Hurting Your Own Arm with Bicep Crusher

[Harry Evans]

I have a ton of success with the basic bicep crusher/slicer/whatever from spiderweb. The one where you cross the shin near your opponent's legs over the arm, triangle your legs, and just extend.

However, I tried it the other day on a purple belt from another gym who is about twice my weight (I am 150 lbs). He dealt with the pain, and slowly worked to stack and escape. I figured I would just continue the crusher even as he stacked, as I normally do. But he was not tapping, I guess because he didn't want to tap to a lower belt. As I pulled harder, it started to really hurt as it also began crushing my own forearm. I could not get the hook with my arm all the way through to my elbow, so it was forearm bone to his bicep. Today, my forearm is sore as hell and bruised. And ... he didn't tap. We transitioned and I kinda caught an armbar, but that wasn't my goal, and I want to know if I am risking my own arm when I try this move in general.

Opinions?

[AJ Camacho]

Usually when I do the bicep slicer there are two different reasons why they'll tap. One is just from the cutting pressure into their muscle tissue. The other is from the joint pressure of the elbow. Whatever they feel is dependent upon how deep my forearm is into the pit of their arm.

I usually hurt my own arm if I am not deep enough with the cutter and they have a higher pain tolerance than me. Because then the move just becomes me cutting into my own tissue with their arm. I've had a range of different responses from guys. Some say they felt like their elbow was going to pop, others say that it just hurt their muscle, some thought that their forearm was going to split apart, and some dudes say that they were fine.

There's definitely an element of inconsistency and error on my part but there's clearly a lot more going on with the bicep slicer than it seems.

[Harry Evans]

@AJ I see what you mean. It seems like a position in and of itself, which could be broken down into options. I feel like my positioning and angles are just slightly off. Most of the videos I have seen of it are real quick, because of how simple the setup is, but I'd love for someone to really break it down into a longer video.

[Mike Noronowicz]

i have serious injuries being victim to this hold , good thing its banned in tournaments