Ever Tear a Pec?

Today, on my first exercise, second set of Dumbbell bench press I had a slight twinge and pain in my left pec forcing me to drop the weights. I reassesed myself and tried again with a very light weight and it was extremely painful.

I ended my weight training session for the day and came home. When I flex it, it feels fine until I get to the top part of the muscle. If I did the crab pose it would hurt bad.

I’m hoping that this is just a pulled muscle or slight injury and nothing major requiring surgery.

I HATE setbacks like this.

I’m not asking for an internet diagnosis, but what I am asking is if any of you have had a torn pec, what were your symptoms, what did the doctors tell you, basically what was your experience with it? I am going to take a week off from any pressing movements and see if it doesn’t get better. If it does then no worries, but if it doesn’t it’d be nice to read on what some others experiences have been so I have an idea on what I might have to go through.

I know it was from warming up half assed and possibly not being hydrated enough.

So learn from my mistake here, your not invincible and take all the proper precautions.

Geeeez I feel like quite the post whore lately…lol

DG

Ohhh, and you have the excalibur coming up, don’t you? I have never had a pec tear, but my advice to you would be to go to a walk-in clinic if you have the time in the next couple of days. Usually cheaper than regular doc visits, but you can still get some sort of evaluation.

Good luck

[quote]Dirty Gerdy wrote:
Today, on my first exercise, second set of Dumbbell bench press I had a slight twinge and pain in my left pec forcing me to drop the weights. I reassesed myself and tried again with a very light weight and it was extremely painful.

I ended my weight training session for the day and came home. When I flex it, it feels fine until I get to the top part of the muscle. If I did the crab pose it would hurt bad.

I’m hoping that this is just a pulled muscle or slight injury and nothing major requiring surgery.

I HATE setbacks like this.

I’m not asking for an internet diagnosis, but what I am asking is if any of you have had a torn pec, what were your symptoms, what did the doctors tell you, basically what was your experience with it? I am going to take a week off from any pressing movements and see if it doesn’t get better. If it does then no worries, but if it doesn’t it’d be nice to read on what some others experiences have been so I have an idea on what I might have to go through.

I know it was from warming up half assed and possibly not being hydrated enough.

So learn from my mistake here, your not invincible and take all the proper precautions.

Geeeez I feel like quite the post whore lately…lol

DG

[/quote]

I had that, got from doing dips. Went away after a month of little to no training.

Felt like an elastic band snapping, I didn’t bother going to a doctor even though it was quite painful, I just iced/rested it.

[quote]Dirty Gerdy wrote:
Today, on my first exercise, second set of Dumbbell bench press I had a slight twinge and pain in my left pec forcing me to drop the weights. I reassesed myself and tried again with a very light weight and it was extremely painful.

I ended my weight training session for the day and came home. When I flex it, it feels fine until I get to the top part of the muscle. If I did the crab pose it would hurt bad.

I’m hoping that this is just a pulled muscle or slight injury and nothing major requiring surgery.

I HATE setbacks like this.

I’m not asking for an internet diagnosis, but what I am asking is if any of you have had a torn pec, what were your symptoms, what did the doctors tell you, basically what was your experience with it? I am going to take a week off from any pressing movements and see if it doesn’t get better. If it does then no worries, but if it doesn’t it’d be nice to read on what some others experiences have been so I have an idea on what I might have to go through.

I know it was from warming up half assed and possibly not being hydrated enough.

So learn from my mistake here, your not invincible and take all the proper precautions.

Geeeez I feel like quite the post whore lately…lol

DG

[/quote]

a little off topic u have been posting alot lately acvually haha sorry im no help with the pec thing. It hopefully is only a pec pull and not tear

That sucks man. I don’t have any experience relating to pec tears, but I know what you mean about hating setbacks. I dislocated my left shoulder for the 5th time a month ago. Annoying!!

[quote]Dirty Gerdy wrote:
I know it was from warming up half assed and possibly not being hydrated enough.

[/quote]

A bit off topic, but what kind of warm-ups do you normally do? A pm response would be best, as to not clutter the thread I guess. Also-How much weight were you using when you hurt your pec?

I would suggest a doctor unless anyone knows what happened to ya (Obvious…)

Ive never heard of anyone tear their pecs with the DB bench. BB bench, yes…unless you were moving some ridiculously heavy DBs. Also if you’re able to lift light weights then I doubt you tore something. What rep range were you in?

[quote]Dirty Gerdy wrote:
Today, on my first exercise, second set of Dumbbell bench press I had a slight twinge and pain in my left pec forcing me to drop the weights. I reassesed myself and tried again with a very light weight and it was extremely painful.

I ended my weight training session for the day and came home. When I flex it, it feels fine until I get to the top part of the muscle. If I did the crab pose it would hurt bad.

I’m hoping that this is just a pulled muscle or slight injury and nothing major requiring surgery.

I HATE setbacks like this.

I’m not asking for an internet diagnosis, but what I am asking is if any of you have had a torn pec, what were your symptoms, what did the doctors tell you, basically what was your experience with it? I am going to take a week off from any pressing movements and see if it doesn’t get better. If it does then no worries, but if it doesn’t it’d be nice to read on what some others experiences have been so I have an idea on what I might have to go through.

I know it was from warming up half assed and possibly not being hydrated enough.

So learn from my mistake here, your not invincible and take all the proper precautions.

Geeeez I feel like quite the post whore lately…lol

DG

[/quote]

I had something very similar to this happen to myself.
I was diagnosed with a tearing the pec insert. It connects tissue from the delt/lower pec/and bicep. Typically it happens from overtraining, and thats exactly what I did. Do not push it untill you see a doctor, honestly. I pushed it and F***ed it up even worse because I believed it to be just a pulled muscle…

Do some bicep curls and see if it hurts your shoulder/pec it may narrow down the problem. If you technially tore the whole pec it would probably be curled in a ball on your shoulder or inner chest. Take it easy though.

Trenchant: If it doesn’t feel better by tomorrow I will definitely see the doc. I do have the Excalibur coming up and I’m really excited for it. I’m going to be BUMMED if I messed something up, especially since I’d put money on me not being properly warmed up.

Goodfellow: It wasn’t quite like an elastic band, more like WHOA THAT HURTS! THAT AINT RIGHT. lol Rest/Ice it is until I check the doc.

Crod: I hope it is a pull and am thinking along those lines more than a tear. Hope for the best, but expect the worse type thing. Idk I’ve just been full of info lately I guess. Been on Tnation left and right haha!

MeinHB: 5 times…maybe you should think of doing something differently lol jk

Reborn: I usually just do light weight with the exercise I do for a warm up. Today it was only 15 reps with the 50lbers for a warm up then I jumped into the 105’s for 8 reps no problem and then on the 110 rep 3-4 is when I got my problem lol I was going up to 120 too…so its not like I messed it up going heavier than usual.

Tribunaldude: I was in the 8-10 rep range and it was with the 110lb dumbbells. Heavy yes, but rediculously heavy…no.

Drizzt: I know that if I tore it bad, that it would ball up etc. The pain is in my upperchest towards my shoulder, almost armpit area. What you had could very well be my problem as well.

Rest/ice, etc plus some time off and see if it improves is my first plan of attack. After that I’ll see the doctor, I don’t like doctors because they always are the bearer of bad news lol :stuck_out_tongue: kidding of course.

Thanks for the replies everyone

DG

[quote]Dirty Gerdy wrote:

MeinHB: 5 times…maybe you should think of doing something differently lol jk

[/quote]

Eh, well the first 3 times occurred well before I ever lifted a weight. This last one was f-ed up. Happend while trying to do weighted rack chins. Just found out I may have a torn labrum, but surgery isn’t necessary at this point.

If it’s any consolation, now i will always warm up properly…

same exact thing happened to me, with dumbells as well.

every third day go in and do light cable flys very controlled getting the muscle flushed with blood.

Give it 3-4 weeks, light dumbell shoulder press, side laterals. and any kind of tricep extension that doesnt hurt the muscle. Other than that you can just keep training everything else like normal.

I dont recommend stretching it, all though you could probably greatly benefit from some deep tissue massages on your pecs.

lol that one guy! That’s my point! haha!

meinhb: Thats a bummer dood. I had a partial tear that supposedly fixed itself before, that was from years of playing baseball. They also later said it was just an impingement. Honestly I don’t think the docs knew what was going on. lol

I’m sorry for all those dislocations…sounds painful. lol

DG

[quote]Mega Newb wrote:
same exact thing happened to me, with dumbells as well.

every third day go in and do light cable flys very controlled getting the muscle flushed with blood.

Give it 3-4 weeks, light dumbell shoulder press, side laterals. and any kind of tricep extension that doesnt hurt the muscle. Other than that you can just keep training everything else like normal.

I dont recommend stretching it, all though you could probably greatly benefit from some deep tissue massages on your pecs.

[/quote]

I’m defnitely doing the massage thing. I’ve had what were thought to be great injuries that a simple massage and some rest/ice healed.

I think I will take some time off from any pressing movement, and then slowly work back up. It will set me behind, but being ‘able’ to bodybuild is better than messing myself up trying to. Good thing my chest grows super fast :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: lol

DG

Ice twenty minutes on then twenty minutes off for an hour twice a day man. If your feeling it in the armpit like you said, it sounds dangerously similar to my previous problem. Dont risk anything, otherwise you’ll be out of commission for a while.

[quote]That One Guy wrote:
If it’s any consolation, now i will always warm up properly…[/quote]

I’m still getting over a partial pec tear. Slowly regaining the strength I had before :confused:

The tear happened in my right pec during some flat barbell benches. It happened just about in the armpit area, where you can feel the tendinous tissue. Pretty much the same spot as you, from the sound of it.

Hindsight is 20/20, so let me tell you what I’d do to expedite the recovery process. . .

  1. maintain mobility immediately after the incident with whatever is manageable and relatively pain-free

  2. when pain starts to diminish, so some soft tissue work on the area, veering towards an extremely conservative approach. I’d just use your fingers to get at the tissue and try and get rid of the taut scar tissue you’ll inevitably have. When things really start clearing up you may want to try foam rolling the area. . .

  3. continue strengthening everything you can around the injury. If it isn’t that bad, you may even be able to pull off some heavy shoulder presses, but you have to play it by ear, ya know?

Alright well that’s all I can think of right now.

In retrospect I’m kind of happy I fucked myself up so much training like a dumass. Maybe it can help stronger folks like yourself.

Give it time, and good luck with the competition. Keep us posted!

EDIT: I’d have done icing and such as well. Forgot to mention that

nope never have. but i did get another stretch mark. this time it was on my left pec near the shoulder insertion.

its crazy cause apparently i have an atrocious diet, and am a pussy in the gym…but i keep growing somehow. iznt dat veird?

[quote]Flow wrote:
I’m still getting over a partial pec tear. Slowly regaining the strength I had before :confused:

The tear happened in my right pec during some flat barbell benches. It happened just about in the armpit area, where you can feel the tendinous tissue. Pretty much the same spot as you, from the sound of it.

Hindsight is 20/20, so let me tell you what I’d do to expedite the recovery process. . .

  1. maintain mobility immediately after the incident with whatever is manageable and relatively pain-free

  2. when pain starts to diminish, so some soft tissue work on the area, veering towards an extremely conservative approach. I’d just use your fingers to get at the tissue and try and get rid of the taut scar tissue you’ll inevitably have. When things really start clearing up you may want to try foam rolling the area. . .

  3. continue strengthening everything you can around the injury. If it isn’t that bad, you may even be able to pull off some heavy shoulder presses, but you have to play it by ear, ya know?

Alright well that’s all I can think of right now.

In retrospect I’m kind of happy I fucked myself up so much training like a dumass. Maybe it can help stronger folks like yourself.

Give it time, and good luck with the competition. Keep us posted!

EDIT: I’d have done icing and such as well. Forgot to mention that[/quote]

Exactly the kind of thing I was looking for.

Thanks man!

DG

[quote]LiveFromThe781 wrote:
nope never have. but i did get another stretch mark. this time it was on my left pec near the shoulder insertion.

its crazy cause apparently i have an atrocious diet, and am a pussy in the gym…but i keep growing somehow. iznt dat veird?[/quote]

Cocoa butter keeps mine at bay. Well Mr. Atrocious pussy, fat people get stretch marks, and people who’s bones grow too fast get em too :stuck_out_tongue: lol jk man. Serious tho about the cocoa butter. I have some on my legs and on my pecs near the armpit area and I’m trying not to let them get seiously out of control.

DG