What causes pectoral tears?

[Donny]

Today's gear heads hit a muscle group once a week.

Powerlifters commonly do the bench, squat and deadlift once per week each and also several assistance exercises for each lift on the day.

The pre-steroid oldtimers hit a muscle group it 2-3 times a week with 6-12 sets per workout.

So, maybe that's right for natties.

I don't recall hearing about torn pecs in the 70s and early 80s.

I do think the use of anabolics nowadays without building a solid base from time spent natural training has something to do with the current frequency of pec tears.
The connective tissues just never get the chance to toughen up before being subjected to heavy loads.

Iīve never used steroids & i made good gains on a 5 day split, lots of overlap when training the muscle groups because you canīt isolate a muscle group entirely.

[BB]

Bill Kazmaier tore his pec in the 80s. I had never heard of anyone experiencing this before.

This is an interesting thing, I, too, don't recall many torn pecs pre late 70s (although I wonder if that's due to lax reporting not specify type of injury). It would be interesting to see a breakdown of pre late 70s pec injuries versus lifter weight, maximum poundage lifted, and total training time.

In my mind the older lifters were fatter, had more time under bar to reach their records, and the maximum poundage was light compared to the newer lifters.

[Humble Narcissist]

Today's gear heads hit a muscle group once a week.

Powerlifters commonly do the bench, squat and deadlift once per week each and also several assistance exercises for each lift on the day.

The pre-steroid oldtimers hit a muscle group it 2-3 times a week with 6-12 sets per workout.

So, maybe that's right for natties.

I don't recall hearing about torn pecs in the 70s and early 80s.

I do think the use of anabolics nowadays without building a solid base from time spent natural training has something to do with the current frequency of pec tears.
The connective tissues just never get the chance to toughen up before being subjected to heavy loads.

I only hit each muscle group directly once a week but I'm old.

[IroNat]

I only hit each muscle group directly once a week but I'm old.

I'm only hypothesizing.

[Van_Bilderass]

Hard to know without statistics lol, but I think pec tears could be much more frequent if it wasn't for lots of trainers warning bodybuilders of the flat bench injury risk. For decades there have been warnings and many pros have been in the "I don't flat bench" camp. Not only because of the injury risk but also because they have thought inclines build a better looking pec or they say that they can't feel their pecs on the flat bench. I think they are mistaken here in a few ways; for example I think flat or very low inclines hit the pecs, probably even the upper pecs, better than the average angle incline set-up. I remember noticing a few of the 'mostly incline' champions curiously having most of their pec mass in the lower pecs (a lot of which is genetic too I'm sure)

[MAXX]

Hard to know without statistics lol, but I think pec tears could be much more frequent if it wasn't for lots of trainers warning bodybuilders of the flat bench injury risk. For decades there have been warnings and many pros have been in the "I don't flat bench" camp. Not only because of the injury risk but also because they have thought inclines build a better looking pec or they say that they can't feel their pecs on the flat bench. I think they are mistaken here in a few ways; for example I think flat or very low inclines hit the pecs, probably even the upper pecs, better than the average angle incline set-up. I remember noticing a few of the 'mostly incline' champions curiously having most of their pec mass in the lower pecs (a lot of which is genetic too I'm sure)

Im not sure why inlcine would be less risk? what is the reasoning that flat is worst?

I'll include this incline bench for fun 

[Van_Bilderass]

Im not sure why inlcine would be less risk? what is the reasoning that flat is worst?

That's what most believe and it's probably true that it's more common on flat but that might be due to generally heavier loading and more frequent maxing and ego lifting too? Certainly the way I did it to the neck with a very wide grip really stretched the pec. The way Ruhl did it