I’ve had my acl ,lcl and hami all torn to shreds in my knee and ive had my mcl torn off in my elbow. But for me the worst injury by far is the insidious tendonitis. Sure the others hurt more and put me out for months at a time, but i’ve been dealing with fucking tendonitis for years. It have changed the way i train forever and effects my everyday life as well. Had all the treatment in the world which does help, but 1 sloppy rep and BAM it flairs up again. I fucking despise tendonitis.
I ruptured the the distal end of my left bicep… doing preacher curls. Had surgery to have it reattached. Looks good, but still not quite the same size/strength of the right arm. Still bums me out to this day.
Notable pro injuries that came to mind: Zack Khan’s double quad rupture on the hack squat under the tutelage of Neil Hill. George Farah getting shot in the stomach several times. Branch Warren’s entire body.
I’ve been very fortunate to never have a serious training injury in 18 years of lifting. Tweaked shoulders, tendinitis, and little strains here and there, but nothing major.
I’ve managed to hurt myself in lots of other ways, just never in the gym.
@TWorkingHard- My brother in law completely detached his bicep from the bone and had to have to surgically reattached. Amazingly a year later, it’s now his stronger arm. He dabbles in competitive arm wrestling, and they have lefty and righty divisions (?), and even though he’s right side dominant, he routinely wins with his left arm.
I’m no surgeon but I’m willing to bet that it’s not the norm from such a procedure. Hopefully yours is certainly better off than you would have been otherwise. I know most of us are never 100% after such an event, but if we can get 90%, sometimes that’s a hell of a success in my book.
Zack Kahn, now there’s a guy who had some serious troubles. Supposedly he’s looking like he used to, although I don’t think he’s made public any intentions to get back onstage.
Pretty sure George Farrah’s stories about being shot, being a cop and all that stuff turned out to be complete fabrications. (?) If anyone has actual details, feel free to throw 'em out while we’re on the topic!
S
[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
@TWorkingHard- My brother in law completely detached his bicep from the bone and had to have to surgically reattached. Amazingly a year later, it’s now his stronger arm. He dabbles in competitive arm wrestling, and they have lefty and righty divisions (?), and even though he’s right side dominant, he routinely wins with his left arm.
S[/quote]
My surgically-repaired bicep is both stronger and larger than my ‘natty’ one. I’ve always attributed this to the fact that the surgeon had to stretch (ie, lengthen) it to complete the repair (it’s ~2/3 of an inch longer than the other one, judging by the length of their respective distal tendons).
[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
Anyway, the point is that it got me thinking about injuries that bodybuilders (pros, amateur, even just gym rats) have suffered over the years.
-Who has been able to come back?
-Were they just as good or did they forever suffer being compared with how good they used to be? -Who got destroyed so badly that they just never climbed back (either by choice, or just being unable to)?[/quote]
Surely you haven’t forgotten Steve Michalik.
Won his class at the '75 Mr Universe, was talked about as being a contender for the Olympia, then had a major car accident. Wheelchair-bound for three years, rehabbed until coming back to some shows in 1980 - Placed 4th at the Miami Grand Prix and 6th at the Night of Champions.
@Chris, that’s a comeback for sure!
To this point I’ve never had a serious injury, aside from some overuse injuries such as an subacromial impingement and a lateral epicondylitis. Had some lower back problems up untill 2008, but that was more the cause of an inactive lifestyle besides lifting weights. At that time I really missed out on some repetitive axial compressions for the lumbar discs and more dynamic movements for some good old motor control.
[quote]Chris Colucci wrote:
Surely you haven’t forgotten Steve Michalik.
Won his class at the '75 Mr Universe, was talked about as being a contender for the Olympia, then had a major car accident. Wheelchair-bound for three years, rehabbed until coming back to some shows in 1980 - Placed 4th at the Miami Grand Prix and 6th at the Night of Champions.[/quote]
Wow, yeah, forgot all about Long Island’s own. And I believe he just passed last year too…?
There was a good segment on him in a steroid documentary, possibly “the man whose arms exploded.” I recall watching a few years back on an airplane, and then when I got home, went online to see what info I could find on this guy I had hardly heard of other than the occasional mention in Flex magazine.
I think seeing his placings after his rehab, it raises another question about whether it’s better to walk away at a certain point. I know people constantly discuss if Coleman tarnished his legacy with his couple of non-Winning Olympia placings, or if Jay’s setting himself up for failure by competing one more time in this year’s Olympia.
S
Found these ‘lovely’ action shots of Jean Pierre Fux.
That’s it Mr. Photographer, capture the moment!
S
… and right back at it!
(I can’t really say anything negative here though, I was back in the gym myself just a few days post surgery with my arm in a sling)
[quote]Chris Colucci wrote:
[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
Anyway, the point is that it got me thinking about injuries that bodybuilders (pros, amateur, even just gym rats) have suffered over the years.
-Who has been able to come back?
-Were they just as good or did they forever suffer being compared with how good they used to be? -Who got destroyed so badly that they just never climbed back (either by choice, or just being unable to)?[/quote]
Surely you haven’t forgotten Steve Michalik.
Won his class at the '75 Mr Universe, was talked about as being a contender for the Olympia, then had a major car accident. Wheelchair-bound for three years, rehabbed until coming back to some shows in 1980 - Placed 4th at the Miami Grand Prix and 6th at the Night of Champions.[/quote]
Well I was kinda negative 12 years old… =P. Amazing determination though.
[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
Found these ‘lovely’ action shots of Jean Pierre Fux.
That’s it Mr. Photographer, capture the moment!
S[/quote]
Brutal. Wouldnt wish that on anyone. Assuming you can come 100% back from that, the mental burdon you would have getting under the bar has got to be awful. Even like 135 at first would just be a total mindfuck.
Took me almost 2 years to even TRY flat barbell bench after my 2nd tear. Even now I geek out when I put anything on it past a warm up.
[quote]EyeDentist wrote:
[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
@TWorkingHard- My brother in law completely detached his bicep from the bone and had to have to surgically reattached. Amazingly a year later, it’s now his stronger arm. He dabbles in competitive arm wrestling, and they have lefty and righty divisions (?), and even though he’s right side dominant, he routinely wins with his left arm.
S[/quote]
My surgically-repaired bicep is both stronger and larger than my ‘natty’ one. I’ve always attributed this to the fact that the surgeon had to stretch (ie, lengthen) it to complete the repair (it’s ~2/3 of an inch longer than the other one, judging by the length of their respective distal tendons).[/quote]
This is exactly my experience also. My repaired bicep looks much better than the non-repaired one and is actually stronger also. The insertion point is probably an inch lower than the other. I always joke that it would be nice to tear the other one so they would match. I would never want to go through that again tho. It was miserable.
I also tore my left pec about 7 years ago. At the time, my max raw bench was 365. Within 18 months I did 425. The only issue now is that it looks very weird. It looks like I have a golf ball under my skin when I flex it and there’s a huge chunk missing. It sucks because if I get really lean, it looks even worse. Oh well.
a SCARY amount of biceps tears in this thread.
How’d you guys all manage it?
Have had problems with my shoulders since two years or a bit more ago so couldn’t really progress on bench press or any similar motion at all. Also have broken my wrist twice so I get a shooting pain up my left forearm whenever I try to press a lot of weight. I’ve been doing certain things now and I am pretty much pain free and I hope it lasts.
My left knee also acts up every once in a while but it’s fine after I warm up for a while. I almost tore my left pec a few weeks ago and the week after that I strained my right pec worse than I did my left and then the day after that I almost tore the long head of my tri. So now I’m pretty much recovered and my strength is slowly climbing back up again although it’s down.
[quote]EyeDentist wrote:
[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
@TWorkingHard- My brother in law completely detached his bicep from the bone and had to have to surgically reattached. Amazingly a year later, it’s now his stronger arm. He dabbles in competitive arm wrestling, and they have lefty and righty divisions (?), and even though he’s right side dominant, he routinely wins with his left arm.
S[/quote]
My surgically-repaired bicep is both stronger and larger than my ‘natty’ one. I’ve always attributed this to the fact that the surgeon had to stretch (ie, lengthen) it to complete the repair (it’s ~2/3 of an inch longer than the other one, judging by the length of their respective distal tendons).[/quote]
Same kind of thing with me. The medial tendon and ligament that was torn & repaired is now the only side of my elbows that i dont get any tendonitis.
My lower back injury is probably the worst in history.
Always seem to recover and then I do lightweight squats to “greece the groove” for a few weeks. Im always very conservative when it comes to increasing weights, but usually by week 5 - 6 of squatting, my lower back caves in and then takes 2 weeks before I can lift again, and another 6 weeks before I attempt to squat again. Saying that Im done with squats, Im going to stick with single leg work.
tweet
Just thinking out loud here, but it seems based purely on people I know and have spoken with, that tendon and ligament related issues seem to do better after surgery than muscular tears…?
S
[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
Just thinking out loud here, but it seems based purely on people I know and have spoken with, that tendon and ligament related issues seem to do better after surgery than muscular tears…?
S[/quote]
We can rebuild you, stronger.
[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
Just thinking out loud here, but it seems based purely on people I know and have spoken with, that tendon and ligament related issues seem to do better after surgery than muscular tears…?
S[/quote]
That’s what my surgeon told me - sewing muscle back together is like trying to sew wet tissue.
I completely ruptured my right pec tendon while doing heavy incline flys - on the last rep, the tendon just blew out. I had my headphones blaring, and I could still hear it pop and tear. The pec was just hanging there; the shape was gone.
I had surgery a couple weeks after the tear, and have completely recovered. From what I’ve learned, a full tear is much better than a partial tear in terms of fixing and recovering from the injury. The only issue I had occurred in surgery - my bones are so strong from lifting that the doctor broke all the titanium screws that he tried to put in my arm. He finally had to drill and hole and use stronger screws to anchor the tendon.