I Am So Sick Of Wondering If Iam Hurt!!

[powerlifterjay]

If its not one freakin thing it is another!! My two shoulder injuries, little aches , the shoulder pull before my meet. And last week i was doing close grips and thought i re injured my first serious shoulder injury. So tonight i go to the gym and am gonna do speed work with green bands choked down.

No shoulder pain. Reps were fast as hell for me.
225 x 3 reps 3 sets with greens down
275 x 3 reps 3 sets with green down
315 x 3 reps 2 sets with greens down

then i did 365 for a quick single
then on a 405 single with greens down i feel my pec roll on the way down. But... i locked it out quickly anyway. I had a real pinch in my left pec. So i went to the bathroom and looked for a bruise. There was none and is none currently. I have had ice on it for over an hour total and since i took it off i still feel a little pinch. I wont say it hurts but its tight and abnormal. Basically scary!!.

Questions for yougys who have torn pecs, slightly or severely.
1 if it was torn could i have locked out my weight?
2 if its was slightly torn could i strecth it?
3 if there is no bruise its not torn ,right?
4 what else could it be? Would a week off (again) make it fine again?

I really would liek to hear good things!! Irish i know you tore yours good, tell me what happened. Thanks guys. I know i am very (very) parnoid but a sever injury will take me out at this point. With my shoulder the way it is i cant nurse two things on the same side. Besides the stress of getting well quick is too much. If i get hurt bad i would just like to heal slow and not worry about benching for awhile.

Funny thing is i was amazed my shoulder felt good today and said after 365 that i should stop before i rip a pec off. And next set BAM!! I am sure its not torn but would like to hear symtoms. Raw benching is tough as it is, but raw benching with green bands double looped is really tough on the pecs. But other then that i felt good tonight, speed was way better then last week.

 

[IrishPower]

pljay:

i wish i could offer you a lot of consolation, but it's not a sure thing.

When i ripped my pec-off, i basically had no warning. I was warming up. I did 135/10, 225/10, then 315/15 with a close-grip, and then on 405/5 with a close-grip i felt the tendon tear loose on the 5th rep. i controlled the weight back down to my chest, got up and had my friend drive me to the hospital.

What can i tell you?

Well, if you tore a muscle belly or tendon, you will see bruising within a day. I can tell you this PLJAY, you may get lucky. I had numerous 'mini-tears' throughout my training career, where I saw a little blood. I even had an MRI years earlier, and my ortho saw some fiber damage. There is really *NOTHING* anyone can do to fix the muscle damage. Pec muscles cannot be repaired (only tendons can) because they have the consistency of spaghetti.

BUT: you need to quit all that raw benching. When you are pushing the kind of weight you are raw, you are gonna blow something eventually. If it's not your pec, it may be your shoulder.


If you see bruising, and your insurance covers an ORTHO, go see him and ask for an MRI. Do NOT even bother with an internal medicine doc cause they are morons when it comes to sports injuries.

I really wish you the best. If you want to chat, send me an email and I will send you my number again.

peace.
/irish

 

[benchmonster]

Ditto what Irish said. I don't know nearly as much about severe tears as Irish (thank God) but I have a slight tear in my left pec from 5 years ago, that left a scar that is still there (inside the muscle) What you are describing sounds very similar to what happened to me. I took it easy for a while, and came back with no problems.

You may want to do very light pec fly's for a few weeks till it feels 100 percent again. This is what I do.

I wish you a speedy recovery. And by the way, I always feel a ton of stress in my pecs when I use heavy bands. May want to consider dropping the raw benching (heavy) and do speed work. May help the longevity. Just a thought.

I want you to be around doing this for a long time. Gives me something to shoot for.

B.

 

[powerlifterjay]

Thanks Irish. I will wait and see if i have bruising tommorow. I no its fine. I have been streching it and rubbing it. If its a tear its minor. Thats for sure. I was freakin at first. I just got my bands up and tossed my shit in my bag and hauled ass. Didnt say hi bye to anybody. The wife and I were supposed to go out to eat , but cancelled to come home and ice it.

As far as raw benching is concerned i know the risks. And i did speed tonight. That weight was easy i could have got 6 to 8. But just wanted to hit it for 1 to test my speed on it. It wasnt a speed set. I am trying to find away to not raw bench so much. I personally dont think i could hav edone anything to prevent it. I was warmed up and ready. BUt answer me this.

If i were to quit raw benching and totally concentrate on my speed, and then do max effort (boards, floors etc) to a max once a week, my bench will go up? Shirt bench or raw? Dam what will the worst case scenario be in my raw benching? Will lose strength on it. If so how much? I know its something i have been toying with. I said i was switching but still need some raw strength. Bare with me i am weaning my self from it slowly. But i need time to adjust. But in fairness i wasnt going to go for a rep PR tonight!! It was just light , fast singles, after speed. Its a start.

Funny thing is i dont really lower the bar with my pecs much. I mean i know there doing it, but most of my lowering ability is back and tris. I am not very sore in the chest ever. I am so tucked that iam all tris with a wide grip. I could only imagine what would have happend tonight if i had lowered it with arms straight out to the side. Those bands are very strong!!

 

[powerlifterjay]

Hey monster, thanks.

I am getting into speed. I just did two light singles tongiht. But i can really tell my speed was better tonight thenlast week. Last week i for the very first time seen were i could be faster. So as of tonight i am dropping raw benching to give this shit a chance. But i will test myself and i hope i will convert and finally be 100% westside! I will kick myself in the ass if my shirt bench goes up faster then ever! I will think i have wasted time with raw benching. Or not, we will see!!

 

[benchmonster]

Jay, that sounds great. Don't go crazy with the weight on speed day just because you are able to bench it doesn't mean it ain't too heavy for speed day.

I used to go as heavy as 260 or 270 for 8 triples, but even though I was able to get in all the reps, it was way too heavy for speed work. Irishpower would never have approved. And this was when I was just over 400 on my shirt bench. Crazy.

I hope that your bench takes off like mad after giving 100 percent westside for a while. Then I can quit bragging about my Florida buddy who benches 600+ and start bragging about my Florida friend who benches 700+.

B.

 

[p03t1c]

i am not at the level u guys are at, but i can say that ditching the raw bench and going to the speed and max effort might be just the answer you're looking for. i hope there is nothing wrong and wish you the best of luck.

 

[IrishPower]

you know what i forgot to mention. now that you've had some sort of strain, consider a vigorous massage once a week focusing on the shoulder and pec.

for the 12 weeks before my last meet, i saw this lady once a week on wednesdays and we both noticed marked improvement as far as scar tissue reduction, elimination of trigger points, etc.

breaking up the scar tissue will make your muscle more efficient and help to prevent future injury.

good luck.

/irish

 

[latinus_spicticus]

I tore my pec or the tendon (it was right at the insertion) while doing speed bench with bands. Now, it wasnt that bad of a tear and took a few hours to bruise, and then it was concentrated at the tendon point on my pec/insertion. I did not have a good ROM after the injury as I tried to stretch it out immediately, but I did stupidly do another set and locked out every rep with little trouble. I stopped all bar benching and have been doing light DBs since then. I can do the 100's for a set of 15 pain free and next week I will go to barbell work, but not speed. I don't think I'll ever do the ballistic speed thing again, especially since I tend to do the 'drop and catch' method where I drop the bar and catch it 1-2 inches off of the chest. Good luck

 

[k1401]

Jay I know nothing about pec tears, but take it easy and get yourself better. Do what Irish and Bench suggest.
K