Sports Medicine
Dr. Ken Kinakin
D.C., CSCS
Dr. Ken Kinakin is a sport medicine doctor, chiropractor, certified strength and conditioning specialist and personal trainer! He’s also the author of the book “Optimal Muscle Training” and has competed in bodybuilding and powerlifting for over 20 years. Dr. Kinakin lectures around the world to doctors and personal trainers on the areas of weight-training, rehabilitation and nutrition. He is also the clinic director for the AIM Health & Wellness clinic (see www.aimhealthgroup.com), with a rehabilitation and training centre in Mississauga, Ontario. Dr. Kinakin founded the Society of Weight-Training Injury Specialists (SWIS), an organization that educates and certifies doctors, therapists and personal trainers in the area of exercise muscle testing, rehabilitation and treatment of weight training injuries (see www.swis.ca).
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The bench press and pec tears
The main chest exercises used by most people in gyms are the barbell bench press, dumbbell bench press, dumbbell fl y, incline dumbbell press, and Pec Deck. Out of all of these exercises, the barbell bench press is most favored. A discussion between alpha males in the gym often starts with the phrase “whaddya bench?” but never “whaddya Pec Deck?” The bench press has always been the main show of upper body strength in football, powerlifting, and bodybuilding. So, the likelihood of the bench press causing a pec tear is higher simply because it’s being done so often—but it’s not necessarily the bench press itself that causes a pec tear.
A study done a few years ago looked at all the variables of what causes pec tears and found that the number one reason was a lack of recovery from the previous chest workout. It found that when the pec muscles have been overworked and haven’t recovered, they’re weaker and more susceptible to tearing. So it’s not the bench press movement so much as the workout program design that causes the injury. Another more common way of tearing your pec is to drop the dumbbells to your side when doing heavy dumbbell bench press instead of dropping them onto your knees and sitting up with the dumbbells. The shearing action of dropping heavy weights to the side can, over time, cause trauma to the shoulder capsule and pec muscle.
For more tips and tricks on how to prevent injury, click here!
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