I Think I Tore a Muscle

J

jl3goat

New Member
I started (and didn't finish) my 2nd week of 5's today.  I was doing my 2nd set on bench when all of a sudden there was a ghastly, crunching RIIIIIIIPing sound/feeling, and my arm collapsed and the weight came down.  The arm didn't much hurt at the time, but was suddenly extremely weak, and pretty freaked out.  I managed to get the weights back put away and by the time I got home my upper arm was hurting considerably.

The point of greatest pain is at the top inside of my bicep, close to the subscapularis muscle.  There is some slight discoloration, but no knots or other malformation, and a combination of ice and ibuprofin is helping considerably.

So my question is, how should I go about treating this?  I've never had anything like this happen to me before?  How long do I need to lay off training once the pain subsides?  3 weeks?  A month?  Longer?
John
 
Great....I can't just go straight to a physical therapist? I have a high deductible and can't really afford x-rays, MRI's, and so on. Or would a pt not see me without a physician's referral?

John
 
Definitely see a doctor.
An older person I know tore his deltoid working out and he was in severe pain for weeks. He went to see the doctor who ended up having to give him an Rx for an MRI. Turns out the tear is so bad they may have to do some kind of surgery on it.
Let us know what the doctor says, hopefully it'll heal quickly!
 
So far, the pain is not that severe. In any case, I won't be able to get to a doctor till Monday, if I'm able to get right in, that is. I'll let you know what the diagnosis/prognosis is.
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] (jl3goat @ Aug. 13 2005,8:13)]So far, the pain is not that severe. In any case, I won't be able to get to a doctor till Monday, if I'm able to get right in, that is. I'll let you know what the diagnosis/prognosis is.
Click to expand...
i'm curious: what poundages were you using when this happened? What exercise etc. Did you warmup?
 
I tore my bicep tendon very similar in the same way. Best advice is go see a doctor immediately, the only bad thing is half the doctors you will see dont workout and are not into fitness except from a medical point of view. In other words they dont workout which was frustrating b/c they couldn't relate to my question and concerns.

Secondly the doc will tell you know lifting for 6 to 8 weeks which will suck... I hated it..but I listened to him and its the right thing to do. Dont dare go back to lifting until then...you will do more harm than good. When you do go back ease your way into training and I advize using only machines for the first couple of months. I would have gotten my strenght back quicker I believe but when this happend to me I was young and unexpierenced and what I did was I worked out even more and harder trying to get back were I use to be...which led to overtraining which delayed my progress. So to sum it up from someone with expierence I would.

1) see doc rest it with ice for 8 weeks
2) use only machines and cut your volume in half for first 2 months
3) keep your diet in check and stay positive. You will be back to normal with time.


Good luck
 
I was not using very much weight--165 on bench.  I usually use dumbbells, but yesterday was using the barbell.  I've looked in an anatomy book and am guessing that it is the carocobrachialis muscle that is injured, because neither the tricep nor the bicep hurts.  There is considerably more discoloration today (a rather beautiful dark turquoise dappled with magenta...), but the pain is not bad anymore, so long as I'm careful with the arm, don't lift it too high, etc.

Yes, I warmed up, but either I didn't warm up enough, or my form was bad, or both...I did a couple of warm-up sets, and had warmed up other muscle groups before starting the workout. I'd already done squats, hams, and calves, so I had sweat going.

I'm hoping to get into a chiropractor tomorrow--I'm going to try a chiro before an MD simply because I don't think this is a full rupture needing surgery, and I've had good experiences with chiros in the past.  If the chiro recommends I see a doctor, I guess I'll have to.  I teach at a university, so I should be able to get a lead from the athletic dept. on a doctor familiar with sports injuries--at least I'm hoping.  

I've pretty much resigned myself to not doing any upper body work for months, although I will probably pick up some Therabands and gradually rehabilitate the muscle with them if it doesn't conflict with medical advice, after I get some range of motion back. I'm not doin' nuthin' till I talk to the doc. Hearing that muscle rip freaked me out.

This is a real bite in the @$$, let me tell you.  :mad:
 
If you have that kind of color in your arm it is definatley a tear. That is exactly how my arm looked.

most likely doc will put your arm in a sling to make sure you are not using it.

Good luck!
 
I've had my arm in a sling fashioned from a neighbor's gaudy scarf...but not when I've had to go out in public!

Yeah, I know it's torn. It feels much better tonight, so it's probably not a complete tear.

How long did the pain last with your injury?
 
I think that you can get a steroid prescription from the doc and this will make the healing much faster. I read that somewhere.
 
Well the pain lasted a while in my arm prob at least 6 to 8 months...but then again when I went back to training I trained twice as hard trying to catch up to my old condition and at the time I had never ever heard of overtraining. So my guess would be if I had not overtrained early the pain would of went away lot faster.

See I went from benching 120 pound dumbells pre injury to 10 pound dumbells post injury...and 1 1/2 years later I was only at about 45 pound dumbells....but I was severly and I mean severly overtraining. At one point I was doing about 30 sets for chest.

Believe it or not 2 years later I started a routine similary to HST with a lot less volume. And by the second or third week of the lower volume routine I was right back benching 75 pound dumbells...so long story short that 2 year period after my injury were I trained Like ARnold for 3 hours a day did nothing but hinder me...once I SD and got on a lower volume program the results came!

This was all pre HST I had never heard of HST at the time...looking back I now realize why everything works b/c I understand the science behind training now. For instance when I took that 3 week break and started the newer lower volume program. That was SD...so long story short you are way ahead of the game more than me b/c you know now what to do as far as overtraining and SD'ing

Sorry for the long wind..hehe....I just get fired up at myself when I think about how I basically wasted those 2 years of training on overtraining...hehe :)
 
Jiminy Christmas, what an ordeal, Joe.

I don't think overtraining will be a problem for me--never was. If anything, I will be overly timid with the weights after this little episode.

John
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] (Joe.Muscle @ Aug. 15 2005,8:10)]See I went from benching 120 pound dumbells pre injury to 10 pound dumbells post injury...and 1 1/2 years later I was only at about 45 pound dumbells....but I was severly and I mean severly overtraining. At one point I was doing about 30 sets for chest.

...once I SD and got on a lower volume program the results came!
Click to expand...
Great story (with HST and all)
wow.gif
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] ] Jiminy Christmas, what an ordeal, Joe.
Click to expand...

LOL
laugh.gif
jl3goat, I hope you don't say that in front of your university students
laugh.gif
kidding
laugh.gif


Anyhoo, I just want to wish you good luck, hopefully this wouldn't set you back for months.

Regards,
-JV
 
jvroig--No, I don't actually speak to my students...I just crack a whip.

Got an appt. with a dr. recommended by the Director of Athletics at the univ., so that's good. Less good is that he won't see me till Wednesday. I know...bitch, bitch, bitch....

It would be mildly ironic if I got a steroid prescription...I could keep working out the left side of my body, and legs, and waddle around totally lopsided after rapidly bulking up.

Seriously, though...would a steroid of this sort make me gain weight? I'd rather heal slowly, frankly, than pork out like Mr. Creosote.

John
 
how many times a week are you working out?
Is it 3 times like the standard HST or is it one of those 6 times a week (which I think would be dangerous)?
 
I was doing single sessions 3 times a week, as prescribed.

I saw the doc yesterday, who says in addition to whatever muscle damage there is, I also tore my pectoralis tendon. He doesn't think I'll need surgery, but won't know for sure till I come back in a couple weeks and he can judge how much strength has returned. Even so, without the surgery, he says, my bench press days could be over. At 42, I don't know that I find this particularly catastrophic, since I should still be able to do other exercises that don't hit that tendon quite so hard. I can do pressing movements (no weight) on an incline, for instance. I can't do them flat on my back, though.

I did some reading about this specific tendon injury, and the medical literature suggests that it tends to occur among anabolic steroid users, which I am not. Guess I'm just unlucky.
 
Anabolic steroids may improve surgical repair of shoulder tears
Medical Research News
Published: Thursday, 24-Jun-2004
Print - Anabolic steroids may improve surgical repair of shoulder tears

New research from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill indicates that treatment with anabolic steroids may improve surgical repair of massive or recurrent tears of the shoulder's rotator cuff tendons.
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=2784

If this ever happens to me, this is what I would take.
 
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