Dammit to Hell!!!!!!

[Bad Fox]

Pretty sure I tore my pec this afternoon.

Ive been known to bench heavy.... but lately ive been doing a cut and bodybuilding like crazy. Today was flat bench day and ive upped my tren, test and d-bol doses recently. The weights felt super light today so I figured I would go up and see if I could still hit 315 for 10.

I did a very extensive warm up and stretch before hand. Then on a set where I was going to do my last warm up with 275 for 6 before my 315 for 10 it gets me. 275 felt like a toy. I moved em super quick and on the 4th one felt the tear. Thank goodness the skinny kid at the gym that I had spotting me could get it off me. I felt it on the way down and just layed the weight on my chest and told him to get it.

I got up and didn't see any bruising so I thought I might have just pulled something. Then I asked a guy on the bench next to me if I could use his 95lbs just to see how I felt. As soon as I lifted it out of the yolk I felt that tell tale pain and burn. I cant lift anything with my left side now at all!.

Ive torn muscles before and this is the same exact feeling. But no bruising...... anyone think this might just be a small fissure instead of separation? That's what im hoping it is. But it hurts like hell as soon as I grab even a gallon of milk.

FML....... I don't need this crap right now. I was just on a roll! Looking pretty good building some good muscle too.

 

[meterman5]

Man that sucks. The only way to tell is a little time and MRI. I have had bruising show up days later. I had a grade 3 sprain in m y ankle from playing in a flag football league. Felt pretty bad when it happened but I thought it was no biggie as no major swelling or bruising. Two days later ankle the size of my thigh and it looked like someone took a sharpie marker and colored a 1"band from one end of my foot to the other.

Good luck with that man. Rest it and if you can afford the money and time get it checked out because self diagnosis is going to drive you nuts.

 

[Turkishexpress]

That's happened to me in the past a few times as well, which finally led me to stop benching all together. It usually happened on the negative portion and towards the bottom of the movement, at least for me. I would feel a tear and tightness lasting a couple of weeks but no blood or bruising. I still blame it on my form at the end of the day but everyones biomechanics are built different. I still do heavy presses on the Hammer Strength pieces and get good results without any issues. No need to risk it on free-weights for me.

 

[GreenEarth]

Hate to say something you may already know, but make sure to ice the hell out of it for a few days, and see how it feels. Maybe start with just the bar for several reps after it feels a bit better, see how that treats you.

 

[mytreefiddy]

Oh man.... I feel for you brother... Hopefully, it's not that serious

 

[360]

All I can say is learn from this in the future. I hear story after story of guys saying they tore their pec AGAIN. It should only happen once. Do not go heavy on pressing movements (bench, incline, military, etc).

I would recommend not going heavy during future cycles. Keep the weight at a moderate level and make the mind-muscle connection during your lift. No need to impress yourself with a heavy lift, especially bench press.

Last night I was thinking about something. I have been going to the same gym for the last 3 years. I know most of the people up there, but I honestly have no idea how much any of them lift. I never look at the weight they are doing on any exercise. The only things I notice are their clothes (because everyone always wears the same clothes/uniform) and bad form.

 

[magnus82]

Get some tb500 asap!

 

[Bad Fox]

That's happened to me in the past a few times as well, which finally led me to stop benching all together. It usually happened on the negative portion and towards the bottom of the movement, at least for me. I would feel a tear and tightness lasting a couple of weeks but no blood or bruising. I still blame it on my form at the end of the day but everyones biomechanics are built different. I still do heavy presses on the Hammer Strength pieces and get good results without any issues. No need to risk it on free-weights for me.

Yep....on the negative. I was moving the bar pretty quickly... might be why

Hate to say something you may already know, but make sure to ice the hell out of it for a few days, and see how it feels. Maybe start with just the bar for several reps after it feels a bit better, see how that treats you.

ye sir... ice for sure. I will be ata a snails pace when I go at it again

Oh man.... I feel for you brother... Hopefully, it's not that serious

Thanks.....set backs do suck

Man that sucks. The only way to tell is a little time and MRI. I have had bruising show up days later. I had a grade 3 sprain in m y ankle from playing in a flag football league. Felt pretty bad when it happened but I thought it was no biggie as no major swelling or bruising. Two days later ankle the size of my thigh and it looked like someone took a sharpie marker and colored a 1"band from one end of my foot to the other.

Good luck with that man. Rest it and if you can afford the money and time get it checked out because self diagnosis is going to drive you nuts.

Yeah... I was hoping not to see a big dark spot tonight. We shall see. So far so good though.

All I can say is learn from this in the future. I hear story after story of guys saying they tore their pec AGAIN. It should only happen once. Do not go heavy on pressing movements (bench, incline, military, etc).

I would recommend not going heavy during future cycles. Keep the weight at a moderate level and make the mind-muscle connection during your lift. No need to impress yourself with a heavy lift, especially bench press.

Last night I was thinking about something. I have been going to the same gym for the last 3 years. I know most of the people up there, but I honestly have no idea how much any of them lift. I never look at the weight they are doing on any exercise. The only things I notice are their clothes (because everyone always wears the same clothes/uniform) and bad form.

The last time this happened I was only using 225. It may not be the poundage as much as the speed and inertia. I may drop speed reps from my training. The way I felt though.... im pretty sure I could have hit that for 17 or 18.

 

[MaineGuy]

Bad Fox, sorry about that and hope it is minor. I do remember in other threads some members telling you not to go too heavy. Learn from other peoples experience. As we get into our 40's and beyond, these injuries can become quite more common.

 

[sazo75]

I hope everything goes well and its nothing serious mate. So you feel that you moved the weight to fast? Was it on the 4th rep of 275 that you felt the tear? As well as it being super light? Interesting because when I warm u I always start out really slow and go faster and really explode up with the weight when I start stacking on more and more for about 5 reps, until I get to the max working weight, I feel this is a great warm up but obviously perhaps the explosiveness is dangerous based off your experience?

 

[Ironraider]

Sorry to hear that BF...heard that flats lead to more chest and shoulder tears or issues than any other exercise. I too tore my right pec on flats...never went back, and never will go back to flats...better now knowing that there are far superior chest exercises that develop the chest than flats.

Good luck...and here's to a quick healing!

 

[phatrr]

I've only torn hammies, and a lat. Sometimes the bruising takes a day or two to show up, for some reason. A light massage, like a whirlpool, can help to bring it up sooner.

A lot of guys I've talked with who have torn stuff (esp. pecs) say that many times there's no warning. Properly warmed up, lighter weight, and boom.

I tore my left hammie doing the same weight stone load I considered fairly light weight: 2nd rep, and boom, it let loose. Yet a couple weeks prior to that, I nailed something like 10 consecutive reps with the same stone.

Heal up. You know the drill. This is the hard part of lifting: using your head when faced with an injury when everything was going well.

I'm not a fan of icing. Icing just delays the healing process. Get into a Jacuzzi, get that blood moving. You want the blood flowing freely to get nutrients to the muscle so it can repair. If you have access, get a bag of saline pumped into the muscle - find somebody who does Prolotherapy in your area. This is now standard procedure for a lot of powerlifters.

Best of luck.

 

[Bad Fox]

Bad Fox, sorry about that and hope it is minor. I do remember in other threads some members telling you not to go too heavy. Learn from other peoples experience. As we get into our 40's and beyond, these injuries can become quite more common.

While I do agree that the possibility for injury increases as we age..... I still feel that this particular instance was caused by something else. 275 is not heavy for me at all. The last time it happened I was only using 225. I would agree if it kept happening on 3 rep sets or prs. Pushing over 400lbs.

I hope everything goes well and its nothing serious mate. So you feel that you moved the weight to fast? Was it on the 4th rep of 275 that you felt the tear? As well as it being super light? Interesting because when I warm u I always start out really slow and go faster and really explode up with the weight when I start stacking on more and more for about 5 reps, until I get to the max working weight, I feel this is a great warm up but obviously perhaps the explosiveness is dangerous based off your experience?

Yes.. I do a pretty extensive warm up to avoid things like this. It was the 4th rep that I felt it on and just stopped. The pain now seems to be in the connective tissue which leads me to believe that the inertia of the weight coming down and me reversing it so quickly caused the pressure to move way up. In other words..... 275 became something like 375 at the connective area and caused trauma because of its quick frequency. Perhaps I wasn't fully recovered either. Ive been on a large dose recently and feel like King Kong. The hormones may have masked an overtrained state.

Sorry to hear that BF...heard that flats lead to more chest and shoulder tears or issues than any other exercise. I too tore my right pec on flats...never went back, and never will go back to flats...better now knowing that there are far superior chest exercises that develop the chest than flats.

Good luck...and here's to a quick healing!

Ive read that also. Thanks for the cheer up.

I've only torn hammies, and a lat. Sometimes the bruising takes a day or two to show up, for some reason. A light massage, like a whirlpool, can help to bring it up sooner.

A lot of guys I've talked with who have torn stuff (esp. pecs) say that many times there's no warning. Properly warmed up, lighter weight, and boom.I tore my left hammie doing the same weight stone load I considered fairly light weight: 2nd rep, and boom, it let loose. Yet a couple weeks prior to that, I nailed something like 10 consecutive reps with the same stone.

Heal up. You know the drill. This is the hard part of lifting: using your head when faced with an injury when everything was going well.

I'm not a fan of icing. Icing just delays the healing process. Get into a Jacuzzi, get that blood moving. You want the blood flowing freely to get nutrients to the muscle so it can repair. If you have access, get a bag of saline pumped into the muscle - find somebody who does Prolotherapy in your area. This is now standard procedure for a lot of powerlifters.

Best of luck.

That's exactly what has me somewhat perplexed. When I recover Im going to focus on soft tissue health and slow the bar down. I did opt out on the ice this time for the very reason you mentioned. I didn't have but just slight swelling of the area so its warm and hot treatment time.

 

[ALLEX]

That's exactly what has me somewhat perplexed.

It's like sciatica. You're strong as an ox, one day you bend down to grab a pillow and boom, severe pain for days.

Being overtrained makes things worse too. You don't need to lift extremely heavy to build muscle. Look at Lee Haney, he was Mr.O 8 times. Guy never had an injury and never lifted very heavy. You need nutrients, an state of anabolism and some stimulation.

Hope you get well soon.

 

[Bad Fox]

It's like sciatica. You're strong as an ox, one day you bend down to grab a pillow and boom, severe pain for days.

Being overtrained makes things worse too. You don't need to lift extremely heavy to build muscle. Look at Lee Haney, he was Mr.O 8 times. Guy never had an injury and never lifted very heavy. You need nutrients, an state of anabolism and some stimulation.

Hope you get well soon.

I think perhaps I was in an overtrained state. I bumped the volume WAY up for body building, but on compound lifts I kept the weights at 65% for almost all work outs. Ive done lots of 15 to 20 rep sets. I am noticing very good growth and fat burning with the pace I keep.

But I do admit that there has been several workouts where ive still been sore going in. I was perhaps over eager to get my swole on and burn fat. I just figured with using lower weight I could get away with it for a while.

 

[Wayacrucis]

Hopefully it's not a pec bro. Good luck with the recovery

 

[SIR-LOIN]

I had a partial tear warming attempting 385 for 6, had done 440 or so a few weeks prior, trying to get 500 raw before my 45th birthday ... then POW, it happened. Felt like I was getting an electric shock in that area, but no bruising for a couple days then it was from my delt down below serratus, and all in my bicep.
No more flat bench for me after that. Also was advised by an ortho not to bother fixing it since it'd only be a slight cosmetic difference. So I did not, which I regret terribly. Now I have very noticable disfigurement on that side, even when my bf gets below 8%, in a shirt that pec looks a little droopy and sloppy. Dammit man!

 

[skyblob]

Same shit happened to me bro, three times. I tear left side on decline bench. Couldnt bench shit for couple weeks, restarted benching slowly.. then boom, right side tear on flat bench. The feeling was like a tearing a towel in me.. No bruise nothing.. but washing my hands was painful.. It stopped tearing as soon as I stopped benching and switched to dumbells bro. Try it

 

[drjay16]

Curious to hear from all the people the tore their pecs, how wide of a grip did you take? I always hear of people tearing their pecs with wider grips, but never narrow ones.


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[monopoly]

Sorry to hear it BF.

As you know, injuries are part of the game if you train long enough. You can back stronger than before.

I wish you the best of luck in a full and quick recovery.