Ryan Crowley Pec Tear
Perhaps We Can All Learn From This
Recently while maxing out on the incline bench press, bodybuilder Ryan Crowley suffered a massive pec tear. It was one of the worst I’ve ever seen.
The Tear Itself
To set the stage a bit: Ryan Crawley was training with Larry Wheels, one of the strongest powerlifters on the planet who also has a truly massive social media following. They started out with the incline bench, gradually warming up and adding plates.
Larry Wheels did four plates (180kg) for an incredible seventeen reps, then Ryan did the same weight for seven reps, with the eighth being a long and agonizing effort, which Larry eventually helped him get the weight on.
Then, Ryan decided to go up and see if he could do 5 plates (220kg) for a single, maximul rep. Larry helped him unrack the weight, and Ryan slowly lowered the weight, down, down…down…
…until suddenly and shockingly the weight bit back, his entire right pectoral muscle migrating to the middle of his chest as the tendon was torn clean off of the bone and the muscle was torn off of the tendon, Larry grabbing the weight and somewhat miraculously holding the bar as Ryan rolled out from under it, yelling in agony.
The video at the end has a clip of it, if you want to see it. But I won’t include pics of it.
Perhaps there is value in analyzing why this happened. Intelligent men learn from their mistakes; wise men learn from the mistakes of others.
Factor #1: Preexisting Injury
During the full video, Ryan talked about how he’s been dealing with a shoulder injury over the previous few months. According to research by Greg Nuckols, the single best predictor of acute, catastrophic injury is chronic injury.
Injuries can take a long time to heal, and even if they feel 100%, they might not be. Best to err on the side of caution for movements and exercises that stress an area that you’ve had trouble with.
