[K-dog]

Originally Posted by pelagius

It was a torn pec (I mentioned it in that fun injury thread we did a while ago). It was by far the most painful injury that I have had.

I was bench pressing at the time. The sad part is that it wasn't a massive amount of weight (285 pounds) and it was part of a normal workout; I certainly wasn't able to go out in a blaze of glory (tearing your pec with anything less the 3 plates is just plain embaressing). It is just really weird to feel your muscle rip as you push upward. I remember it started to rip when I was about a third of the way up on the first rep and I could feel and hear ripping as the weight came crashing down. It did leave me deformed, but you can really only see the deformity if I flex.

It was a real blow to my ego; I am not even the strongest guy among the ultra nerdy group of people I coauthor with anymore. Here is my Harvard Business School coauthor benching (I actually think I can probably bench a decent amount now but I don't do flat bench anymore -- too scared):



Actually, I was never stronger than him but I like to rationalize about it (although he is using a Bench Shirt, but he was still stronger even raw plus the shirt is only single ply).



I wish that I had a glamorous excuse like that for the injury. My problem was just some bad luck and neglect related to not worrying about muscle imbalances and being too aggressive as I got older.

Wat is a Bench Shirt and why would single ply be a mitigating factor?