Torn muscle during 5s

Lol

Lol

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Hi all. Well, I guess it had to happen sometime. I have been extending the 5s as I felt great and my poundages were going up nicely.

Unfortunately, today, right at the end of my w/o whilst doing seated calf raises I pushed a bit too far. I did a warm up set of around 15 reps then upped the weight and did a set of around 10. The next set (same weight) things went pear shaped after about 5 reps. I felt a twinge in my right calf and then the next rep there was a "pop" (more a feeling I think than an audible noise) along with that lovely sensation that you just screwed up your body! Thankfully I was training with a mate and he quickly helped remove the load so I could get out of the machine.

I've never liked seated calf-raises and now I'm really cheesed that this has happened. Managed to hobble home but now have a nasty sore area at the base of my soleus about a third of the way up from my ankle to my knee. There is some pain but not much swelling which I am taking as a good sign. I have read a few website guides on muscle damage, tears etc. and now have it strapped and elevated which stops the throbbing. I'm trying to keep the muscle stretched out as much as possible so it doesn't stiffen up too much. I'm pretty sure it's muscle and not tendon but I don't really know.

I'd like to hear any advice relating to my next step. Should I SD now and let it rest for a week or so? My squats and deads were going really well but I think it would probably be dumb to keep pushing them up (or even staying at the same level) unless healing is really swift. I was going to go for 400lbs in my deads this week so I am gutted to have this happen now.

I suppose what surprised me most was that it happened at all as I felt like I could have pushed the weight higher. Does this point to a lack in my diet somewhere? I am now worried that the same thing could happen elsewhere during 5s.

Any other thoughts or experiences gratefully received.

TIA,

Lol
 
I don't know much about much, but I think an injury like that may take more than two weeks of SD to heal. Maybe keep working the upper body for a while, then SD. Not sure how long, but no activity until it heals may not be too good for the rest of your body.

Good luck, man!
 
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(Lol @ Jul. 29 2006,14:28)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Hi all. Well, I guess it had to happen sometime. I have been extending the 5s as I felt great and my poundages were going up nicely.

Unfortunately, today, right at the end of my w/o whilst doing seated calf raises I pushed a bit too far. I did a warm up set of around 15 reps then upped the weight and did a set of around 10. The next set (same weight) things went pear shaped after about 5 reps. I felt a twinge in my right calf and then the next rep there was a &quot;pop&quot; (more a feeling I think than an audible noise) along with that lovely sensation that you just screwed up your body! Thankfully I was training with a mate and he quickly helped remove the load so I could get out of the machine.

I've never liked seated calf-raises and now I'm really cheesed that this has happened. Managed to hobble home but now have a nasty sore area at the base of my soleus about a third of the way up from my ankle to my knee. There is some pain but not much swelling which I am taking as a good sign. I have read a few website guides on muscle damage, tears etc. and now have it strapped and elevated which stops the throbbing. I'm trying to keep the muscle stretched out as much as possible so it doesn't stiffen up too much. I'm pretty sure it's muscle and not tendon but I don't really know.

I'd like to hear any advice relating to my next step. Should I SD now and let it rest for a week or so? My squats and deads were going really well but I think it would probably be dumb to keep pushing them up (or even staying at the same level) unless healing is really swift. I was going to go for 400lbs in my deads this week so I am gutted to have this happen now.

I suppose what surprised me most was that it happened at all as I felt like I could have pushed the weight higher. Does this point to a lack in my diet somewhere? I am now worried that the same thing could happen elsewhere during 5s.

Any other thoughts or experiences gratefully received.

TIA,

Lol</div>
Might not be much help, but I'd...

1.)Drink at least 1 gallon of water per day
2.)Remember to stretch
3.)Don't extend the 5s for very long, and immediately quit the 5s if you experience the least bit of fatigue. Getting stronger is a marathon, not a sprint.
4.)Get your calf examined just to be on the safe side (especially if you notice any discoloration around the area)
 
when I got back into lifting (4 years ago) My joints were toast. I could bearly lift anything ----elbows and shoulders just did not work. I was not sure if I could get back at it. I got some help here in the forum (thanks Blade) AND I went to a chiropractor- sports medicine type. She was magic. for $50 a visit she worked magic. So I say find a sports med type. It really helped me. She was into some odd stuff (massage etc......but it worked!!!) Cheaper and better than regular docs who just want to pump you with chemicals.

Just a thought ... heal well, Robert
 
Sounds to me like you ripped a muscle, so hard massage is definitely not an option here. I'd say ibuprofin to lessen swelling and ease the pain somewhat, maybe ice packs. You could continue to work upper body but I'd not even do d/l's or anything that makes the calf muscle pull. And as said before, a week isn't gonna heal that, if that's what it is. I knew a guy tore a peck once and you don't even wanna know how long THAT took to heal!
 
I have torn my bicep tendon.

Took every bit of 8 weeks before I could even lift then it took 6 more months to start back lifting semi normal.

Go so a doctor right away.

Dont take ibuprofen as recommended above...it may help with pain the be extra bruising will be horrible.

I took ibuprofen when it happen and the doc said it was worst thing I could of done.

If you have truely torn a muscle...you have a big time injury.

I dont tellyou this to scare you b/c again it happened to me.

The good news is you can rehab it and get closely back to normal if not 100 percent.

If it is torn you will be able to see a difference in the muscle cosmetically.

I posted some pics a while back here on hst and if you take a look at my pics you will notice my left pec looks a little different than the right pec...this was due to my injury b/c when you tear a muscle you literally tear muscle fibers away and they become shredded and form a different shape.

If you do not have any of those signs above its most likely not a torn muscle but if you heard or felt a &quot;POP&quot; then you are prob right its torn...b/c thats what I heard.

Its sucks...but again dont worry you can recover from it and go on to lift.

It my case i never lift more than my 5 rep max now a days b/c of that simple reason....so do i miss some hypertrophy by not going that heavy...prob so...but I try to stay injury free.

Good luck and let us know what the doc says.

Oh also....DO NOT WORKOUT AT ALL....until you talk to a doc....you will do more damage than good.

Let u s know the results.

TAke care
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Thanks for all your help guys and kind words and particularly to Joe for your very relevant past experience. All very much appreciated. I will be very careful and will get a medical opinion ASAP.
 
I stand corrected. My doc had me use the ibuprofin and ice when I had a minor rip, but it was the muscle, not a tendon. There's doctors and then there's doctors I guess.
 
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(Lol @ Jul. 29 2006,21:29)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">and will get a medical opinion ASAP.</div>
If you have a sports medicine clinic near you have your Physcian refer you to it. You'll get far better help there than your normal family practioner in most cases.
 
i tore something in my shoulder, long time. painful even when not using it too. i was told to take ibuprofin and whatever you do, NO heat pads, no heating, nothing of the sort. Usually with a tear, well in the case of my shoulder at least, tendonitis occurs (for me it went to my elbow as well as shoulder) and that can be important to stop that. while i am no doctor i cannot tell you if it will spread in your leg, or how it would spread in your leg because it is between two joints, but make sure you are iciing a hell of a lot. While in school i had to go to get ice every hour and interrupt my classes. At home, it was still every hour. Ice is your best friend, but def go see a doctor asap.
 
Good advice here, hope you heal up soon!  When I first got into HST I remember thinking, &quot;this is a strange program, going from really light weights and slowly progressing to the heavy weights!&quot;  I thought it was stupid and that it would be better for hypertrophy to just use the heavy weights all the time and slowly progress the weights.  I finally realized that  it was better to cycle the load progression when I was lifting really heavy using Dan's max-stim and my joints were getting sore, my back was stiff and I felt that an injury was looming, I finally realized that for LONG TERM hypertrophy the undulating progression was better as it still allows hypertrophy due to load progression, but the cycle of lighter to heavier and back to lighter allows mini-breaks for your joints, tendons and even the muscles themselves.  I just started my second cycle of max-stim, and the lighter weights at the beginning feel great, my joints are healed, my back isn't stiff anymore and I haven't lost any size.
I hear aabout alot of guys extending the heavier rep ranges, or extending the negatives, or in max-stim simple extending the 5rm to even heavier loads like 3rm!  Now that LOL had this small tragedy happen by extending the 5s, I take it as a wakeup call.  I never thought about injury much when using HST, because Bryan has developed one of the safest bodybuilding routines I have ever seen.  But this shows that one still must be very careful, especially when trying 'tweak' HST and extend the heavier rep ranges and/or progress the loads beyond what it is recommended.
See a doctor LOL and take time to heal!  And thanks for posting this, you may have prevented some other guys from getting injured by posting your own example (including me!).
 
This is why I don't do negatives or go to failure. You can't train injured.

The bad news is that if it is indeed a tear, you will never totally get over it.    
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Tears, especially pec tears. have ruined many pro careers. The good news is it is your calf.    
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  Now you have more time to train more appreciative muscles.  
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Thats right O&amp;G its been 5 to 6 yrs from my injury and I feel it every day.

I got hurt doing some stupid ****...which was ego lifting...seing how much I could bench.

Thats why IMO I dont think anyone looking for GROWTH should go below 5 rep max.

The benefits dont outway the risk.
 
Can you hear and feel a pop without the muscle tearing? I was on an ab machine a month or two ago and working near my 5RM when near the end of my set I unintentionally gave it a &quot;running start&quot; and I felt and heard it pop as did other people in the room. I also felt it give a little bit if you know what I mean. It was just below the belt line on the left side. There wasnt much pain however. I just slowly let the weight down and tried to see if I could any damage. The pain was minimal... almost non existant when putting pressure on it and even testing the muscle on the machine again with a lighter weight. Just to be safe I stopped doing ab workouts for the remainder of the cycle. No problems at all. I had a doctor check it out cause I thought I might have a hernia or something, but he said it seemed fine. Dont mean to hijack... it seemed fairly on topic.
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You are fine.

Trust me when I say this. If you tear a muscle YOU WILL KNOW IT!

I went from benching 120 pound dumbells to 20 pound dumbells after I tore my muscle.

When you tear a muscle you will know it.

Its like being pregnant....you know the difference in being a little chubby and being pregnant..hehe.
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To me, it felt like something was stretching beyond what was normal and then giving up and snapping. Horrid but very swift. I couldn't stop quickly enough because I was loaded up in a damn seated calf-raise machine.

I have to say that I am now going to avoid any machines where you can't 'let go' of the weight ASAP if need be and where the load is not balanced evenly across the body. The machine I was using always felt like it was putting more pressure on the right leg than the left and I couldn't tell if I was loading one leg more than the other.

What really bothers me is that I wasn't pushing real heavy iron. It was heavy (for me) but not as much as my 5 RM. I think it may have been down to a stretch reflex causing a really strong contraction as it was my third set and I was tired. Not sure though?

Anyway, 1 day later, with my calf wrapped in a double tubigrip bandage for compression and with my leg elevated as much as possible, I am reasonably pleased that the throbbing has died right down. I can get around OK but am not putting any weight on my toes as yet - just my heel. Moving my foot unweighted causes only a little soreness now. So really, I am feeling quite optiistic and, hopefully, in a few weeks time I should be walking properly again.

I think I will avoid any type of direct calf work for a long time though. I will rely on squats and deads to help out in that department until I am confident enough to do a calf iso again (which may be never!  
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), but I'll have to go easy on those too for a while.

What's really a shame about this is that since starting HST I have actually made a difference to my calves, adding an inch in the last 9 months. This has brought them up to about what is normal size for most folks.

Now I will have to see whether deads and squats were part of that growth stimulus or whether most of it came from the isos. (I loved doing donkeys at my last gym but my present gym only has the now hated seated calf-raise machine.) Time will tell. I'll keep you all posted. Thanks again for all your helpful comments.
 
Lol

Sorry to hear about the injury.

My recommendations:

1 - See a sports chiropractor or physio a.s.a.p.
2 - Stay off leg work until you are helaed up.
3 - Ibuprofen is OK, initially to help the pain and inflamation but not to keep taking. Ice is good each day for both pain and inflamation.
4 - You could keep going for upper body but to be real honest you should now SD and treat that calf til it is right, can't see it but it seems that it is not a tear, as Joe pointed out you would know ALL ABOUT IT if it really was.
5 - What it probably is, a minor tear on the sheath that covers the muscle and that requires some time, compression and elevation is also the right thing to do!
6 - Hang in there, and don't ever give up! You will get it right soon!

Cheers mate!
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Also, since you built the beef with food and exersize, you now have muscle memory in your favor, and if you lose a bit, it will come right back easily later.
 
Just wanted to add my .02 and hope it makes you feel better.  I experienced the same sort of &quot;pop&quot; or in my view an &quot;elerctrical charge&quot; in my right groin when doing squats in post 5's a few months ago.  I thought I needed surgery right away. I was scared and really thought I had torn somethhing bad.  So, I iced it, wrapped it and took time off.  A couple weeks later I noticed a black and blue mark on the back of my right calf.  What happened was the bleeding from the torn groin had migrated from my groin to the back of my calf.  The point in this little story is that if you actually tear your muscle there will be bleeding as the muscle fibers have been torn. One way you can get an idea of the extent of your injury is to examine your calf and look for bruisng.  In my case there was no bruising on the groin and it only showed up weeks later on my calf.  I did tear/strain my groin but it was a superficial tear given the amount of bruising.  I thought it was a major injury requiring surgery.  That &quot;popping&quot; sound is very scary and hard to get out of your mind.  Rest up for another day or 2, use your compression and ice and then look for bruising. If your calf is black and blue then your injury may be severe.  No bruisng or light discoloration should be a good sign that there was minimal bleeding and you will be back on your feet in no time.  

I made a full recovery and just finished 15's and start my first 10's tomorrow so all is not lost - you will be back bigger, stronger and smarter.  Good Luck!!!
 
Years ago I was doing a lot of martial arts and had built up a fair bit of flexibility when I was stretching with a girlfriend.
She was a dancer and I trusted her advice on streching at the time. We were both sat opposite each other and she had her feet pressing my ankles out wide and said for me to lean into the stretch. I did that and heard a rip in my right upper thigh.
I didn't get anything done about it at the time but I think I should have. Although it has healed years ago I do think it is slowing my progress in squats a bit to be honest.
When a muscle rips and heals you are left with scar tissue. After it has healed it is the scar tissue that can stops you using the muscle effectively.
I have read however that there are sports massages and ultrasound that you can get that break up the scar tissue and return full range of motion to the muscle. Apparentely the massages hurt like f**k though.
Also 2nd what Dan says, find a sports injury specialist.
Good luck,
Jazzer  
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