Pulled/Tweaked Pec Again. Help?

I pulled/ tweaked my pec while doing bench press today. About halfway down on the eccentric I felt it and there was nothing I could do. Let it fall on my chest and was done for the day.

I have tweaked in the past but this is the worst one yet for me.

I get down in the dumps when this happens because I know how much this is going to set me and my training back…and I love training…

  1. Am I someone who should not bench press anymore after having multiple tweaks/pulls with flat bench press?

  2. Should I quit training all together for a few weeks to help my body heal the pec first or should I continue with other body parts?

Coach if you or someone could please give some advice I need it. Thank you

You might find some helpful info in this thread

I have shoulders troubles, but not so that I can’t flat bench (yet?). In the short-term I suspect you won’t be able to do Dips either but I’ve heard people that makes that their main pressing movement (food for thought). Maybe now you could overhead press twice?

I’m too damn stubborn to have yet assimilated this advice into action but I reckon I will have to in the future: if it always hurts/injure you and you don’t compete in the lift find a substitute. There are no mandatory movements.

Pec tendon or muscle belly?
If it’s the muscle belly, you can raise the bench an inch or so on either end and it will change the line of movement just enough to help keep the stress off the injury.

Unless your specially looking for a big bench. Maybe consider changing movement. Or look into evaluating your form.

I’m hoping muscle belly. Don’t think tendon separated. But feels like if I tried to do a pushup right now it would tear completely.

I dont compete just like to lift but this might make me do away with flat bench press altogether.

Maybe I will look into football bar benches in a few months when this heals or try slight incline decline variations like mentioned.

I take a narrow grip to begin with but maybe my form or elbows was still too wide…

Why don’t you try and rehab it rather than just waiting for it to heal? That would also decrease the risk of future injury. Just switching to another bench variation might decrease the risk in the short term vs. the same lift you strained it on, but you could very well end up straining it again still.

2 Likes