Diagnosed with distal clavicle osteolysis
I just read thru all of these posts. Been doing a good bit of reading after seeing a sports med orthpaedic surgeon this morning. 16 weeks ago I was on my last set of bench exercises and reaching the end of my limits when I experienced three pops in my left collarbone and a good bit of pain. I thought I could work thru it so I kept working out (although much lighter on chest) for 12 weeks but it never got better. Eventually I went to the orthopaedic surgeon that supports our high school football program and after a die injected MRI I was diagnosed with distal clavicle osteolysis. My choices were 1 - quit working chest, 2 - get a steroid shot in the AC joint or 3 - have orthscopic surgery. Apparently this injury can be caused by a lot of things. One of them as simple as sleeping with your arm under your head as I do, benchpressing incorrectly, or sudden shocks like teaching our kids how to be linebackers by demo'ng a two handed push on a blocker's shouldpads. Over time, the AC joint (connection between the collarbone and the shoulder) becomes inflamed and the body begins to reabsorb the bone at the end of the collarbone. The surgery removes the end of the collarbone and over time, scar tissue "rebuilds" the joint. All of the blogs I've read today say that 100% recovery from the surgery is possible but it takes anywhere from 3 months to a year to get there. The alternative is to have pain and eventually, lose a lot of your collarbone.
Enough history - I saw one entry that asked if it is possible to have a good pec workout with this pain. If this is what you have (and not a rotator cuff tear) then the answer is "yes". I found that I can still do flat bench, dumb bell bench, inclined bench and even bench on the stupid cable machine that ripped my clavicle in the first place. The trick is lighter weight and better form. I found pain free workout occurs when I stop the downward motion of the bench press when my elbows are level with my back. If I allow the bar to reach my chest I am in big trouble. What's interesting is that I found that my pec definition actually improved pretty dramatically when using this range limit.
Good luck - tell me how it works out.
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