Last week I strained my right pec when attempting a 120 kg bench. There is some bruising in my right arm. Before that 110 kg felt like @8.5 so I thought that I had 120 kg. I was doing Untamed Method type programming and my bench responded very well. Maybe attempting a max bench in the middle of a training block wasn’t the best idea… This is pretty annoying as I was pretty sure that I was going to bench 120 kg this year but now it is not happening. And hitting 3 plates might take a while as well…
I can squat, dl and overhead press normally. However, even empty bar (flat) bench press is painful but I can do the full ROM. High incline and floor press feel better (with empty bar) but I can’t really do them with weight. I tried 60 kg but it is too painful. Maybe a very high pin bench could be tolerable with heavier loads, I haven’t tried it yet.
I am familiar with BBM’s pain content. I injured my lower back last year after 150 kg x 4 deadlift. Now I have deadlifted 170 kg x 6 with no pain so I was able to deal with that injury using BBM’s content and this Q/A forum. My idea is to focus on overhead pressing instead of bench pressing and do empty bar bench press variations. Any ideas?
Sorry to hear about the pec strain. Sounds like overall you still have normative range of motion with the upper extremity, which is good. The bruising will likely dissipate in the coming weeks. If you have access to dumbbells then I recommend switching to doing pressing movements with dumbbells. This will allow you the option to load with less weight and go through tolerable ranges of motion. If you need further guidance, we’d be happy to consult with you.
Now I have floor pressed 85 kg x 5 and that was tolerable. So I am pretty happy about that. However, today I tried close grip bench press with some weight and 70 kg x 5 was not tolerable so I racked the bar after the 5th rep. So it still takes a while until I can bench press normally. Overhead press training has been going pretty well.
Now my pec feels worse than in last post. Today I tried to floor press but I had to stop after 70 kg x 5 as it felt very bad. This injury might even be more annoying than my previous lower back injury! I have even started to have thoughts like “This was it, my benching career was short.” I have been trying to move my pec and do something about this injury but it is not getting any better. And benching 50-60 kg is so annoying as well, I can even overhead press more than that. I was about to bench 120 kg and now my right pec explodes when I try to lift 70 kg. So unlucky.
At least I have sumo deadlifted 200 kg and strict pressed 70 kg after this injury but not being able to bench “heavy” is so annoying. I will keep trying to rehab this but this is a big setback. I can’t accept the fact that I am injured…
My next idea is to try 3ct paused bench for sets of 10. Last year I was benching 90 kg for 6 reps but doing 70 kg for 10 reps on 3ct paused bench was hard, even 60 kg was a working set. So that variation would force me to use light weights.
Sorry to hear that your pec is feeling worse. I agree with everything Dr. Ray stated above. Are you currently using dumbbells when you floor press or still barbell?
There are still MANY strategies that you can be implemented here, so do not lose hope. I get that this is tough, but you will come back from this. Because you are having these admittedly normative, but discouraging thoughts about your benching career being over and have felt discouraged with your self management/timeline of recovery, I think that you might benefit from a consultation with our Pain and Rehab Team. We can provide you with more individualistic guidance and rehab based training that we simply are unable to provide with such specificity on this forum.
If you don’t choose to purse a consultation, I would agree with attempting the 3ct pause bench for sets of 10. I think increasing the rep range and adding the pause will help control the weight on the bar. It’s hard to not get hung up on past numbers when rehabbing from an injury, but try to re-frame your training as rehab in this stage. Forget about past numbers for a bit and focus working through this set-back.
This week I did 80 kg for 5 reps on bench for the first time in months! My best set of 5 was 95 kg before the injury so this is very promising. Also 3 x 5 floor press with 80 kg felt easy this week. So now it looks like that I am gaining bench strenght back and I can train bench pretty normally. Once again BBM content was usefull.