Tore my Pec

[XutvJet]

Originally Posted by fanofbmwe46

Yea that’s what makes this so hard. I look fine now and am getting around fine a week after the injury. But I have no idea how I’ll respond to weight training again and I can’t wait a few months to see how I do. I have to do the surgery within 2-3 weeks max of the injury otherwise it becomes inoperable / poor results. So given that I need to make a leap of faith. As of now the surgery is scheduled for next Thursday (2 weeks total out from the injury date).

Good luck! Gotta do what's right for you.

How old are you? Once I got into my late 30s, age really catches up with you, even if you're in great shape. Muscle mass is pretty easy to maintain, but ligaments just aren't the same and they are at a much higher risk of injury. When you get into your late 40s, then you start to lose muscle mass and chances of injury increase dramatically.

Your best bet is to keep moving, exercise, and eat well. I no longer lift heavy. It's all 50% max and below. High rep; lots of full body, no weight stuff; and stretching.

[fanofbmwe46]

Originally Posted by XutvJet

Good luck! Gotta do what's right for you.

How old are you? Once I got into my late 30s, age really catches up with you, even if you're in great shape. Muscle mass is pretty easy to maintain, but ligaments just aren't the same and they are at a much higher risk of injury. When you get into your late 40s, then you start to lose muscle mass and chances of injury increase dramatically.

Your best bet is to keep moving, exercise, and eat well. I no longer lift heavy. It's all 50% max and below. High rep; lots of full body, no weight stuff; and stretching.

I’m 38, 6ft1, 195lbs (lean but athletic build/not bodybuilder build but toned).

Based on your experiences what would you do in my case?

I also have two young kids and want nothing to stop me from being able to play hard with them as they get older. I want to be a good role model eating well and going to the gym multiple times a week to maintain good a athletic physique.

[lopeydeath]

Originally Posted by thebmw

$5k is a lot to invest in your body and a prevention of a life-long deficit and deformity? Says the guy with a 100k car who lives in Oceanside (a relatively wealthy area)? Come on lopey, people blow 5k on useless carbon fiber bits without blinking an eye.

Surgery has risks, but for Pete's sake (whoever the F pete is), chose if you have surgery or not based on medical factors, not on a measly 5K.

The Marine Corps stationed me here..?
Also, did it detach completely? I don’t recall seeing that but I could be mistaken. A tear does not necessarily mean it’s detached - big difference. lastly, surgeries are never guaranteed to work and always come with an inherent risk. As someone who has partially torn a pec when doing bench press I can tell you there is no loss in strength and only a mild “deformity” when exercising and even then it’s such that most would never notice. Let’s not suddenly say he will look like Quasimodo if he doesn’t get surgery.
My comment is more on the risks associated with the surgery than the outright cost - but I was tired I could have explained that more.

[lopeydeath]

Originally Posted by fanofbmwe46

Here is the latest from the Dr office in image below.

I think at my age and with my desire to be as physically fit as reasonably possible and carry a strong looking physique, I should do the surgery.

Case in point. No

[carseatsm5]

Originally Posted by thebmw

A labral tear vs pec tear are nothing alike. Labral tears are very successfully manageable and injectable and surgery is OFTEN not needed (even though the orthos may tell you otherwise). But sometimes surgery is needed. Labrum surgeries are not as complex as pec surgeries, but both can be brutal post op and recovery.

Complete pec tears are simply not sustainable if you want any reasonable function and they are not injectable or manageable with conservative options. OP, if you were 70+, different conversation vs 30 something

I shared my experience with a surgery that was also elective. Did not say they’re the same. Did say I would get a second opinion. Would seem many orthos are on this thread giving second opinions so maybe he’s now got what he needs!

[XutvJet]

Originally Posted by fanofbmwe46

I’m 38, 6ft1, 195lbs (lean but athletic build/not bodybuilder build but toned).

Based on your experiences what would you do in my case?

I also have two young kids and want nothing to stop me from being able to play hard with them as they get older. I want to be a good role model eating well and going to the gym multiple times a week to maintain good a athletic physique.

I'm 6' 1", 180lbs, and 50. I'm lean and athletic. I have 2 kids, 16 and 19. My 16 y/o daughter is a stellar VB player and we play together all the time. It's important for me to be there for her as both a dad and player. As a whole, my entire family eats really well, exercise, etc. We're all lean and pretty fit. I'm probably the worst when it comes to diet.

I'm a thinker and engineer so I analyze the living crap out of everything. My 5th metatarsal breaks absolutely required surgeries as the bone would never really heal and would likely break many more times. For my shoulders, I researched and asked friends who had surgery and those that passed. Not sure what your doctor said, but when it came to my shoulders, the doctors said that based on the MRI, "It appears to be a tear. We'd like to do surgery and see what's torn or needs fixing". That's the same thing that my other friends were told prior to their surgeries. I'm not a fan of going in blind with the hopes of maybe fixing something. Probably the most convincing thing to me was my discussions with a dad on my daughters club VB team who is a PT with 20 years+ of experience. He said he tracks those that do surgery vs those that don't do surgery when it comes to upper body and lower body/knee ligament tears, what he's seen is that for many people, PT is just as successful if not more successful than surgery. He also said that people need to understand that once you have a serious injury after 30, you'll never quite be the same, surgery or not. I totally agree. With my foot injuries, I must wear ankle wraps and have lost some flexibility in my lower legs/ankles. That has reduced my vertical leap by a few inches and reduced my first step a bit. With my shoulders, I don't quite have the pop on my hit. It is what it is. At least I can still compete.

If lifting is your passion and the surgery has a high success rate, then I'd probably go that direction. I would have spent countless hours researching though. LOL.

With all that said, YOU MUST follow what the doc's and PT say. Give it time to heal and be patient. With my foot surgeries, I was no load bearing for 6 very long weeks each time, then 2 months in a boot, and then another 3 months of walking before I could do competitive sports. I did everything they told to and I was cleared to play earlier than originally told.

[thebmw]

Originally Posted by lopeydeath

The Marine Corps stationed me here..?
Also, did it detach completely? I don’t recall seeing that but I could be mistaken. A tear does not necessarily mean it’s detached - big difference. lastly, surgeries are never guaranteed to work and always come with an inherent risk. As someone who has partially torn a pec when doing bench press I can tell you there is no loss in strength and only a mild “deformity” when exercising and even then it’s such that most would never notice. Let’s not suddenly say he will look like Quasimodo if he doesn’t get surgery.
My comment is more on the risks associated with the surgery than the outright cost - but I was tired I could have explained that more.

My interpretation of OP's posts is that it is detached, which is why surgery may be appropriate here. You are correct that a "tear" can mean many things and as I've stated here previously, most tears do not need surgery and can be managed with conservative care and injection therapy.

But separately and not directed to you, it is amazing how many people in the US bitch about $20 copays and ignore their health (and then blame physicians for their poor health) while blowing $20 a day at Starbucks (the antithesis of good health). To me $5k is cheap for life altering treatment...ever been to BMW dealers for routine service lol.

[Wolf 335]

Deformation that will occur from full detachment is enough to get the surgery done.
Will he be able to look at himself in the mirror every day and accept this? We don't know.

Loss of strength overloads and over devlelops other regions.

OP already knows what he needs to do, and that is surgery 100%.

[lopeydeath]

Originally Posted by Wolf 335

Loss of strength overloads and over devlelops other regions.

OP already knows what he needs to do, and that is surgery 100%.

Wrong. A partially torn pec can recover to full strength, as I have done myself. No surgery is needed. To state that a partially torn pec will lead to overdeveloped muscles around it is simply wrong unless the injury is extreme - which given the fact he can still move around is not the case.

Not opposed to surgery when necessary but to state he must do so is not necessarily accurate.

[fanofbmwe46]

Originally Posted by lopeydeath

Wrong. A partially torn pec can recover to full strength, as I have done myself. No surgery is needed. To state that a partially torn pec will lead to overdeveloped muscles around it is simply wrong unless the injury is extreme - which given the fact he can still move around is not the case.

Not opposed to surgery when necessary but to state he must do so is not necessarily accurate.

It’s a complete tear. Sternocostal tendon is torn at the musculo junction.

I can still move mostly fine for daily stuff because the arm moves due to other muscles and the clavicular pec muscle. I just supposedly loose pressing strength without the sternal attachment to the humerus.

Only a week out from injury I haven’t tried doing pushups or anything. It’s still a little painful and can’t put my arm straight over my head or super far behind my back without pain.

[Reborn_]

FWIW, I would get the surgery if it's fully detached. It ain't going to magically reattach without surgery. And I'm an anti-surgery guy.

One of my injuries is a torn labrum, like some others have also said they have. Another is herniation of my L5-S1 disc, and another is chronic bursitis in my left hip.

I can't bench or OHP, bicep curl, or squat the weight that I used to. I'm probably at 50% of my top game. Some of that is surely due to age and lifestyle, to be fair. I was fairly depressed about it and finally came to terms with it after a few years. Now the name of the game is to be happy I can even perform those lifts, even if the pain requires me to bail out sooner/lighter than I would like. I still "carry an athletic build" - it doesn't take much to look good when the vast majority of people don't lift. You need to decide how important it is to you to move weight in the gym, really. I'm 40, for reference.

The other point I'll make is that I wouldn't count on being back to 100% with the surgery, either. You are surgically repaired - not the same as you were 3 weeks ago. You're not a professional athlete who will spend 100's of thousands and infinite time rehabbing. Presumably you have a job, family, obligations, etc. Manage your expectations as you make the decision.

In any case, best wishes either way. Injuries suck!

[floridaorange]

Originally Posted by fanofbmwe46

I’m 38 yrs old and recently quit my toxic corporate job which was starting to impact me mentally and physically. Joined a more flexible start up situation which allows me time to focus more on my health.

I created some fitness goals and have been working toward them. Just a few days ago I was doing a chest lifting day and worked the weight up on bench press to 200lbs. I asked for a spotter at 200 and told him I was going to try for 3 reps. I got to bottom of the second rep and heard and felt something pop/rip/tear in my left pec area. I lost all strength in that arm and spotter took the weight.

Went to urgicare and they said likely some sort of tear in my chest / armpit area.

I have an appt on Monday to see a specialist and likely get an MRI referral.

In the meantime I’m icing my swollen chest and trying not to move my left arm much. Pain was horrible the first day but couple days later now and it’s not bad unless I move my arm too much (can only lift it like 20-30 degrees before pain kicks in.

I have a couple cars I can drive easily with one arm that are auto transmissions… my G80 is a manual though and haven’t tried driving it since. I am planning to trade it for a custom ordered G87 M2 that arrives in 3-4 weeks though that’s also manual. Dealer is a couple hours away. I’ll probably be able to drive slowly/carefully and make it there but I won’t be able to enjoy the new M2 until I get my chest taken care of.

Anyone else have a pec injury like this and recover from it? There seem to be a lot of different types of tears so I guess the best thing to do [...]

May I ask how many hours of sleep you get during your new fitness goals season?

[fanofbmwe46]

Originally Posted by floridaorange

May I ask how many hours of sleep you get during your new fitness goals season?

Hmm I have young kids so it varies but probably 7-8 hrs of sleep. Maybe as little as 6-6.5

[fanofbmwe46]

Holy shit. Doctor just called me day before surgery and said he was studying the MRI more and reviewed with the radiologist and they think while it’s a significant size tear it’s focal in the sense it’s not a complete detachment… therefore we can post pone surgery and see how I do with PHysical Therapy first for 4 weeks

[carseatsm5]

As I said earlier, when considering surgery always get a second opinion. Glad your doctor decided to take a closer look at the imaging before he cut you open.