Pectoral Tears: Are Anabolic Steroids the Major Cause? by Jerry Brainum 5/24

 

 

Back in the mid-90s, when I was still writing for a few major bodybuilding magazines, I interviewed an elite professional bodybuilder. This man was one of the top pro bodybuilders and consistently either won or placed in the top five of every contest that he competed in. I had interviewed him previously, but this time, the interview topic was his chest or pectoral training. More specifically, the interview centered on his recent severe pectoral tear and whether it would affect his future competitive plans. When  I asked him how the pec tear occurred, he told me it happened while doing heavy bench presses. That made sense because the bench press was the most common exercise associated with pec tears. But then he hesitated.

"Don't write that it happened when I was doing bench presses," he said.

"Why is that," I asked.

"Because if people think it happened while I was doing bench presses, they will think steroids caused it."

He then asked me to write that the injury happened while he was doing pectoral flys, another common pectoral exercise. He felt that the fly exercise would be less associated with heavy steroid use. Why he opted to request this is anyone's guess since no one was under the illusion that the top professional bodybuilders didn't use anabolic steroid drugs. The rest of the interview focused on his rehabilitation for the torn pec. He underwent surgery to repair the pec tear. And he credited the orthopedic surgeon who operated on him as "saving his bodybuilding career" since, sure enough, after a few months of healing, there was little or no evidence of his having torn his pectoral muscle.

Although pectoral or "pec" tears were first described in the medical literature in 1822, it is still considered a rare training injury. Pec tears most often occur in men between 20 and 40, and the most common scenario involves doing heavy bench presses. On the other hand, football players also experience pec tears related to chest trauma, although doing heavy bench presses is still the most common cause. Many elite bodybuilders have suffered pec tears. Chris Dickerson, the first black man to win the Mr.America contest in 1970 and the oldest Mr.Olympia winner when he won the title in 1982, experienced a severe pec tear that changed the shape of his pectoral muscle. Chris opted not to undergo surgery to repair it because it was a partial tear, but it was enough to alter the appearance of his pec muscles. That didn't prevent him from winning those major titles. Film actor Sylvester Stallone tore his pec while preparing for his role in the film "Rocky 2." He was training under the supervision of former Mr.Olympia Franco Columbu and was doing an intense set of bench presses when the pec gave way. Stallone hid the partial disfigurement that resulted . . .