Excruciating moment roided-up bodybuilder tears pec during bench press and suffers horrific injury
A bodybuilder tore his pec muscle off his bone just moments after joking about such an event happening.
Tristan Barnes had been at the gym preparing for a bench press when he said 'let's try not to tear a f**king pec off the bone or some s**t'.
He'd been weightlifting with his friend Fam Williams and got through two reps with a 140kg barbell alright before disaster struck and his pectoral muscle became unstuck.
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His left arm immediately couldn't hold the weight of the barbell and he had to ask his friend to help get the heavy weight off him before understandably unleashing a torrent of swearwords to articulate the level of pain he was in.
The 23-year-old was in 'absolute agony' and got taken to hospital by a friend, but decided to go home after he heard there was going to be an eight-hour wait at A&E and reckoned he'd go for a private consultation the next day.
However, when he woke up the next morning he saw his pec, shoulder and forearm had gone purple and his arm was so weak he couldn't even lift a cup of tea.
Returning to the hospital, Tristan was referred to an orthopaedic surgeon who told the bodybuilder he might need to go under the knife to repair the catastrophic damage.
Tristan blames his injury on years of steroid usage to bulk up, and the Manchester man said: "It was a normal day at the gym, I was doing a bench press like normal, just like anyone else.
"I went into the set, lifted the weight I've usually done and two or three reps in I saw the pec completely detach from the bone itself.
"My left arm lost all strength, I heard something pop. I wouldn't wish it upon my worst enemy, it was absolute agony.
"After that I had the sensation like when you break a bone, I felt instantly sick. I was hot and cold and was being sick, so I went to the hospital."
The bodybuilder said that taking anabolic steroids was 'a big factor' in his injury, explaining that 'the muscles grow quicker than the tendons so what probably happened is I put on a weight my body probably wouldn't have handled before'.
Despite the excruciating injury he plans to continue taking them for a while so he can keep competing in bodybuilding.
He said: "I competed last year and I didn't get the results I wanted to so there's an itch there that's still not scratched.
"I feel like it may be a couple more years. I stay on steroids and try to get the results I want from bodybuilding and then start coming off them and go down a healthier route."
He started taking steroids when he was 18 so he could pursue a career in bodybuilding and on social media, saying that even though he knows the risks of taking them looking 'unnatural and scary' is the way to get more views.
Tristan said that with the money he could make through social media someone could 'sacrifice 10 years of your life but earn a good amount of money to not worry later on'.
It might be a while before he ditches the steroids, but he said he has been left 'scarred for life' by the pec tear and 'probably won't ever do a bench press again'.
Instead he plans to stick to the 'safer' weight machines and urged others to 'listen to your body' at the gym and stop doing exercises that are causing you pain.
Topics: Health, UK News, Social Media
Joe Harker