Ryan Crowley's devastating pec tear

That is a SHITLOAD of lean mass and this guy is still a kid. He's young as hell. To accrue this much lean mass at such a young age indicates he has likely been using a hefty dose of anabolics for several years now and his body has probably blown up in size relatively quickly, just over the course of a few years. The thing about this is that when using large amount of anabolic drugs muscle size and muscle strength are able to increase very rapidly, but tendon strength and integrity are not able to increase so rapidly. So when you are using large amount of performance enhancing drugs at some point the strength of your muscles will far outpace the strength of your tendons. The tendons simply cannot keep up and thus outright ruptures such as this one became far, far, far more likely to occur. So that's red flag number 1.

Then we watch the start of the training session and the very first thing Ryan does is warm-up with the empty bar, which is fine, but in doing so we can see that his shoulders and chest completely lack normal levels of mobility. He cannot even come within probably 4-5 inches of touching his chest with the empty bar. That is a pretty drastic and abnormal level of tightness in these structures. There is some sort of massive, underlying instability there that is causing that area to seize up and the last thing this guy should be doing is loading up the area with ultra heavy weights right now. And this becomes more and more obvious as he increases the load on the bar. Even at just 2 plates his arms and shoulders begin to shake a fair bit as he receives the weight; by 3 plates he's quivering; and by 4 plates he's practically having a damn seizure. These are all warnings from the nervous system that the body is not ready to be handling this weight at this moment in time. That's red flag #2.

Next we see that in the middle of the training session Larry actually advises Ryan to widen his grip slightly. Now, there's nothing inherently wrong with using a wider grip here as Ryan has a very large frame and was pressing in a slightly inefficient manner (narrow grip for his bone structure), however, the problem here is that he is already incredibly, incredibly tight around the pecs and by widening the grip you introduce greater amounts of abduction at the humerus which is going to stretch that already suuuuuper tight pec tendon even further as he lowers the bar. So now he's overstretching a tendon that's already practically begging NOT to be stretched, and he's doing it under massive amounts of load. Red flag #3.

If we continue watching the video we hear Ryan mention that he hasn't been training with free weights in recent history because of a shoulder injury he's been battling. He says, and this is a quote, "I haven't incline benched in over a year." He also mentions that he hasn't been doing any sort of dumbbell bench pressing either and has really just been focusing on machine variations, specifically the pec deck machine, where he can focus on contracting the chest muscles really hard. So his body is completely unaccustomed to this type of training stress in general. Red flag #4.

Next we see that by the time he gets up to his set with 4 plates (180kg) he adds in a pair of Larry's elbow wraps to the mix, which we can ascertain from the rest of the context of the video is something he's never done before. So now... 

• We've introduced a piece of unfamiliar equipment

• That allows you to lift more weight 

• In an unfamiliar movement pattern 

• That his body is not adequately prepared to execute.

• And the involved tissues are not conditioned for. 

Red flag #5.

The next element that needs to be discussed is fatigue. Prior to injuring himself attempting to lift 220kg, Ryan performed a very difficult set with 180kg. He knocked out 7 reps unassisted and then attempted to grind out an 8th rep for approximately 7 seconds before Larry took the weight from him. So now his body is going to be highly fatigued at this point after that immense grind, and the very next thing he does is attempt to lift 220kg, which is where the injury was sustained. Red flag #6.

Finally, it's pretty obvious Ryan does not typically max out on this exercise. He's a bodybuilder and it's not his training style to max out, never mind the fact that he hasn't been lifting with free weights on pressing movements for at least a year, so we can say conclusively that he hasn't attempted a max bench press of any sort for at least that time period. But judging by the way bodybuilders typically train it's probably also a safe bet to say that it had been longer than that, and its certainly not something he does with any sort of regularity or with a proper preparation period because that's not a part of bodybuilding training ever. So this is simply a type of stress that his body is not accustomed to in general. Red flag #7.

Do not attempt to go heavy on exercises that you can't even perform correctly in the first place. If your joints and tendons are so inflexible that you lack the ability to move through essential and basic human movement patterns then perhaps loading those same movement patterns with supra-maximal weights is really not a good fucking idea. 

Do not train haphazardly. You don't just max out on a particular day because you fucking feel like it. Most people don't even need to max out at all honestly, especially bodybuilders, but if you decide you want to max out, for whatever reason, then it should come at the culmination of a proper training mesocycle that has prepared you for that, both physically and mentally. The weight is titrated up slowly over the course of several weeks as the reps and volume taper down. Fitness is slowly revealed as fatigue dissipates. And you test your max by working with weights you absolutely know you can handle, using low reps to keep fatigue accumulation to a minimum, and making appropriate jumps in weight until you hit a tough, but manageable personal best. A 40 kilogram at that stage, like what Ryan did, is not an appropriate jump in weight. Doing that after grinding out 8 very difficult reps is even more ill advised. Never mind the rest of the factors already discussed in this article.

So basically, just don't be dumb and don't let your ego take over how you choose to train in the gym. Follow a tried and true program from a reputable source. If you have a coach then listen to your damn coach. If you don't have one then make sure you understand the basic principles of programming and lifting technique, how to manage cumulative fatigue properly, how to ramp up training loads properly, etc. etc. All that shit. And follow those principles when you put together your training programs. And if you cant perform an exercise correctly in the first place then the last damn thing you should be doing is haphazardly maxing out on it.

We cant avoid all injuries in the gym, but we can certainly take steps to drastically reduce the chances of something catastrophic like this happening to us. Just remember to be smart and always be safe guys. Best of luck to Ryan during his recovery! And if you found this article helpful or informative then please be sure to share it around so that more people will be able to take something beneficial away from this unfortunate incident. Keep training hard and I will catch you guys next time.