Pectoral muscle partial tear...yeah it hurts...

[TheMachineERAU]

Hi all...

I was wondering if any of you out there have ever experienced a situation siumilar to mine...

I am a college freshman (almost sophomore) and have NOT been lifting for almost a year now. I had been working out for 3 years consecutively during high school and had totally changed my person. My freshman year I was about 5'11" and 130 pounds. A few weeks prior to graduation I was 6'1" and 215 lbs. (no gut, solid mass). This is where it gets scary...

Exactly a week prior to graduation I was doing heavy repetitions of decline bench press. With 315 lbs. on the bar and on my 6th rep I heard a LOUD tearing sound (like tearing a piece of cloth) and my right arm collapsed. Luckily my spotter was right there to catch the weight and rack it. I immediately felt a big burning sensation in my right pec. It smelled up a bunch and basically hurt and burned like a bitch for the next few hours. I couldn't stretch it at all for about 2 weeks. I also couldn't do ANY upper body lift without experiencing painful spasms in my right pec (very sensitive to any force). I couldn't even do one push-up... Of course by now i feel like a total wimp and am beginning to lose my muscular gains I had worked so hard for. The swelling had also gone done and my right pec appeared to be "missing" a chunk of muscle where the pec inserts into the shoulder area. My doctor informed me that this was where the muscle ripped away.

Now its been a year since the injury and I have only recently begun to do push-ups to help stimulate some growth. Soon I will go home for the summer and will be able to visit a sports injury specific doctor who will hopefully be able to reccomend either surgery or rehab.

Either way i am pissed beyond all belief that this happened to me. I was known at my high school for being a nazi about good form and intensity in the weight room (thus the nickname The Machine). I also ate well (6 or 7 meals, minimum 4000 cal + 300g protein, usually more). Plus all the standard supplements (creatine, glutamine, amino acids, vitamins...).

I was just wondering if anyone else out there has experienced a similar injury and what they did to solve it. Thanks.

[|-|EMAN]

i have never heard of anything like that before.

[iOse]

same here, thats hardcore

[rmatic1]

nope, fortunately, im curious as to why things like that happen?

[Pridg01]

That pec tear is either from bad form or benching too much. I mean "too much." Bodybuilders mostly experience this. And sometimes this ends careers.

[Davesta]

Sorry to hear about this bro. Hopefully you can start lifting again and get back some of your earlier gains. You sound as though you were doing very well.

[asndragonboii]

hmm.... im scared this might happen to me. do you think giving a good stretch before doing the exercise might have prevented this from happening?

[quelafuk]

Originally posted by Pridg01
That pec tear is either from bad form or benching too much. I mean "too much." Bodybuilders mostly experience this. And sometimes this ends careers.

They don't have to come from bad form. He might not have been properly warmed up. Maybe it was a very minor injury that built up over time etc.

Why did have you waited a year to get this dealt with?

[-TC-]

get a bench shirt

[TheMachineERAU]

Guess I should have clarified a few things about my lifting habits...

First off, I always stretch before each lift. Especially my chest and triceps. It is definitely a good way to prevent injuries in any sport. I also always warm up sufficiently. Take bench press for example....I would start out at 135 and do between 10 and 15 reps...then move up to 185...then 205...then 225 and so on. I would never just jump in cold. That's just asking to get hurt. I don't think stretching or warming up the muscles had anything to do with this. I also made sure to give my muscles sufficient time to rest. I never did heavy sets of chest with 48 hours (minimum) of each other.

I have a feeling it might have been from a minor lapse in form (like shifting the weight slightly to one side) which was amplified by the large amount of weight on the bar.

The reason why I have waited so long is because I was hoping that time would heal everything enough to start working it out again. I tried lifting for week this past September and it was too painful. So, I assumed my (and my doctor's) original theory was wrong and I needed some sort of surgery or rehab. Unfortunately I am away at college which limits my time and availability for this....meaning I would have to wait until I come home for the summer to resolve this.

Thanks to all those who responded....

[Pridg01]

In order for you to rehabilate your pec, you have to start from scratch. Meaning, give up bench for a while. Try incorparating dumbell bench and free weight push ups to stabilize your pecs,also machines. Start from scratch. Pec tears usually don't last that long once you start rehabilating yourself. But the road to recovery can be long sometimes though.

[breathingmurder]

In the future, bench with your elbows IN. I'm guessin you were probably benching with the out and that does target the chest a little more but it does put it in a dangerous position.
I've heard of that happening before. There was another guy on this board that that happenned to, and he is benching more now than before the injury-- so don't lose hope.