Age: 17
Height: 6'2"
Weight: 205
Bench: 275
Squat: 500

I took a week off from lifting because of a sickness. When I returned I decided to max. When I brought the weight down I felt a stinging feeling in my left pec, like I stretched it too far. I still continued my workout. The next day I was really sore. No bruising or anything like that though.

Before my sickness I had decided to widen my grip on the bench, outside the rings and fly my elbows out when benching thinking it would help get more chest involved. I know now you are suppose to bench with your elbows in and the wider your grip the more injury prone your shoulders are.

I took a week off after the max day, but ever since I came back for the last three weeks my bench has been going down (almost 15 pounds) and my left pec feels very fatigued short into my workout. I decided to take a few weeks off.

Does anyone have any ideas why this is happening, what to do, or if I should take a break doing bench.

YEP. A strained muscle wont heal from working out. Switch to back and shoulders for a couple weeks, and ice it. you will be ok. dont bench for a while though. 3 weeks max. you will gain your strength back. Or, you can fuck up your body right now. Its up to you

I had the same thing happen recently. I bench the bar only for 50 continuous reps 2x per week and in 2 weeks it was fine.

Thanks alot. Any advice helps. This winter I got a scholarship for football and I have been trying to get stronger before I report this fall. This whole thing kindof scared me. I can't afford something real bad to happen.

So you think just take a few weeks off from bench? Also, doing shoulders and stuff won't aggrivate or slow the recovery time down, will it?

Thanks again.

I'll add that I took it as a sign that I needed to up my lat training and work on external rotators-Lats, so I could stay tight on the way down and rotators as it could be a sign of an increasing imbalance

So do you guys think that is what it is a strain?

So have you ever been to the doctor for it? I just started benching again after a 3 week break. I feel okay now. What things do you do to try and make it better??

I'm going through the same thing. In fact today was my first day back doing any kind of chest exercises since I took a 3 week break. I have no idea what I did for it to hurt unless I didn't warm up properly.

The strain was both sides of my upper pec, kinda between the upper armpit and the pectoral muscle. I know it wasn't a tear cause there was no bruises or knots or anything like that, it just got sore as hell the next day to where I couldn't even do 135.

I'm wondering what I should do as well to help this out and strengten those areas. I'm probably going to wait till next friday before I try and get on the flat bench, still kinda nervous. I hope that I can be back in full force cause I'd hate to be where I was 3 weeks ago doing 405 2-3 times on a good day to just working my chest out.