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Thread: How Not to Tear a Pec While Bench Pressing | Mark Barroso

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    Default How Not to Tear a Pec While Bench Pressing | Mark Barroso

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    by Mark Barroso

    "The pectoralis major (PM) is the main chest muscle, often called the “pecs” for short. The pectoralis major attaches to the anterior humerus via its tendon which inserts to the lateral lip of the bicipital groove. The main function of the PM muscle is to adduct and internally rotate the shoulder. In June 2018, I tore my PM tendon off the humerus, got it surgically reattached, and am currently undergoing physical therapy."

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    "My main question regarding my injury was why was it the tendon and not the muscle belly? Why is my PM completely intact but the tendon detached from the bone? After all, there are more collagen fibers in the tendon making it stronger than the PM."

    Given the stress/recovery/adaption cycle and the longer healing time of tendons vs muscle bellies due to blood flow. Could your muscle strength have gotten stronger faster due the shorter recovery/adaption cycle of the muscle vs tendon? I your case maybe the tendon was the weakest link due to the lagging recovery/adaption time of tendons vs muscles?

    Wouldn't you increase your risk of tendon injuries when you use steroids as it would widen the gap between the tendon to muscle stress/recovery/adaption cycles?

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    What precisely is the difference in adaptation time between muscle and tendon? What if he's been training for years? What research has been done on the effects of anabolic steroids in these cases?

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    If tendons didn't adapt at a rate somehow commensurate to muscle, how would you ever get stronger? Wouldn't people be rupturing tendons all the time?

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    I cannot provide a precise adaption time difference between muscle and tendon.

    "the most common tendon repair protocols force you to wait six weeks (and sometimes longer) before you gradually load the muscle and tendon again, whereas a muscle belly injury can be loaded again – lightly, of course – within the first couple of days.” “The Starr Protocol is absolutely useful in instances of muscle belly injuries,” says Petrizzo. “Even though there is no “peer-reviewed” research " "...the Starr Protocol which will take approximately three weeks in most cases."

    Would you not agree tendon recovery/adaption time is most likely longer than muscle?

    If he's been strength training for years the injury was probably for not doing one or several of these:
    Petrizzo's Don't Wreck A Pec
    1. Learn your perfect warmup routine.
    2. Don’t do the Ascending Pyramid.
    3. Control the Negative.
    4. Don’t Bounce the Bar Too Much.

    If he was doing hypertrophy training (assuming lighter weights) I can see the tendons being weaker, but this makes me think of your thoughts on tendinitis (brilliant btw). Could hypertrophy training and fatigued muscles successfully stress/adapt the tendons to be stronger vs exposure to heavy weights? I guess long term tendinitis would be harmful to the tissue.

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    Quote Originally Posted by aknollme View Post
    "the most common tendon repair protocols force you to wait six weeks (and sometimes longer) before you gradually load the muscle and tendon again, whereas a muscle belly injury can be loaded again – lightly, of course – within the first couple of days.” “The Starr Protocol is absolutely useful in instances of muscle belly injuries,” says Petrizzo. “Even though there is no “peer-reviewed” research " "...the Starr Protocol which will take approximately three weeks in most cases."

    Would you not agree tendon recovery/adaption time is most likely longer than muscle?
    John is correct about what is most common. That may not be the same thing as the most effective. And it may be that tendons take longer to adapt than muscle. But I have seen complete ruptures of the quadriceps tendon return to complete function in 5 months. So, I don't know.

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    starting strength coach development program
    “The pyramid is not really made for strength training because by the time you get to your heavier weights, you’re already fatigued from all those repetitions,”
    I missed something. #2 of Don't Wreck A Pec explains why there pyramid is ineffective for strength training. Why is it more likely to cause injury? Is it because the fatigue will make controlling the eccentric harder?

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