About ten months ago I suffered a pec tear in the muscle belly, not the normal tear at the tendon near the shoulder. I now have a considerable amount of scar tissue and a misshapen mass about an inch and a half in from my delt. My docs told me that basically the two ends of the muscle are more or less glued together with scar tissue and nothing will ever change that which means my pec will never be stronger than the scar tissue holding the muscle together. I did have surgery which stitched the ends of the muscle together to minimize the breadth of that scar tissue. As my training increases the viable part of the muscle is getting some mass back, but it is only serving to highlight the deformity where the scar tissue is. The deformity is getting to be more and more noticable. When I flex the injured pec, it more or less curls up into a ball instead of flexing across my chest all the way to the shoulder tie-in. I know I won’t ever be benching 400 again, but I was wondering if steroids (which I’ve never taken) might be an avenue in which I might actually kickstart something to where some of that muscle might regrow across that scar tissue. Alternatively, I saw an interview with Dr. Kenakin on this site (Strength Training, Bodybuilding & Online Supplement Store - T NATION) in which he stated that electro stim + acupuncture has been shown to regrow muscle tissue in place of scar tissue. I was wondering if anyone had any more information on this.
I’d suggest you contact the good Dr. K directly. As far as scar tissue, it will diminish in size over time.
I don’t think I’d recommend AAS in this case, and least not right off the bat. Physical therapy might be the way to go, and I’ve seen that electrostim get a non-functioning muscle firing again post surgery in a family member.
Still, your best bet is to find a sports medicine doctor with direct experience in these matters.