In September of 2022, during a workout with 70lb kettlebells, I experienced a traction injury. Basically, in an American kettlebell swing, with the kettlebell pointing to the sky overhead, the bell will swing out and down between your legs to load for the next repetition, which is handled primarily by your hamstrings and glutes. However, when performing this movement for speed, the shortest distance between overhead and bottom extension is a straight line, so we skip the swing out and use less loading on the hamstrings and more on the quads and shoulders. This allows the kettlebell to free-fall from overhead from which the force, using your arms and legs, is absorbed as the bell passes down in front of your hips. The rebound, which is similar to a high-hang clean extension with a quick dip and hip-drive, bounces the kettlebell back up. It’s at this point, when the tension increased on my arm to rebound the kettlebell (traction), that I felt the same snap that I had felt in my right shoulder years prior. The only difference in positioning from the right shoulder injury was that my hand was pronated, not supinated…but that didn’t matter given the force applied. I knew instantly that I had “torn my bicep tendon.” The truth of the matter (and I haven’t had my left shoulder scanned yet) is that it was probably my labrum, which is directly connected to the long head of the bicep tendon.