all posts post new thread

Kettlebell Experience training with kettlebells post chest tear

Status
Closed Thread. (Continue Discussion of This Topic by Starting a New Thread.)

Marin Koshutov

Level 1 Valued Member
Hi all

I have been reading the forum for quite some time, but haven't posted yet. I have long experience with barbell training but this April I had a full pectoral tendon rupture doing bench press. I had been training mostly with kettlebells for 2-3 years before, but lifter weights heavy and low reps in conjunction with that.
Has anyone had such experience and if yes how did you progress in movements, volume and intensity. I rehabilitated using mostly bands so far and on purpose didn't do any weights for 3 months. At the current time I have almost no limitation in movement and the tendon should be sufficiently healed to start using load. My thinking is to start using slower movements - press, goblet squat, farmer walks, but I also can do anything with my right arm - one hand swings, snatches etc. I am wondering if this would do more harm then good though.
My stats - 35 years old, 220 pds/95kgs bw, before the injury I was working with double 24s for presses, jerks, fr squats, have pressed 32. Currently have to start at much lower weight I am not even sure 16s would be reasonable.
Any feedback would be highly appreciated

Best regards

Marin
 
Hello Marin, maybe I can help a bit here by sharing my experience with the same problem. At the risk of looking a bit of a buffoon I will submit the following evidence from circa 1985.. If you look at the right pec you'll see the divot where the muscle used to be. This picture was taken around 8 months after the injury..

OldBBpic1.jpg

What I did to get it back into shape was to use the late Walter Payton's (great human being) method of injury recuperation. That is to get right back to doing what you do. As soon as the pain, swelling and bruising subsided I started bench pressing the weight of my arm and slowly...carefully increased the resistance to send a clear message to my body just exactly what was expected of it.

So it was back to business being careful not to re-injure. I did have guidance from an M.D. bodybuilder friend of mine but the rules were simple,

- Learn to differentiate between the pain of rehabilitation and the pain of injury. (slow and steady)

- Go slowly and back off when necessary but keep training and pushing forward.

It might have been as little as 6 months, I can't remember as it was a long time ago, but the strategy had me back at full power and more in a fairly short time frame. hope this helps..
 
Hi Bret

First of all thank you for the fast response and sharing your experience with this.
I think I read some articles about this approach by Bill Starr and recently Dave Tate, but both noted that this is for muscle tears, I had a tendon rupture - the muscle is intact but it is torn from the insertion point on the arm. The doctors so far cautioned me that the tendon takes more time to heal than the muscle. Was that the kind of injury you had?
 
Marin Koshutov said:
Hi Bret

First of all thank you for the fast response and sharing your experience with this.
I think I read some articles about this approach by Bill Starr and recently Dave Tate, but both noted that this is for muscle tears, I had a tendon rupture - the muscle is intact but it is torn from the insertion point on the arm. The doctors so far cautioned me that the tendon takes more time to heal than the muscle. Was that the kind of injury you had?
Click to expand...

My tear was muscle primarily, the fibers literally ripped apart, a tendon problem would be different to deal with but in the end you'll have to strengthen it again. I did have a doctor's guidance to help me rehab it. By all means follow your doctor's advice as @Steve Freides pointed out. Once the tendon has healed to the point of light use you should be able to smartly, slowly work it back into shape. Do you have a Physical Therapist? He or she would be the one to discuss rehab with. Don't lose heart as this will pass, it's literally just a matter of time. Injuries suck but it still beats being a couch potato IMO. Please check in with your progress on this.
 
Steve and Bret I appreciate your advise and concerns, I am generally cleared now to train, with the caution of not using too much load. I worked with a therapist from the week after the injury until now which is 3 months after the operation. Most of the work was to get rid of the "frozen shoulder" from wearing a brace for 4 weeks after the operation and ART to break up the scar tissue around the shoulder capsule. I have full range of motion now and can start using weights, but the thing is pec tear injuries are not as often and well known here as in the US. I didn't mention but i am from Bulgaria, so even in the sports field pec tears are not a commonplace injury. Recreational lifters like me are the only ones I guess and maybe powerlifters, but powerlifting is not a popular sport here. In general the advise ranges from don't lift weights at all, which I wouldn't like to do and I think is not necessary, to stop when you feel pain and discomfort. My physical therapist was actually a master of sport in weightlifting, but he trains in a completely different way now, practicing Tai Chi, so he has a very holistic approach to the whole issue and thinks i just have to explore the limitations. Thus at this point I will venture to start step by step to regain strength, but I would like to get feedback from guys who have been there, because my training on my own my own way is what got me here in the first place
 
@Marin Koshutov
Considering everything you posted, I would proceed cautiously and holistically (much like your therapist). You could explore some general mobility options. SJ, FS, OS Resets, etc. S&S warmup (halos, goblet Squats), TGU's.

Take your time...

While I haven't experienced your exact injury, I did recover from a very difficult shoulder repair, and have reasonably successfully avoided surgery on the other shoulder which is also damaged.
 
Marin Koshutov said:
Steve and Bret I appreciate your advise and concerns, I am generally cleared now to train, with the caution of not using too much load. I worked with a therapist from the week after the injury until now which is 3 months after the operation. Most of the work was to get rid of the "frozen shoulder" from wearing a brace for 4 weeks after the operation and ART to break up the scar tissue around the shoulder capsule. I have full range of motion now and can start using weights, but the thing is pec tear injuries are not as often and well known here as in the US. I didn't mention but i am from Bulgaria, so even in the sports field pec tears are not a commonplace injury. Recreational lifters like me are the only ones I guess and maybe powerlifters, but powerlifting is not a popular sport here. In general the advise ranges from don't lift weights at all, which I wouldn't like to do and I think is not necessary, to stop when you feel pain and discomfort. My physical therapist was actually a master of sport in weightlifting, but he trains in a completely different way now, practicing Tai Chi, so he has a very holistic approach to the whole issue and thinks i just have to explore the limitations. Thus at this point I will venture to start step by step to regain strength, but I would like to get feedback from guys who have been there, because my training on my own my own way is what got me here in the first place
Click to expand...

+1 to what @offwidth said

Might I suggest get-ups starting with a shoe on your fist to work stabilizers in the shoulders, from there you can slowly tick up the weight. The get-ups, especially light ones, are like therapy for my shoulders. If you can safely crawl and rock I would it daily as that is also very therapeutic and will help strengthen the pec tendon/insertion as well as the whole shoulder girdle.

My approach would also employ bands again starting light and working the shoulders in all ranges of motion along with 1 lb Indian clubs. I haven't done it yet but mace work could plug in here nicely. Then I would start swinging the kettlebells light and work up in weight to strengthen the posterior chain, and finally I would begin anterior chain work including abdominal and front squat work. Then at that point I would start to directly challenge the injured area by slowly working in OH pressing. I would probably say no to bench pressing for awhile. As you strengthen your body all around the injury it will slowly join the rest of the chorus.

Your options are many and this could be a golden opportunity to really look at what you want regarding fitness and design a plan to carry it out. I'm also talking about some aerobic work thrown into the mix. I myself seek to be strong through the full range of motion and flexible, along with good cardiac fitness. Martial arts (karate) is a big part of me and has been for a long time. It's essential to train like this or something similar. JMO
 
Never had a bad pec injury but did tear a rotator cuff while benchpressing and had to rehab it myself (no health insurance at the time).

I'll emphatically second much of the above advice and also I'd avoid benching and even pushup complexes for a few. Maybe some static holds at the bottom to get a feel for what the site is ready for, from the knees if necessary. Jumprope, medicine ball, light Indian clubs, MA.

Following my injury I gave directly loaded resistance training a break for a couple of years and took up Muay Thai, Escrima.

The entire opposite tack could be used and get back on the horse with very light weight. That is what I initially attempted but found from a fitness standpoint I got better results changing modalities than ghosting around the gym with unloaded bars. The injury as it recovered was capable of plenty of work, just not in the same loading pattern.

After a couple of years off I got back into lifting again, built my dumbbell collection and worked back up to where I could bench with a pair of 90's (pounds).
 
Thank you all for the valuable input. Currently I feel like I can incorporate some bodyweight stuff - crawling and maybe supports in the push up position. I think of doing some light overhead holds in the top position of the press and maybe front rack. Heavy benching is definitely done though, even if I get back to strength I don't think psychologically I will be ready for it, because I like low rep stuff too much and might be tempted to go too heavy again. I was wondering if heavier squats and deadlifts will be possible.... As far as the getup is concenrned currently the roll to the shoulder is kind of hard, so I think light overhead wok and swings and goblet squats would be comfortable.
Does anyone have an idea of a simpler bodyweight crawling exercises that might be useful, I have never tried much different than the basic crawl either 6 point stance or 4 point stance.
 
Marin Koshutov said:
Thank you all for the valuable input. Currently I feel like I can incorporate some bodyweight stuff - crawling and maybe supports in the push up position. I think of doing some light overhead holds in the top position of the press and maybe front rack. Heavy benching is definitely done though, even if I get back to strength I don't think psychologically I will be ready for it, because I like low rep stuff too much and might be tempted to go too heavy again. I was wondering if heavier squats and deadlifts will be possible.... As far as the getup is concenrned currently the roll to the shoulder is kind of hard, so I think light overhead wok and swings and goblet squats would be comfortable.
Does anyone have an idea of a simpler bodyweight crawling exercises that might be useful, I have never tried much different than the basic crawl either 6 point stance or 4 point stance.
Click to expand...

Subscribe to YT Original Strength channel if you haven't already, there's enough there to keep you progressing. Bar hangs would be great too if you can do them, if you can't with BW then use assistance bands.

I would avoid 'heavy' on anything for awhile..
 
The guys already gave you platin advice. I cannot add anything to this. I never injured my pec but I did dislocate my left shoulder in May '17.
This is how I got into OS/Flexible Steel/Ground Force and ever since I do it on off days. It helped/helps me a ton to get a new feeling for movement and posture which is key for successful and injury free strength training.
See your injury as a chance to completely reboot yourself and heal fast!
 
Thank you all again for the great advice, I have been introducing the OS daily reset program almost every day, along with some band training and jogging. It is quite humbling to see how these simple movements can turn out to be a pretty good 15 - 20 minute workout by itself, and I feel them as a great warm-up for both running or band training. I think the three combined keep the stimulus addict in me satisfied that I am doing enough work and can keep me away from the weights for a few more weeks. Appreciate the great advice from all of you!
 
Marin Koshutov said:
Thank you all again for the great advice, I have been introducing the OS daily reset program almost every day, along with some band training and jogging. It is quite humbling to see how these simple movements can turn out to be a pretty good 15 - 20 minute workout by itself, and I feel them as a great warm-up for both running or band training. I think the three combined keep the stimulus addict in me satisfied that I am doing enough work and can keep me away from the weights for a few more weeks. Appreciate the great advice from all of you!
Click to expand...
Excellent work!
 
Status
Closed Thread. (Continue Discussion of This Topic by Starting a New Thread.)
Back
Top Bottom