I was lifting Sunday. It was chest day and I was on my fourth set with 325 and I came down a little lower than usual (stupid) and POP! My left shoulder had a spasm and I had that “Did this just happen?” feeling.
I went to the ER and the doc said I had a partial tear in my pec. No surgery necessary but I’m going to get a second opinion just in case.
My big question is have anyone who has had or knows someone who has had a pec tear come back 100% and how long did it take. The ER doc said I can lift back, shoulders and arms in about a week but that seems soon. I’m freaked out about doing shoulder presses and having my pec tear completely.
Holy shit, that is fucked up, I am going to start doing light stretching for my chest and shoulders before dumbbell benchh press from now on considering i go very low. Good luck to you man, I really think it would be better to take at leat a couple of weeks off and make sure you fully heal instead of risking turning a temporary injury into a lifetime one. Then again I ain`t no doctor.
ZYL281 is right, the bruising is where my pec connects into my shoulder. My Dr. Appointment today went well. I start Physical Therapy next week and the physical therapist will determine when I go back to training and whether or not surgery will help. The good news is, it looks like my Pec won’t be deformed at all.
Here is a pic taken about 6 hours from the first one. The bruising is getting worse. I’ll keep a log of the progress.
Wow man, scary shit. I have no idea what to tell you, but time off isn’t going to hurt you that much.
Muscle memory from my experience is the real deal. So better to lay off and heal rather than to be in question.
It won’t take long at all to gain back whatever you lose even if you take a month off. Yeah you won’t be using the same weights or look as good but you’ll gain it back quicker than you put it on…alot quicker.
Just remember to maintain eating well. If your body has no reason to burn muscle, then you should sustain quite a bit for a long time.
That’s a bummer but at least it sounds like you’re gonna make a decent recovery from it.
That bruise is the exact spot where I get pain if I do pronated pullups or dips. I was trying to figure out what I’ve got going on and my symptoms seem to be bicep tendonitis but now I wonder if I’m going to suffer a tear also.
Have you ever had pain in that bruised area before or did this just all of a sudden snap?
I’ve never had pain there before. The only pec pain I’ve ever had was on my sternum. As I replay the event, I’m convinced it was a combination of factors. About six days before I did a massive chest workout for about 2 hours, I was slightly dehydrated, I didn’t warm up as much as usual, and I brought the weight deeper than usual.
I think it was the combination of these factors that ruined me. That and it was a full moon. Today was the first day the bruise seems to be subsiding. My only advice it to listen to your body, warm up and stay hydrated. My pec tore at 325 lbs, a lot lighter than many of the other tears I’ve heard about. I guess it can happen to anyone at any level.
So I went back to the gym for the first time today. I did an arm workout today. It seems like my biceps and triceps are just as strong as before, muscle memory is a great thing. I played around on the bench to see how things feel and I could really feel a difference in the strength department.
My injured side is a lot weaker than the non-injured side, which is what I’d expect. The biggest surprise was my shoulder strength. I can’t do a full pull-up or a skull crusher since my shoulder is so weak.
Anyone got any tips for getting the strength back? I tore my Pec on Jan. 20th.
Sorry maybe I missed it, but were you BB benching or DB benchin?
Cuz I thought DB benching was safer on the pecs in the sense of pec tears, and BB was more dangerous for pec tears(but you can only go so low while BB benching since the bar touches your chest, and hence cannot go lower).
UPDATE: I had surgery to correct the torn Pec Dec. 11, 2008. The doc said I didn’t tear the pec from the humerus, rather, I tore the muscle from muscle. Doc says it’s a worse injury but the muscle quality was good despite it being 11 months after the injury. The prognosis is good. I am in a sling for three more weeks before PT starts. My scar will be about four inches long total.
I also injured the rotor cuff with the same accident which required surgery as well. I hope to be back in the gym in two months.
BB bench. I had surgery Dec. 11 to fix it. I’ll be in a sling for a few weeks before PT starts. Here is a photo about 6 months after the surgery. You can see the deformity. The surgery has largely corrected that. I’ll upload a photo as soon as I can.
