Alright fine gentlemen. I’m in need of some Internet diagnosis. I’d rather not go to a doctor because of my high deductible HSA. The red X is the location of the discomfort. I say discomfort, because it is not painful. It feels like a severe case of DOMS or cramp. I have complete ROM, which makes me think it is not a tear from what I read about pec tears … but I’m no doctor.
Background:
I had a great bench session two weeks ago. Some soreness during the workout, but not painful. The soreness continued for the next week. I stretched and iced it which seemed to help. Again, felt like DOMS from doing a new movement.
Benched last week since the discomfort subsided. Stopped during my warm-up short of the top set from pain. Enough that I knew I shouldn’t keep going. Rested and iced some more.
Chest again Wednesday. Everything felt good. Started getting a little sore during warm-up, but nothing too serious. Kept stretching. I had a great workout, even did some heavy incline with minimal pain. Did 75 bw dips to finish out the session.
Woke up Thursday morning with a nice bruise on my bicep. Growing in size since then. I’m able to stretch the stiffness out of the area of concern for a short time. I have full ROM and full strength.
I know this is the Internet, but any help identifying the problem would be appreciated. I’d like to gather some advice before contacting a doctor.
Thanks all.
another from this afternoon
Sorry for all the pics, really wish there was an injury thread/forum.
Ooo nice bruise!
I’ll leave the diagnosis to those more qualified than myself, but I wanted to say that you seem to be alot leaner around the midsection than last time I remember seeing your pics.
Haven’t checked your log in a while, but I’m assuming up til now the trainings been going well?
Hope you recover quickly from this.
L&E
[quote]Lift and Eat wrote:
Ooo nice bruise!
I’ll leave the diagnosis to those more qualified than myself, but I wanted to say that you seem to be alot leaner around the midsection than last time I remember seeing your pics.
Haven’t checked your log in a while, but I’m assuming up til now the trainings been going well?
Hope you recover quickly from this.
L&E[/quote]
Thanks! Training has been going well. I’ve stayed pretty much injury free besides a little tendonitis … and now this. I am leaner, attempting to get a little leaner yet for the summer. I believe it’s known as damage control.
Damn…I am not a doctor, but from the looks of it it looks like you either 1.) Tore a muscle or 2.) tore a tendon. If you haven’t been hit in the bicep with a baseball bat, then it looks like you have a tear to me.
My diagnosis would be a tear around the origin area of the short head of the bicep. Some signs and symptoms with tears are usually swelling, brusing/contusions, also pain around the localized tear.
What’s unusual to me is that your pec is causing you pain, but you have a bruise near the one of the origin points of your bicep. My advice is to go see a doctor immediately. And I mean immdediately. Not taking care of a tendon and/or muscle tear can really be physically damaging to you from an mechanical/asethetics standpoint. Good luck bro.
Once again, I am not a doctor and don’t be frightened…but go get an examination. Very sooooon! Keep us updated bro.
[quote]Chaddyboxer wrote:
Once again, I am not a doctor and don’t be frightened…but go get an examination. Very sooooon! Keep us updated bro. [/quote]
No appreciate the ideas. I’m trying to see a sports trainer from Oakland University on Monday.
The thing that is so odd is that I have no immense pain. In fact today there is no pain, just muscle tightness in the chest at the red X.
Went to my general doctor yesterday. He was not concerned. I would still like a second opinion. Bruising has gone down a lot. Pain/discomfort is almost non-existent. The swollen area has gone in size as well.
Is it possible to rupture the muscle without completely tearing it? Or is that just different terminology?
i’ve torn a few muscles and the bruising isn’t necessary always in the same place as the actual injury. i find that the blood will pool in different areas. if you don’t have weakness in the area or an muscle irregularities, it’s probably a slight, partial tear. in my experience, i recovered quicker by doing high rep work, getting the blood in the area. i also limited the ROM at first. for example, i would do high board work to start and as i could press without discomfort, i would lower the boards until i had full ROM back. the worse thing you can do is to do nothing. get blood in there to help repair the area and keep scar tissue from building up.
since i’m the video whore… here’s a vid i took after i tore a pec during a competition. being hard headed i continued the competition and with the torn pec i tried to deadlift. on my second attempt i tore my oblique really badly since i wasn’t able to grip the bar well on the side with the torn pec.
i just realized i said adductor in the vid instead of oblique. i guess i had adductor on the brain since i tore that really badly a few months before.
Thanks for the encouragement and video MM! My own Interwebz diagnosis is that it is a partial tear of something. Wondering if it’s even the pec minor …?
I did heavy shoulder pressing last night without a problem. I’m not really sure if that means anything though. Legs tonight, but I plan on doing some light pressing since it’s been exactly one week since I last did chest.
holy fuck look at Meat’s oblique!! jesus, your scarin me to lift man haha.
