Pectoralis Major injury

Has anyone ever had one of these? I haven't climbed in a month, I'm hoping to be stronger soon. Any beta on how long this injury takes to heal. I have bouldering doing a compression problem. I went for a jug and got it. My feet cut and then heard a popping noise in my shoulder. I dropped off immediately, and thought MY ROTATOR! I went to a PT and discovered my rotator cuff is fine, and I probably have a pectoralis major muscle strain. Anybody know how long it takes these injuries to heal? Thanks.

Ben Griffin

I tore my pec major years ago in a rappelling incident. More than a strain, part of my pec tore away from its insertion on the arm (humerus)bone, leaving a visible defect in front of the armpit. No surgery because part of the pec was (and is) still attached. I couldn't do push ups for a year or more. I kept climbing, but had to do easier routes that didn't involve lots of reaching or strain on the upper body. Slabby to vertical, no overhangs, no bouldering. Presently I have full strength and function of the shoulder. Just rest it. Climb easier stuff for a while. Avoid dyno's and reachy moves for a bit. Work back in to challenging routes gradually.

Healing is dependent on a variety of factors, including your diligence with treatment. (Btw, did you ask your PT what to expect? That would be the first thing to do.)

Recovery time also depends on what grade of severity your strain is. Once you know that (grade I-III), you can look at guidelines of "how long" might be typical. Also, there is a chance of re-injury if you do not do any strengthening and/or you jump into activity again too intensely. Get your medical professional to help you out here.

I'm actually currently in the progress of recovering from the same injury. About 2.5 weeks in the pain had gone away and I made the mistake of jumping back in where I left off. While I didn't reinjure it, I did aggravate it to the point where I had to take another 2 weeks off. The literature I've been able to find on muscle strains seems to imply that with the exception of grade 3 tears (complete rupture) most muscle strains should be able to withstand normal loads about 6-8 weeks after injury.

This is a good paper that outlines the stages of healing as well as the importance of lightly stretching and moving the injured muscle (without resistance) once the initial inflammation goes away. chiro.org/LINKS/FULL/Immobi…

Right now I'm about 7 weeks post injury. While I think the muscle is mostly healed, I still had a fair amount of pain until I started rehabbing it. Basically I started doing 3 sets of 25 reps of flys using extremely light weights (starting out w/ ~5 lbs). The protocol I have says to do 3x25 increasing weight as much as possible before reducing reps down to 8 over the next 5 days while increasing weight. The most important thing to pay attention to any pain you feel. While there will be some pain, make sure its the kind that goes away as the muscle warms up. If the pain feels sharp or persists or gets worse during the set then stop and rest it for another few days. The biggest thing I've learned is to err on the side of caution, starting climbing again a few days early isn't worth losing another week resting.

Bear in mind I'm not a doctor, I'm just some guy from the internet so take everything with a grain of salt... love everyone but trust no one. This has been my experience so far though.