+ 3 Anyone who has ever had a Bad RTC Tear or Surgery please comment
Okay, I know the guy's on here who don't like me will probably be happy to see this - but I've had a week nearly to adjust to what has happened so it doesn't feel quite as catastrophic and shocking as it did at first, and realise I just have to move forward with it and do whatever is required 
A lot of this is my own fault tbh, for a long time now I have known my right shoulder was in a bad state but often when the joint and rotator cuff soreness has affected lifting in benching I have just had longer periods off training and let myself heal (or so I thought lol). There have been many occasions where I have simply held back and done lighter sessions and things seemed to have healed in terms of performance and pain. I now realise though through lots of research that I should of been doing specific rotator cuff exercises routinely each week consisting of external rotation work and band work, but as is often with life you never realise quite the importance of doing these things until something goes badly wrong and its too late.
To cut a very long story short, when I was training last Sunday night on my final set of 3 moderate reps, on just the first rep going down when I began the ascent back up all of a sudden with no prior warning whatsoever my right arm literally gave way in a split second with a sensation where it felt like my shoulder jolted out of my back with a huge pop/bang sound. The bar smashed down onto the safety rails and I am laid there in shock thinking Ooohh Fuck my pec has just torn - only to then realise thats fine and its my RTC that has just given way. Never even knew thats what happens when it goes!!
I then spent until 7am in A&E first having an X ray done which apparently is first port of call, then the various RTC tests they do to try and pinpoint which cuff is injured. In the Doctors own words he doesn't think it is a full rupture otherwise I simply wouldn't be able to move my arm at all in some directions but more a tear or sprain (I don't see how it can just be a sprain though). I have to go back beginning of next week to see the Specialist shoulder doctor and hopefully will get an Ultrasound or MRI done to see just what % is torn. I know for sure it is the Infraspinatus that goes across the back shoulder blade and connects on the side/back of the arm as thats where the main soreness and stiffness has always been.
It has become much less painful & inflamed over the week, I can move the arm in all directions now but the popping and cracking still emanates when externally rotating my arm outwards similar to the position where it gave way at the bottom of a bench path.
My questions are to the guys who have been through this, especially tearing the same area when benching. What was the extent of the tear that you suffered in terms of % (over 50% here means surgery), I believe anything under 50% they advise to do rehab and increase and repair the strength of it - But surely if you train and lift weights ideally it needs to be repaired anyway to ensure the proper strength of it? Any advice or input from any members who have been through a bad tear or surgery is greatly appreciated 
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Hahahha yeah pretty much exactly how it went lol. I actually had a blocker in my mid spine to to try keeping the pain away and try to avoid opioids as best a possible.
Keep me updated on your surgery/progress
I had both shoulders replaved and rtc tears. I think one of was 80 and the other was 70. I let it get really bad. Get it fixed man. Letting it heal on its own only allows you to prolong the inevitable if you are going to continue lifting. Post surgery (if getting) blast hgh (as much as you can afford), bpc (250mcg twice a day for 8 weeks), and tb (10mg week for 8 weeks).
Thanks for this buddy - this is what I figured. It's only probably going to get worse isn't it even if I am okay for 6 to 12 months at first.
Did you experience the same thing where the bar just slams down on you with no warning when they went/tore? Scary shit isn't it.
Thanks a lot for the compound advice
Out of interest, how long was it before you could start lifting a barbell again after the surgery? I assume it was 6 to 9 months was it?
As you already know message me anytime during this process and i will help however i can. Injuries suck but you got this
Big Thanks Mate
What's it like being in a Sling for 6 weeks - is it Hell on earth or manageable? lol
Its not bad i was in one for 4 months and then the other shoulder for 6 weeks
My God thats nearly half a year in a Sling!!!
Could you still manage to drive? I guess if you have an automatic its pretty easy actually
Mine was a little longer but i also had them fix my pec and bicep at that time while i was down the pec tore when the shoulder went the final time. Yes the bar came down on me i thought the spotter had fucked the weights up or something because it all just gave
Firstly wishing you a speedy recovery and it is coincidence that I logged in to message you hoping to seek advice on any peptides or protocols for shoulder injury. My AC joint has been inflamed for the last two weeks after doing dumb raises (rushed shoulder session before work). This is the third time I have fractured or inflamed the same joint in 17 years of training.
First time I was doing weighted pulls ups in my early 20's and I heard a pop in the shoulder. Fortunately at the time I was working for a US company based in the UK that provided private healthcare and was able to see a shoulder specialist within 2 days, and then an MRI scan the same week. A week later they gave me a cortisone shot in the shoulder which gave me relief almost immediately, I would say I was back to 90% pain free, and then maybe around 18 months to be fully free of any paid or discomfort and feeling 100% recovered.
Second time it happened when I was doing incline barbell bench press which I no longer do due to risk of shoulder injury. I went through the NHS. My GP simply asked me questions and then referred me to young physio that looked fresh out of college, refused to give me a cortisone injection or refer me for an MRI. I was in a lot pain taking ibuprofen daily and the physio didn't really do much as i could barely bench press other than light weights and low reps. That took probably near to two years of recovery. I demanded an MRI which they said there would be a waiting list of 3 months. However after starting HGH I felt it recovered within a month and my strength started skyrocketing as I felt the HGH also made my shoulder and other joints stronger and less prone to injury. This was before I knew about peptides.
I have now been off HGH for almost a year and the should injury returned. I don't remember the percentages but both the first two times I could not raise my right hand or lift above my head. Right now it is inflamed but not too bad and I trying to research peptides to help recover or HGH. I discontinued HGH in the past as it started raising my RHR and disrupting my sleep.
I can not comment on other peptides though I honestly believe HGH helped and kept injuries away. I am old school I haven't used peptide and from what I have been reading they maybe a better option then paying for private in the UK or the long waits with the NHS.
Hoping you a speedy recovery and back in the gym, can get depressing when you can no longer work out. DM if you need to talk mate. I am not online a lot due to my job which is long hours on a screen but I will get back to you ASAP. - Which there was a chat feature on this site.
Thank you so much for your long and helpful reply Zee - thank you also for taking the time to write this as it means a lot pal. You've always been one of the great members on here and its a shame you can't be on more but I appreciate we all have to earn a living, and after a hard days graft the first thing you don't always wanna talk about is steroids lol Very interesting you say this about HGH as it makes total sense that it would help the RTC being it raises IGF1 levels and in turn tendon healing and recovery. Its something I've known I should add in for a long time but you know how extortionate the pricing is in the UK for it - talking a minimum of £160 for 100iu's everywhere. Do you happen to ever buy it from any of the cheaper Internationals on here at all?
Buddy without a doubt BPC 157 and TB 500 help the cuff and tendons in general, I am in regular touch with a competition bencher on here and when he runs gear cycles he runs BPC and TB as standard protocal and he says it hugely helps for shoulder and tendon health/recovery between sessions. I will definitely be giving them a go but just as yet haven't bought any as I was seeing how it goes this week with the injury being so fresh - I wanted to see if there are any improvements also in between last sunday and this coming tuesday when I go see them.
Pal I am just praying that they will do the MRI scan quick then because there is no way I am waiting 3 months for it, I wanna know and get on with it now if they need to get me in and operate to get the ball rolling. I know for sure with the ROM I now have and level of pain that they will want to leave it and see how I recover - So I intend to say to them that I do private coaching and compete etc so in other words I am an athlete that depends on my shoulder health and that it needs to be repaired to full function if the tear is significant enough.
For sure buddy since this happened I feel like all of a sudden a huge & main part of my life has been removed until I can train again, yesterday was the first day where I realised this is gonna be really tough mentally the longer it drags on, but at the same time I should be taking my own advice into account that I regularly give others on here who have suddenly just got big injuries and thats to realise that this isn't the end of the world and whether you have to get surgery or not, in time things will improve and get back to normal. We all go through it at some point. I Hope you are enjoying this typical Bank Holiday period of nice weather we are coming into matey
100% chase them up on the MRI and that it is impacting your job.income and causing mental stress, and they should push you up the queue, Like you said stay positive see it as break and find something else to fill the gap until you return stronger.
I was getting my GH direct from China and Turkey, same kits that are resold and rebranded by sources on here. with regular Jano test and rebranded by sources. For example Lobster HGH is sold by sources on here with the best labs results from the manufacturer and from third party tests. You can also purchase direct from the manufacturer at around 50-60 usd per kit. here are other Chinese sources that ship from the UK but I can not mention on here due to the rules.
You shouldn't be paying no more than 60 to max 70 USD for kits with at least 94% purity with zero or next to zero dimner. You would have to search for HGH and peptide sources but they don't do business on eroids.
Thanks a lot mate, I will speak to you in private about this
Blimey if I get this done privately its £7,000 for keyhole surgery lol
Sorry to hear that mate, I personally have never done that but you should try the peptide BPC 157 and TB500 and see if they help.
It Sucks pal
Dammit. Hate to hear it, fella. Hoping you get some good news at the follow-up.
Cheers buddy!! If not the Slipknot will be coming out LMAO
Sounds like it’s doing much better than when it happened though, right? Lends more toward partial than full tear. Keep us updated once you get the tests done. Fingers crossed it’s just some rehab and not full blown surgery.
Ohh yeah for sure pal it feels 300% better than Sunday when we spoke, it feels better each day and I have been doing external rotation band work - BUT what concerns me mate is that whilst it may feel better and the inflammation is going down, there must STILL be a decent sized tear in there. I just cannot see how if it is say anything over 25% torn how it will be strong and stable enough to support a good weight again? Or is the fact it is purely a stabilizer muscle of the humorous bone and not an active contracting lifting muscle mean it doesn't have to be mega strong like a normal muscle? Will it be sufficient with just some rehab.
Well if you just tore muscle and not tendon then the muscle just regrows/repairs itself. Essentially like an extreme version of the microtears you cause lifting. Sure it may take time to get back to 100% strength, but it sounds like you needed to do a form reset anyways and work your way back up to heavy weight. Since you were mentioning never really retracting your shoulders when benching
For sure I got lazy - Hopefully this is all last chance saloon because 6 weeks in a sling and then 6 months of zero lifting sounds like No place for Old Men
No i have not had any RTC injuries, I have had a few scares where i completely changed my chest training up. I also deal with a crunchy shoulder every now and again, but nothing to crazy. Glucosamine is great for joints, and has always made my crunchy shoulder feel lubricated again. I do hope all goes well with your recovery though brother man, shit always fucking sucks when some shit like this happens, and it puts a complete halt to all your lifting goals. Recovery is always a long drawn out process, but you will always be wiser then last time.
Mate you don't know just how many times I've replayed the whole thing in my head, if only I did this or that or knew that it was my RTC that was really pissed off - if I had got some good rehab work in before or 'if' I left it just another day of rest before etc etc then it may not of happened lol Its a complete bastard but I guess its something you just have to accept if you are going to lift weights especially past 35/40.
I know every time i hurt myself the same shit went through my head on repeat. It's so frustrating cause you just wanna live your life how you wanna live it, without the constraints and limits of your flesh and bones. Like our mind wants to do one thing, and yet our body wants to spit in our fucking face. Getting older fucking sucks that's for sure. I wanna move and be as free as i was physically back when i was in my early 20's. Now in my 30's it seems like i cant do anything without being conscious of it, for if I'm not i then get punished for it.
You'll be alright for a while yet bud, its when you are into your 40's that shit gets real scary. When I turned 40 thats when all my injuries began to happen. Stuff I got away with doing back in my 30's started to hurt me and tear things. Really have to start making sure your warm ups are thorough and you aren't skipping plates or making big jumps. Get some stretching in too before even warming up with weights. Still, as I've found here there is still shit waiting to catch you out when you make a mistake. Exactly how I feel too - I don't expect to walk through life injury free and without bad things and luck happening to me - but it sure would be nice if for a year I didn't have any so I could get some nice consistency and frequency going LOL
I must be unlucky then, cause i had to get a hernia surgery last year. Then back in February I got sciatica down my right leg, and have been recovering since. I haven't hit legs in two months cause of it, i am almost good to go though nearly back to full capacity. I have a microdiscectomy scheduled to be done on may 12th, that is when a doctor scraps away the filler that squeezed out of my spine and is clipping my sciatic nerve root. Apparently this should make any sciatic nerve issues go away completely for a minimum of a year. Going forward though i'm not playing around when it comes to loading my spine.
Ohh God, maybe you are a little unlucky then lol I know I nearly injected into my sciatic nerve once years ago - I was being stupid and figured all the horror stories about going through it were BS so I was injecting away from the safe zone one time and just began to touch it when I felt this electric shock/burning feeling bolt down my leg, nearly fell on the floor from it! I realised what it was straight away and sat down - my leg literally spent the next 4 hours twitching on the sofa but luckily stopped in time. What was the hernia from?
Yea that was the sciatic nerve for sure, you probably hit it right around the piriformis muscle. Cause when sciatica first became apparent to me, I woke after standing up out of bed, a giant electrical shock wave went down my right leg, hurt like a fucking bitch. I literally fell to my knees and clutching the side of my bed in massive pain, i would rate it like a 9/10 for sure, fucking had tears in my eyes. The pain did not go away though and kept radiating down my muscles in my leg, had to limp my ass to my car so i could drive to the ER.
The hernia, I'm unsure exactly how i got it? I remember when i first noticed something was off is when i was at work. I was bullshitting around with a friend of mine, and i was laughing so fucking hard i nearly collapsed, btw i love laughing like that but so damn rare. During this laughing spell though i felt a weird tweak on my lower right groin region, i felt around down there and felt a protrusion, and i pushed it and it sucked back in. I thought at first that was fucking weird, had no clue it was a hernia. So maybe it was from laughing, but during this time i was also lifting heavy (at least for me and also being natty) on a weekly basis doing barbell squats without the use of a belt. Maybe the weekly squatting weakened my abdominal wall, then the laughing just was the nail in the coffin?
I'm sure the initial tear will of been from doing the squats, doing squats or deads with no belt and if you are pushing yourself is just a time bomb waiting to happen in terms of hernias. My Dad actually got one in his groin also from straining against the leg press platform without realising the sled was still locked in place!! LMAO He had to have surgery and a gauze put in also. I had another old friend who back in our teenage years actually got one from Fucking his girlfriend too hard!!!! It was awful, the intestine was literally hanging out of his stomach, was at the point of killing him if he didn't get it sorted out. I thought I had on once doing deads but it can't of been too bad as it seemed to heal itself luckily.
I'm guess if he's fucking her that hard, then she never left his ass? lol and yeah if you don't get it taken care it can eventually rupture and turn into sepsis, so fuck that!