Hello Docs,
After listening to the podcast today about the research review it got me thinking about my own situation. I tore my right pec tendon bench pressing 2 years ago, I had it repaired and have been back training. Things feel pretty solid this far out but I wanted to check in and see if it would be worth at this point pursuing unilateral strengthening to “bridge the gap” as Derek is so fond of saying. I am not overtly aware of any major strength discrepancies side to side other than some guarding and apprehension with heavier loading. At this point in my journey my overall pressing strength has decreased a lot (still making progress from zero though!) but I wondered if it may help with my strength to pursue this or perhaps help protect against a future injury? I hope that was enough context and I appreciate any insight!
Thank you.
Ryan,
Honestly, I have never seen any literature looking at a gap in strength after a pec tendon repair and the only way I could really thing to effectively test it would be on a chest press. I could certainly see that being useful under the same heuristic that we discussed regarding hamstring training. I think the issue here gets into some of the nuance of what we need in terms of symmetry and something I really thought about how I wanted to phrase writing the hamstring piece. It was hard to make solid recs regarding specific numbers to aim for in terms of limb symmetry index for strength athletes as the sport is predicated on bilateral movements and most of the research we have for hamstrings is related to running. That being said, I do think aiming for a 90% limb symmetry index s/p repair is probably a good metric to shoot for. I would be interested to see/hear if you do test what the difference is for you side to side. At two years, if you have been consistently training I would expect you to have closed the gap on what was originally there after a full clearance from surgery.
If you do test, let me know the results.
Derek
Bonus points for triggering me with that bridge the gap bullshit…well done.