wussup guys n gals? I’ve had the same injury on both sides of my chest over the last couple years, and it sucks. It’s only happened twice-- once last year, and once this year. This year it happened when i launched into a set of heavy weighted dips, perhaps without warming up or stretching enough beforehand. At the lowest part of the dip, i felt a tearing sensation in that muscle/tendon/whatever that connects the pectoral to the front of the arm (see photo). It’s pretty painful and prevents me from doing a buttload of key exercises, like benchpress and widegrip pullups hurt like a bitch too. I can rest it a week and it’ll feel fine, but as soon as i try some heavy weights it goes back to the day i tore it. This makes it really hard to know when i should attempt a heavy lift again.
Has anyone else ever gotten this injury? If so, do you know any good ways to prevent and/or treat it? such a pain in the ass. thanks.
Ive dealt with that same injury twice in the past, and I’m actually recovering from the third occurence of it.
First off, I would suggest you see a sports medicine doctor to have it checked out - find out how serious it is, how long you should rest it, etc. It’d probably be a good idea to get some phyiscal therapy, to help it heal faster, and properly.
It definitely sounds like a minor tear - mine usually happens around the pec/tendon junction…may be the same case for you.
And for the bad news - plan on resting your chest for a solid month (aside from rehab type exercises with very light weights). I can almost promise that if you screw around any earlier than that, you’re going to reinjure it and start all over.
Give yourself a week to 10 days before you do any heavy upper body stuff. If it hurts your pec to do pulldowns, try a closer grip or focus more on rows. Since you can’t do much pressing horizontally, focus more on shoulder pressing. IF you keep your delts & tris strong, your bench strength wont diminish much even after severals months of no direct chest training. (although that may not be true for everyone - I personally use a closer than avg grip when doing most chest movements)
And remember to ice the injured area, and take some anti-inflammatories to help the healing process.
Good luck!
thanks guys… vroom, would,does working on supporting tissue mean just training with lighter weights?
i’ve rested completely for about two and a half weeks, aside from a few pushups which agitated a little but not much. today was my first day trying to perform a press in the gym since i injured it, and i used a little lighter than usual, and skipped my 5th and final set because although it didn’t feel too bad, i could almost feel it creeping up and didn’t wanna risk ruining my upper body workouts for the rest of the week. maybe a month of rest is about right…