In February 1993 -- about seven months before the Mr. Olympia competition -- Kevin Levrone tore a chest muscle while bench-pressing 550 pounds -- more than a quarter ton.
While lying on his back on a weight bench, he lowered the barbell to his chest, and as he pushed on the upward, he ripped a tendon in his pectoralis major. So severe was the rip, that muscle on the right side of his upper chest pulled away from the bone.
Levrone drove from the Powerhouse Gym in Linthicum to the emergency room at the University of Maryland Medical Center. His arm was placed in a sling and he was scheduled for surgery three days later.
A subsequent examination by Dr. Kevin D. Tetsworth, an orthopedic surgeon, revealed that the torn muscle had retracted about 4 inches into Levrone's chest. Under normal circumstances, Tetsworth would have made an incision on the front of Levrone's chest to reattach the tendon to the bone.
But that basic surgical technique would have left a scar on Levrone's chest -- a mark that would have hurt his bodybuilding career.
Tetsworth conferred with several colleagues -- including one in Chicago who told him to "just open it up, fix it and not worry about how it looks."
That method did not suit Levrone.
"His concern was that it would be botched up. Not having the same appearance and symmetry as before," Tetsworth said. "When you think about the amount of hours and dedication and training, and the fact that it's not just a recreational activity with him. It's a professional activity for him. It's a whole lifestyle.
"Having a big scar there would not have been a big detriment, but would have been enough to keep him out of the very top [in bodybuilding]."
During his four years at the hospital, Tetsworth had fixed ruptured tendons and performed numerous shoulder operations, but had never fixed a pectoral muscle tear like Levrone's.
Acceding to Levrone's concerns, he opted to make a 3-inch incision in the bodybuilder's armpit. He compared the delicacy of the surgery to "operating on Cindy Crawford's face."
"There's a scar there, but the position of the scar is in the normal folds of the skin," Tetsworth said. "So it's sort of the ideal location to put an incision because it's always at the base of its crease. It's a small incision. It's something that shoulder surgeons use when cosmetics are a concern."
Levrone's arm was immobilized for three months after the surgery. Gradually, he was allowed to stretch the muscle and to eventually pump iron again.
"His big concern was that he atrophied the chest muscles," Tetsworth said, adding: "He took years to build up that muscle mass and then it atrophied during that course of 12 weeks and he'd have to start over again and start building that muscle mass."
When he finally was able to fully exercise the chest muscle in late June, the Mr. Olympia contest was only 10 weeks away.
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