Rick Walker Posted December 21, 2003 Share Posted December 21, 2003 Well-it happened. I knew I was pushing it, and I knew it was going to take its toll. I have recently bent a grade 5 bolt-it took everything I had and it was very hard on my body. I pushed through it though. This weekend I am away. At my parents. Brother showed up and we got talking grip and hammered some grippers. He closed my #2, I mashed the RB 260 and #3. We got bending. He kinked a tough 60d. I was impressed. I grabbed one and hammered it in 8 seconds. Should have stopped there. That should have been it. No-I am an idiot. My brother goes out to his truck and grabs some 12" galvanized spikes. Bend these he says. I wrap it, and get it started over my leg. I then transfer to do some crushing on it while bracing on my leg. I start to exert force, as much as I had. I suddenly felt and heard a loud whip cracking noise. My shoulder shot forward and down. At first, I felt nothing. I was fine. I actually picked the spike up and went at it again. No way. Gut wrenching pain worse then anything I have ever felt. I shake it off. Yeah, somethings wrong here. I pace around-everyone in the room heard the pop. Dad drives me to ER. Tore my pec muscle right up around my shoulder. There is a golf ball sized dent in the side of my right pec. Cant move my arm all that well. ER doc tells me it is tore, and tore pretty bad, but he cant tell. Gotta get to the Orthopedic surgeon monday to see if surgery is needed. Right now, the vicodin is kicking in. My bending and my strongman may be over. Time will tell. Thanks for listening- Rick Walker Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kerbjr Posted December 21, 2003 Share Posted December 21, 2003 Man I am way sorry to hear about your bad luck.. You are a huge inspirational force on this board and anything that puts you out of action weakens this board. You are far from done however, you will heal in time and be back at it..It is unfortunatley going to take some time though. Got a friend who was a nationaly ranked lifter who tore his pec, he has healed though and is back in action...Howev er I dont want to mislead you his bench is not and probably will not ever be the same...but it is close...Hang in there bro, God bless and take care ....... Brett Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Harlan Jacobs Posted December 21, 2003 Share Posted December 21, 2003 Sounds the the same sound I heard when I tore my tricep Rick. Hate to hear the bad news dude. I know it sucks and I do now how you feel. If it's any consulation, I did mine on 8/13 and I have allmost no pain now. I have regained full range of motion and my Orthopod said he would release me to train by the mid-end of next month. So hang in there. There is hope. Take the strength that you have and focus it to your mind, and you will be fine ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vince Posted December 21, 2003 Share Posted December 21, 2003 i'm sorry to hear that dude. i hope that the recovery process goes well and that you're able to continue and pursue your life long goals in grip training. vince Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nArKeD Posted December 21, 2003 Share Posted December 21, 2003 Get well soon Rick. With all these posts about injuries I'm definetely going to take things slow whilst I progress. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bballdad Posted December 21, 2003 Share Posted December 21, 2003 Sorry to hear about your injury Rick. The docs will fix you up and you'll be back in no time. I know you won't let it you get you down. I suspect your the type that will take this time to work on other weakness while you heal. And break prs while you are healing. lol I pray you have a speedy recovery bro!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clay Edgin Posted December 21, 2003 Share Posted December 21, 2003 I'm sorry to hear of your injury Rick. Get well soon bro. You've come too far and progressed through too much pain to accept defeat. Take some time off and rest and work back into it as the pain allows. You're too strong to quit! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikael Siversson Posted December 21, 2003 Share Posted December 21, 2003 You will be back; I have no doubt. Its just one more challenge for you to overcome. I think that we in general tend to do way too little warm up for grip feats done outside of our regular workouts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SqeezeMasterFlash Posted December 21, 2003 Share Posted December 21, 2003 Rick, I believe you will return. It will take time. It will take the dicipline to train slowly, with the smallest increments you can force youself to stand. With time, faith and will shall overcome the weakness of the body. We will be here to help you overcome this temporary setback brother. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricMilfeld Posted December 21, 2003 Share Posted December 21, 2003 I'm very sorry to hear about this Rick. You're in my prayers, and I'm convinced this will prove to be little more than a pothole in the road for you. I experienced a similar pec injury squatting about 5 years ago. Long story short: several doctors misdiagnosed/ treated me, and when they finally began to listen to my own suspicion as to the reason my chest hurt, it was too late to operate Stay on top of em, and get a second opinion. With surgery you could come back stronger than ever. Even without surgery, my bench ability is still about 85% of what it was pre injury. Thanks for sharing this. A lot of us, myself included, may want to take this as a wakeup call with regards to safer training. Too bad it sometimes takes a tragedy like the kind you've endured to get the point across. Hang in there. Some of my best lifting has been post injury. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Horne Posted December 21, 2003 Share Posted December 21, 2003 Rick, I'm sorry to hear of your injury. We do push our bodies sometimes too far, but this is what makes us the people we are. If we weren't doing strongman stuff, then we'd probably be climbing mountains or driving cars fast or some other even more dangerous sport. I can still remember the sound when I snapped tendons in my leg at the national all-round champs. Not nice. But after surgery and time it's fine now. All the best. We all hope you have a speedy recovery. David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick Walker Posted December 21, 2003 Author Share Posted December 21, 2003 Thanks guys-it means a lot to me to read all of your responses. I am sore and very bruised this morning. Tried to go without the Vicodin, but this morning, I slipped getting out of the shower and had to catch myself with my arm. Vicous pain, and I had to bite my towel to keep from screaming. More brusing and now I have a lump right above my bicep. Needless to say, I took some more pain medicine. The good news is, I am able to squeeze a gripper with no pain. I cant set it, but I can squeeze it. I will use this time to build up my sweep with the Super Gripper. Hopefully, I can still use the TTK for my thumbs. No way will I be able to squat or lift in general. I have a leg press machine so it will finally be put to use as I think that will most likely be all that I will be able to do for awhile. This kind of thing happens. You cant push your body to extremes day after day without eventually getting injured. Eddy Coan's knee blew out and he is back. I will be back in time. Thanks again guys for all the encouragement. Rick Walker Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
austinslater Posted December 21, 2003 Share Posted December 21, 2003 Rick-It will get better. Ive had to oevercome a similar situation, all you can do is overcome the circumstances. Stay smart, divise a gameplan and everything will be fine. With my situation im not at 100% but ive had to become smarter to achieve the desired results and im stonger then ever post injury even though I shouldnt be. Good luck! I know you will be back! Austin Slater Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amaury Posted December 21, 2003 Share Posted December 21, 2003 You'll be back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Piche Posted December 21, 2003 Share Posted December 21, 2003 Dang, I missed this one with all the server trouble I was battling. You will be back Rick! I KNOW IT! Heal fast! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Steve Posted December 21, 2003 Share Posted December 21, 2003 AAHHH man that sound!! Too many times I heard that. I am in my 4th week of of getting this shoulder back I have two more weeks of rehab. All the aches and pains are all healing wrist, thumbs, fingers and heart aches from the let down. Left hand strength is going through the roof and started training things I have not trained in years. And the power is going way up. With this all said, make the best of it! Get your head up and train the weak parts of your body. You will be back bigger and stronger than ever. Look at what happened the the greatest bike rider in the world. Now people in the biking world fear him! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RSW Posted December 21, 2003 Share Posted December 21, 2003 My bending .... may be over. Time will tell. No chance of that. Now, you may not try braced bending of 12" spikes again (there is a good reason that Tom Black calls those spikes "widowmakers"), but I can't see a pec injury permanently stopping you from strict bends. Sorry to hear about your injury, but I am sure you will make a speedy recovery. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrik_F Posted December 21, 2003 Share Posted December 21, 2003 Injuries suck! I hope the doctors can fix it up good so it wont bother you in the future. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
climber511 Posted December 21, 2003 Share Posted December 21, 2003 Rick I'm really sorry to hear about your injury - have faith - it seems that most world champions have had major setbacks and still came back to excell again. Vanev (olympic lifter) blew his elbow and came back, Coan came back, as have many others - Dave Tate of Elite fitness had a lot of info on pec tears on his site a while back, maybe he has some good insights on recovery methods, unfortunately learned first hand. May God and good luck be with you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2strong Posted December 21, 2003 Share Posted December 21, 2003 I'm sorry to hear about your injury Have a speedy recovery ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom of Iowa2 Posted December 21, 2003 Share Posted December 21, 2003 Perservere. Hopefully?things will work out for the best! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
golgotha Posted December 21, 2003 Share Posted December 21, 2003 Sorry to hear about your injury Rick, i hope you will heal fast. You will be back!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMunger Posted December 21, 2003 Share Posted December 21, 2003 That chews. Recover well! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mANVIL Posted December 21, 2003 Share Posted December 21, 2003 Rick patience will be your best friend. I had a devestating leg break about 4 months back. Broke my femur into 3 peices and tore the quad muscle completely off. Well surgery, several hundred oxycontin, a metal rod, and a bunch of screws later and i'm able to actually do some real exercises and a full recovery is expected. The bodies ability to recover from MAJOR damage is incredible and with your drive and enthusiasm it's only a matter of time before you are doing strongman and anything else you want. One last thing that i found helped me was going full bore on the exercises i could do. For me it was pullups/chinups and seated military presses and gripwork (for you it may be leg presses, gripwork with the other hand etc..). Although i lost a good 20lbs since my injury i also recently: have closed my hard #2 gripper, pinch gripped a 37 lbs blob, seated militarypressed 145x10 on my axl, and done several chinups with 35lbs tied to me. All of these were PR's for me or close to them. i can really sympathize as its so crushing to have such an injury when your hobbies include moving massive weight. PS. may not be a bad idea to invest in a hipbelt for squats -Matt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick Walker Posted December 21, 2003 Author Share Posted December 21, 2003 Thanks fellas. Like I said, I can close the grippers in that hand-it doesnt hurt. Only hurts if I try to set the gripper. Lots of super gripper work and choker collar work for the next few months. Hopefully I can still hit the thumbs. As far as the body goes-leg presses, belt squats, calf work (Lord knows they need it ) glute-hams. Lots and lots of cardio. I will come back. I will bend the Widow Maker. No doubt! God Bless you guys-I love this damn board! Rick Walker Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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