Muscle Tear Advice?

Bigger Stronger Leaner Powerlifting & Strength Sports
1

Am having a bad Training year!
2 weeks a go while doing my second set on Benchpress I tore my Pec. I was devastated. At the time I though i had torn the muscle off the bone , but was told by my doctor that it was just a muscle belly tear.

After 2 weeks of Physo work my pec feels good no pain and i have been told to start training again. So how do i go about training now. Am a former powerlifter and am working to competiting again.
The other thing is will it be possible to bench more than i use to bench even thou i tore my pec.
At the moment i cant do press up so i am thinking it is a long road ahead. Any advice or help would be great.
Thanks guys
Wazza

2

Everyone that i’ve known that has tore their pec benches less now than they did before, but i do know a guy that is coming up on what he used to press, so it is possible. Just don’t do too much too fast and hurt it again.

3

Two years ago I tore my right tricep, a belly tear like yours, no separation.

I took about 6 months rehabbing it: I had to start all the way back at the bar and work may way up excruciatingly slowly.

Even after it had largely healed I had form issues where my left and right were of significantly different strengths. This favouring one side ended up with a nasty impingement in my left shoulder. Make sure you work on balance.

Seque forward to the present and my bench PR is a more than 100 pounds over what it was when I tore the tricep.

A pec tear is more serious than a tricep, but yes, I believe you can successfully come back and beat your old PR.

4

I have torn my right pec twice. The first time I did it on floor press. The second time I came back too fast and did it on a banded speed day. I was lucky that it was only a muscle tear.

I got ART almost immediately (next day), iced alot in the first week, and continued to train stuff that didn’t aggravate it.

I felt that maintaining bloodflow to the area was important so I continued to train around it. As long as it didn’t increase the pain level, I kept at it. I started out with sets with the bar working up to 3x20, and did alot of upper back and lat work.

The biggest piece of advice I can give you is get in for deep tissue or ideally ART right away to break up adhesions and old scar tissue, and minimize the formation of new.

This type of injury tends to be cummulative in nature, and the pathology in the muscle that resulted in the tear is likely still present. I did ART once a week for a month, and every other week 3-4 times.

Ease back into it. The second time I tore it was much worse than the first. More painful and took longer to heal I remember not even being able to open a sliding glass door without pain.

Just because it no longer hurts does not mean it is not still vulnerable. You will probably continue to have some symptoms for a while. When that happens, back off. Period. Stretch it out gently, maybe apply some heat, and live to train another day.

Two years later, my raw bench is about back to where it was, and my shirted bench has continued to go up. I am finally able to complete a heavy raw cycle (working up to trips) without aggravating it. I can also do dips now without fear. That pec still feels balled up compared to the other side.

Use this time to work on other muscle groups that need to come up. Like I said before, ease in gradually, and if it starts to feel tweaked, back off.

5

[quote]apwsearch wrote:
I have torn my right pec twice. The first time I did it on floor press. The second time I came back too fast and did it on a banded speed day. I was lucky that it was only a muscle tear.

I got ART almost immediately (next day), iced alot in the first week, and continued to train stuff that didn’t aggravate it.

I felt that maintaining bloodflow to the area was important so I continued to train around it. As long as it didn’t increase the pain level, I kept at it. I started out with sets with the bar working up to 3x20, and did alot of upper back and lat work.

The biggest piece of advice I can give you is get in for deep tissue or ideally ART right away to break up adhesions and old scar tissue, and minimize the formation of new.

This type of injury tends to be cummulative in nature, and the pathology in the muscle that resulted in the tear is likely still present. I did ART once a week for a month, and every other week 3-4 times.

Ease back into it. The second time I tore it was much worse than the first. More painful and took longer to heal I remember not even being able to open a sliding glass door without pain.

Just because it no longer hurts does not mean it is not still vulnerable. You will probably continue to have some symptoms for a while. When that happens, back off. Period. Stretch it out gently, maybe apply some heat, and live to train another day.

Two years later, my raw bench is about back to where it was, and my shirted bench has continued to go up. I am finally able to complete a heavy raw cycle (working up to trips) without aggravating it. I can also do dips now without fear. That pec still feels balled up compared to the other side.

Use this time to work on other muscle groups that need to come up. Like I said before, ease in gradually, and if it starts to feel tweaked, back off.

[/quote]

I did all the right things after the injure like. Iced the pec for 30 mins straight away. Also ice pec for 10 mins every 2 hours for 2 day. I have had physo massage on the muscle for the last week. It is week 2 of the inure and i am back training. Just training very light but i have no pain. Am also doing a lot more stretching before workout and after. ill just do high reps, i guess to get the blood in the muscle to help heal. I dont think ill be training heavy for a long time but am assuming the high reps for my chest will be of more benfit?
was thinking of narrowing my grip on bench i though that may help?

Thanks for your comments, hopefully ill beable to get to where i was on bench again.

Thanks
Wazza