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Any pec tear veterans here?

TwoDollarTacos

TwoDollarTacos

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I recently tore my pec for the third time while on a Tren cycle. Same exercise - the fucking bench press. I'm thinking about ditching this exercise altogether. Any guys with a pec tear recovery story they'd like to share?

After 3 pec tears, I feel pretty defeated. At this point, I don't want to get hurt anymore and it's obvious my body can't take the bench press anymore.
 
You answered your own question. Me personally, I had a couple of pec tears, that took weeks/months to recover from, and then the ultimate. I felt a POP, of course flat benching. MRI confirmed full tear of the rotator cuff. Luckily I had a great surgeon, one of the best in the country. Took 4 months to get back in the weight room after PT. Went slow, and after another 6 months I was back to what I was bench wise. Then not long after that my other shoulder starting tripping out, and I partially tore it! Right then and there I said fuck it, I'm done with bench pressing. That was several years ago. These days I rely on Hammer Strength Incline, high rep BB incline press, moderate to heavy DB flyes, pec deck flyes, and weighted push ups. I honestly think I haven't missed a thing dropping flat bench pressing.
 
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I also believe the risk of getting a pec tear or any other tear such as rotator or even triceps increases as we get older. A good idea is to ditch the ego lifting and just lifting a moderate amount for as many reps as you can each set. For me I go no more than 225 and go as many reps at that weight.
 
Speaking of pec tears, just saw this today:

https://youtu.be/3NLMjbjvEMc

That was brutal to watch.

I don’t have experience with a pec tear only posterior labrum tear with surgery. And man it sucks getting surgery and going to PT, but its the only way to fix it properly. Took 6 months from date of surgery for me to enter a gym again, took about 1 year from there to get all lifts back. Long recovery, but take it slow, listen to your doctor, and most importantly keep on a diet throughout the entire process. Protein higher than normal to hold on to muscle while you aren’t training.


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BodybuilderZepp said:
Speaking of pec tears, just saw this today:

https://youtu.be/3NLMjbjvEMc

That was brutal to watch.

I don’t have experience with a pec tear only posterior labrum tear with surgery. And man it sucks getting surgery and going to PT, but its the only way to fix it properly. Took 6 months from date of surgery for me to enter a gym again, took about 1 year from there to get all lifts back. Long recovery, but take it slow, listen to your doctor, and most importantly keep on a diet throughout the entire process. Protein higher than normal to hold on to muscle while you aren’t training.


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Click to expand...
I saw this one too...bet will be a really long recovery for this guy as it appears to be a major tear. Only tear I had was the ACL/MCL in both knees when I was a kid playing football.
 
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theMightyQuinn said:
You answered your own question. Me personally, I had a couple of pec tears, that took weeks/months to recover from, and then the ultimate. I felt a POP, of course flat benching. MRI confirmed full tear of the rotator cuff. Luckily I had a great surgeon, one of the best in the country. Took 4 months to get back in the weight room after PT. Went slow, and after another 6 months I was back to what I was bench wise. Then not long after that my other shoulder starting tripping out, and I partially tore it! Right then and there I said fuck it, I'm done with bench pressing. That was several years ago. These days I rely on Hammer Strength Incline, high rep BB incline press, moderate to heavy DB flyes, pec deck flyes, and weighted push ups. I honestly think I haven't missed a thing dropping flat bench pressing.
Click to expand...

Have you noticed less development in your pec area after ditching the bench press? Also, any issues with the incline?
 
I haven’t gone back to using a barbell on my bench movements since I completely ruptured my pec tendon over a year and a half ago. I use dumbbells on all my chest movements (or cables). I find that my front delts don’t get as smoked either. I prefer dumbbells these days. I’m a hypochondriac when it comes to tendon ruptures now since I’ve had two (with two surgeries). I just can’t afford any more down time (both work and gym). I’m not ever going to compete in the powerlifting realm so really it was an easy decision to halt barbell chest movements.

also, I’ve been in the 10-15 rep ranges on all lifts since. I would like to eventually move into the 5-8 rep range for a period of time in the future but honestly I think it’s safer to do so when I am not blasting and just on a TRT dose schedule. That way my muscle strength doesn’t override my tendon strength.
 
I let the depression take ahold after my two tendon injuries and contemplated giving up on the gym life altogether... what I should have done instead was focus on core and legs when my upper body was out of commission. I could have easily brought my cardio conditioning up to par but instead I let my head get the better of me.

don’t be like me.

keep yourself busy just be smart about what you are doing. Otherwise, it’s an even steeper uphill climb when you finally do get back to it.

In any event, I don’t think you’ll miss a beat by totally eliminating the barbell from your chest protocol. Dumbbells lessen chance of injury. And don’t be afraid to go high reps to exhaust the muscle.

you’ll be alright man. 3 pec tears is enough to learn a work around in your gym routine.
 
TwoDollarTacos said:
Have you noticed less development in your pec area after ditching the bench press? Also, any issues with the incline?
Click to expand...
Back in my heavy bench days I definitely had more upper body size, but after getting more creative with chest workouts I had better definition. When I dropped flat bench I did still do light DB incline presses. In my case using the incline angle was noticeably easier on my pec insets. I eventually switched to BB incline but never to failure and always in the 10-15 rep range.
 
Milford King said:
I haven’t gone back to using a barbell on my bench movements since I completely ruptured my pec tendon over a year and a half ago. I use dumbbells on all my chest movements (or cables). I find that my front delts don’t get as smoked either. I prefer dumbbells these days. I’m a hypochondriac when it comes to tendon ruptures now since I’ve had two (with two surgeries). I just can’t afford any more down time (both work and gym). I’m not ever going to compete in the powerlifting realm so really it was an easy decision to halt barbell chest movements.

also, I’ve been in the 10-15 rep ranges on all lifts since. I would like to eventually move into the 5-8 rep range for a period of time in the future but honestly I think it’s safer to do so when I am not blasting and just on a TRT dose schedule. That way my muscle strength doesn’t override my tendon strength.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the kind words bud. I, like you, seriously contemplated giving up on the gym altogether after this recent pec tear and depression slowly started setting in. I’ve been doing legs just fine and I feel strong enough to start hitting back again. I’m gonna take everyone’s advice here and ditch the bench press and stick to dumbbells and high reps. Thanks brother!

- - - Updated - - -

BodybuilderZepp said:
Speaking of pec tears, just saw this today:

https://youtu.be/3NLMjbjvEMc

That was brutal to watch.

I don’t have experience with a pec tear only posterior labrum tear with surgery. And man it sucks getting surgery and going to PT, but its the only way to fix it properly. Took 6 months from date of surgery for me to enter a gym again, took about 1 year from there to get all lifts back. Long recovery, but take it slow, listen to your doctor, and most importantly keep on a diet throughout the entire process. Protein higher than normal to hold on to muscle while you aren’t training.


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Click to expand...

Holy shit, that definitely triggers some PTSD.
 
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