smoothness to the skin even with the help of hardware cosmetic procedures. But you can make stretch marks less noticeable at home. To do this, you need to choose the right tools and effective procedures.

Diagnostics

The doctor may be interested in the history of the disease (presence of injuries or characteristics of activity). A physical examination is often most helpful in diagnosing biceps tendonitis. The examination allows you to detect the presence of painful movements or muscle weakness, changes in the amplitude of movements. In addition, there are specific functional tests that suggest the presence of rotator cuff injuries or the presence of shoulder instability.

Radiography allows you to diagnose the presence of osteophytes in the tendon. X-rays do not visualize the tendons and, if treatment is not effective, an MRI examination is prescribed. MRI can detect changes not only in the tendons, but also the presence of damage to the rotator cuff or labrum.

Diagnostic arthroscopy is an invasive diagnostic method and is used not so much to diagnose biceps tendinitis, but to diagnose other shoulder problems that could not be diagnosed using X-rays or MRI. Using arthroscopy, the surgeon can visually assess the condition of the rotator cuff, labrum, or part of the biceps tendon located inside the joint.

Massage

Dry massage with special brushes - drybrushing - gives an excellent result in the fight against stretch marks. With regular use of such brushes, the skin is cleansed of dead particles, becomes smooth and soft, cellulite and stretch marks become less pronounced. The main rule of dry massage is that movements should be in the direction of the lymph: from the feet to the heart.

Dry massage is easy to perform yourself at home - the whole process will take no more than 15 minutes. Brushes make the skin elastic and well-groomed, and also relieve stress, relax muscles and activate recovery processes.

For a massage to be effective, it is important not only to do it correctly, but also to choose a quality brush. ARAVIA accessories are made of beech wood and natural bristles. Natural materials will make the procedure tactilely pleasant, and the long handle will allow you to work on hard-to-reach areas.

Brushes vary in degree of hardness:

• soft, suitable for beginners and those with sensitive skin;
• The medium one will appeal to those who have already tried drybrushing and want a more intense effect on the skin.

Remember: any massage technique requires prior consultation with a specialist.

>> We tell you how to do drybrushing correctly in the article “Massage with a dry brush: technique, tips and contraindications”

A few words about anatomy

The biceps, or biceps brachii muscle, consists of two muscle heads and is located on the front surface of the arm.

It has two main functions - flexion of the arm at the elbow joint and supination of the palm, that is, turning it outward.

The biceps takes up only 30% of the total volume of the arm. The remaining 70% comes from the triceps.

Therefore, if you want to get big hands, pay more attention to the triceps muscle. But for now let's return to the two-headed one.

Biceps brachii tendon ruptures

The biceps muscle occupies an intermediate position between the shoulder and elbow joints. It is she who takes on the entire load, which subsequently performs all the work of the limb. The biceps has two tendons, which are located in the proximal section. Tendons also perform an important function, as they are the connecting link. They are attached to the head of the muscle. The biceps muscle and its tendons are closest to the surface of the human body. Due to its location, it is most often injured. Elbow injuries are very rare, much less common than shoulder injuries. The tendon most often ruptures where it attaches to the humerus.

Most often, tendon injuries occur in people between 40 and 60 years old, and all because of their age. Over the years, the tendon begins to wear out, leading to injury. But the possibility of receiving such injuries at a young age cannot be ruled out. In this case, they occur due to strong impacts or falls during athletics, football or snowboarding.

A tendon rupture can have varying degrees of severity, and all consequences will be severe. Typically, ruptures result in limited movement, tingling pain in the area of ​​injury, and pain when bending the shoulder and elbow joint. Another syndrome is supination. When bending or grasping with your hand, the pain may increase, and after weakening it subsides.

Men are more likely to rupture the biceps tendon than women. All this is due to the factors with which their lives are connected. Men do more physical work and therefore get similar injuries. In addition, the rupture will occur on the hand that dominates the work. Age also affects the risk of such an injury, since after 40 years, degenerative changes begin to occur in the human body, which lead to a decrease in the strength qualities of the tendons.

Symptoms of a tendon rupture

Some patients begin to complain of pain in the shoulder area, which appeared suddenly while doing some physical work. Basically, the pain appears acute and gradually decreases, with the release of tension from the arm. In such cases, the patient may hear a strange sound that sounds like a click or simply feel a tear. Other patients, on the contrary, feel periodic aching pain in the shoulder. Basically, pain occurs during circular movements of the hand, after which they are constantly repeated. Still others may experience intense and increasing pain in the shoulder, which increases at night.

And the last group of patients, they may not even know that they have had a tendon rupture, since they do not develop any symptoms. In this case, a thickening or bulge may appear in the area of ​​the humerus. The latter case occurs very rarely and in those people who suffer from chronic tendon damage. When a complete rupture occurs, a person may not feel pain at all. If a distal rupture occurs, similar symptoms may appear, but in the area closer to the elbow.

Causes

There are many factors causing this disease, but we will highlight the most important ones:

• chronic inflammation can lead to microtraumas and ruptures;
• such injuries are suffered by athletes involved in weightlifting as a result of high loads on the biceps tendon and its rapid tension;
• the rupture occurs as a result of damage to the rotator cuff and such a diagnosis can be made already during the operation;
• injury occurs more often at the site of attachment of the tendon to the bone;
• with constant irritation, a complete separation of the tendon from the entire radius bone can occur, and this occurs with ulnar bursitis;
• as a result of violent extension, acute tendon rupture may occur;
• during rapid flexion and extension of the elbow, the tendon from the short head may rupture;
• When taking certain medications - statins - the tendon may become detached from the bone. Taking this drug in the future can lead to tendon rupture.

Diagnosis of injury

A distal or proximal tear can be determined during a physician's examination of the patient. To do this, you do not need to take any tests, and the doctor independently diagnoses the disease. If the pain appears faster, the doctor will be able to make a diagnosis sooner after examination and refer for treatment. Often doctors may order an X-ray, which may show bone abnormalities, but this will only tentatively show the presence of a tendon rupture. X-rays can clearly show only a fracture in the shoulder area. Recently, arthrography has become popular and can detect tendon rupture with increased invasiveness.

Only as a result of ionizing radiation and the low probability of obtaining information did doctors stop using this method. Another way to visually determine an injury is ultrasound, but it can only informatively show a biceps rupture, and this method cannot show the presence of more serious injuries. This method is completely harmless and therefore it is used as a method of treating biceps tendons. The last and most effective method is magnetic resonance imaging. This method will not only visually examine the injury, but will also show the size of the injury and all morphological changes in the shoulder.

Treatment

Even today, doctors continue to argue a lot about the treatment of tendon rupture. There is much disagreement and therefore the most effective treatment has not been determined. Doctors often compare the surgical method with conservative treatment, but so far no method has stood out for its advantages, and it has not been possible to determine the best one. However, doctors themselves have begun to develop certain tactics, and they prescribe treatment based on the decision of the patient himself. Not everyone is ready for surgery, and therefore prefers a conservative method. The doctor selects an individual approach based on the patient’s preferences.

Surgical intervention is only necessary if the patient is an athlete and is young. In this case, strong supination is needed, and this can only be achieved during surgery. Surgery may be required to correct any cosmetic problems on the skin. During surgery, surgeons most often use only the atroscopic method, which allows you to quickly restore the ligament.

The conservative method of treatment is chosen by people in middle and old age. Such people do not need strong supination, which is necessary only for athletes, and for ordinary everyday life it is not needed at all. They strengthen the shoulder muscles, and the muscles on the bones. This method of treatment is considered quite effective and has no side effects. With surgery, additional operations are often required. Scientists conducted studies on patients who tried these methods. They concluded that the patient undergoing this treatment lost 1/5 of his supination strength, which affected his performance during simple movements.

Nowadays, doctors prefer to use an individual approach to each injured patient in order to create a comprehensive treatment for tendon restoration. After all, every person has personal needs and characteristics. This treatment method consists of:

• examination of the injured shoulder, as well as identification of any pathologies of the elbow and the entire shoulder;
• the doctor determines the risk of surgery for the patient and the benefit of surgical correction. The characteristics of the patient depend on his age, profession, the presence of pain, whether he urgently needs treatment and other factors;
• complete rehabilitation must be carried out, which will be provided for the restoration of functional abilities, regardless of how the treatment was carried out in the acute period of the disease.

Treatment with medications

When a tendon ruptures, an inflammatory process begins in the body, and to reduce this inflammation, you need to take anti-inflammatory medications. They not only relieve inflammation, but also reduce pain in the acute period after injury. Some medications can relieve some of the pain, while others can provide complete pain relief. In the acute period, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs will be more effective with constant shoulder rest and cold. With a conservative treatment method, the patient needs to wear an orthosis to reduce arm movements and speed up the recovery process. During rehabilitation, the doctor may prescribe a course of physiological procedures that can increase tendon recovery and improve blood circulation in damaged tissues.

You can begin to engage in physical therapy within ten days after receiving an injury.
Exercises should be light with a gradual increase in the load on the shoulder. After six weeks, you may not be able to put full weight on your shoulder. Even several months after treatment, doctors do not recommend full-fledged exercise, as this can lead to a biceps rupture. Author: K.M.N., Academician of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences M.A. Bobyr