Gettin strong... need advice for safety. . .

[TooPowerful4u]

Ok, lookin for the people with EXPERIENCE here, kinda askin what have YOU done in the situation.

As im getting stronger and stronger, im gettin worried with the heavy weight. Had my first bad experience with heavy weight (275 incline) last week. Felt a sharp pain, racked the weight, n left. Scared the fuck out of me. Now i know a lot of you guys are moving INSANE weight in a lot of compound lifts. How do you guys avoid injury, any special precautions? I know my form was solid, slow and controlled decent, but on the 6 or 7th rep i wasnt really failing yet, but i felt a very odd pain so i freaked. DO NOT WANT A PEC TEAR. What can i do in the future to avoid problems as i get stronger. I jump on in 2 weeks, and my strength is gonna fly up.

ADD: I like to touch my coller bone on incline presses for a very brief pause, is this a bad idea?

 

[xcelbeyond]

How much of an incline are you at?

Did you get this feeling in your pec or shoulder?

I never go down to my collarbone/neck as it puts too much stress on my shoulders. Nor do incline at a very high angle for same reason.

xcel

 

[TooPowerful4u]

Couldnt really tell if it was pec or delt actually. It was in the tie-in area. It was like 30-45 degrees.

Iv always liked the big stretch goin to the collar bone. Should i bring it a little lower to relieve stress and be safer?

 

[xcelbeyond]

I would go lower - but that's my experience. I'd also try and keep elbows in, towards body, to keep stress off shoulders. Also wouldn't go any steeper incline than 30 degrees. Incline is suppose to be a "chest" workout, not shoulder and too steep shifts emphasis onto shoulders - IMHO.

xcel

 

[weight77]

If it was your pec tendon it would hurt in the edge of the arm and shoulder. But it will actually tear in the shoulder. The pec inserts in the Humerus bone which runs down the arm with the bicep. I first had pain in the shoulder but as it got worse it moved to the edge of the pec shoulder tie in.

 

[Vander_V]

going heavy

YES ITS TRUE GOING HEAVY BUILDS STRENGTH ,BUT GOING AT A CONTROLLED WEIGHT BUILDS MUSCLE.

MAKE SURE THE WEIGHT IS ALWAYS CONTROLLED AND HAVE A SPOTTER ON STAND BY.

 

[joshbarnett]

take your time and warm up.. some people just jump right in if they are in a hurry to get their workout in and end up tearing something. just like excel said- try lowering your incline-this usually puts less stress on the shoulder and watch how deep you are going until you feel 100%. i always use a full range of motion but if something is hurting i will cut it a little short to be safe.

 

[MikeS]

I would go lower - but that's my experience. I'd also try and keep elbows in, towards body, to keep stress off shoulders. Also wouldn't go any steeper incline than 30 degrees. Incline is suppose to be a "chest" workout, not shoulder and too steep shifts emphasis onto shoulders - IMHO.

xcel

Xcel-

Can I be a butthole and disagree? Actually if you want to activate the clavicular pectoral, you need to go high toward the colorbone. I agree with the low incline-infact if you do flats like this (high up) you will use alot of upper chest. Going low, even on an incline, will increase the action of pec as it originates on the sternum. Not what you want in building the upper/clavicular pecs.

Elbows in will increase the load on the delts and triceps. Elbows out will do pecs. I agree that all this does leave the insertion of the pec at the humerus vunerable. So if an injury exists-do what you need to 'work around' that for saftey reasons.

 

[TooPowerful4u]

I have always felt it better in my upper chest when bringing the bar to the collar bone as well. Seemed to work best for me. Now my fear is, as much as this lift might be beneficial, i dont wanna tear a pec. I did warm up good, and it still happened. Should i maybe stretch before my heavy sets? I want to be able to go HEAVY on incline and not worry about gettin injured. Form is flawless BTW, 1-2 seconds down slow and controlled, slight pause on chest, explosive up.

 

[DIEZEL666]

Try doing bench to the neck instead of incline for a bit. You won't be able to use as much weight, but I guarantee your upper chest will show improvement in a shorter period of time.

 

[xcelbeyond]

Here are two threads that have great info about working chest. In the first thread, Phil talks about about not using full range, and esp going to the neck.

http://www.professionalmuscle.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=6073
http://www.professionalmuscle.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=4281

Myself - I've got my info about kineseology from a good workout friend/partner that majored in Physiology (to use as it relates to training and exercise) and a guy that held several bench press records (different weight classes) in our state. Info from both seem to jive with each other.

My workout friend is 5' 8", 260# and an upper-level black belt in karate (instructor). Since we're on the topic of shoulders - he was always telling people to quit doing "heavy" behind-the-head movements like behind-the-head press or pulldown. The shoulder is at a very high biomechanical position for shoulder range and is a problem waiting to happen.

xcel

 

[bigbadasian]

Reply

|-[\\\]>---------- ALways listen to you body #1, check the ego at the door. I too have had some major boosts in strength, especially back in the day when i did Halo and when i did Tren. You have to lift smart...know that you will jump up in strength, but take it slow! your tendons don't get any stronger just b/c your strength does. Realize that maybe you can go 20lbs heavier on the next lift, but that last set, you felt a sharp pain in that area, back off a little and slowly work your way up as the weeks go on. This was a HUGE prob. for me in the past, epecially during legs, i could press a shit load of weight, but my knees were fucked big time, i checked my ego, and realized i had to back off the weight and lift lighter for a bit, until my knees recovered and let the 'rest of my body' catch up to my strength incr.