Hafthor Bjornsson Shares Doctor’s Update on Pec Tear Ahead of Surgery: ‘Swelling is Getting Worse’

Strongman icon Hafthor Bjornsson is on the road to recovery after suffering a setback during a powerlifting competition. In a recent video uploaded to YouTube, Bjornsson shared a highly-anticipated update with a doctor regarding his pec tear injury. This comes shortly ahead of Hafthor’s planned surgery that should set the road for a successful comeback.

Hafthor Bjornsson took the strongman world by storm in 2011 when he emerged as one of the youngest finalists in the history of the World’s Strongest Man competition. He then established a reputation of title contention with several top-three placings over the next few years. So, after being the runner-up for two years in a row, Bjornsson finally secured the WSM title in 2018. Besides the WSM contests, Bjornsson racked up multiple wins in other events, including Europe’s Strongest Man and Arnold Strongman Classic.

Bjornsson briefly stepped away from professional strength sports to explore his passion for boxing in 2020. He boasted a leaner look to clash with fellow Strongman legend Eddie Hall inside the boxing ring in a match billed as The Heaviest Boxing Match in History in March 2022. In the end, he came out on top of the judges’ scorecards after a dominant performance. This resulted in rumors about fights with Tyson Fury and Martyn Ford, but Bjornsson ultimately decided to retire from boxing.

Having decided against continuing his run in combat sports, the 34-year-old announced his return to Strongman last October. He got to work in preparation for attempting the Weight Over Bar Record at the 2022 Rogue Invitational. He made a statement in his comeback as he set the new record at 20-feet 3-inches.

Hafthor Bjornsson was working on his lower body strength when he narrowly avoided an injury on the squat rack in November 2022. He crushed a heavy set of 340-kg (749.6-lb) squats for two reps before the bar stumbled while being racked. The only thing that saved him was his quick thinking and experience. 

’Thor’ amped up his preparations with a huge 793.6-lb (360-kg) deadlift for two reps ahead of a powerlifting comeback. Following that, Bjornsson smoked a set of 429.9-lb (195-kg) paused bench press. Expectedly, his hard work paid off as he got gold in his return to powerlifting a few months ago. He recorded a total of 2,138.5-lb (970-kg) in the three lifts.

Hafthor also got inducted into the International Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2023 two months ago. However, he still targeted adding the All Time World Record in powerlifting before moving to strongman again next year to continue building up his legacy. Last month, Bjornsson showed off his insane strength by crushing an 837.7-lb (380-kg) squat on the way to his goal of lifting 970 pounds. Then, he pulled off a 925.95-lb (420-kg) raw squat in training.

On April 15, Bjornsson hosted a powerlifting competition in his gym in Iceland. He ended up tearing his pec muscle after trying to score a new competition PR on the bench press of 556.7-lb (252.5-kg). He revealed he’d completely torn his upper chest and would need to undergo surgery.

Hafthor Bjornsson shares Doctor’s Update on pec tear

In a recent YouTube video, Hafthor Bjornsson shared an update on his road to recovery from the pec tear injury.

“A quick update I did my MRI yesterday,” said Bjornsson. “Today, I’m going to see the doctor to basically go over the MRI and decided to do my surgery in the States with a specialist that specializes in practice. I am optimistic and positive.

“I can move my arm, there’s no really huge discomfort right now which is good. The swelling is getting worse, it’s getting quite worse and worse every day. I booked my surgery on 26 April.”

Bjornsson’s doctor gave his take on the severity of the tear and explained what to expect ahead as he gears up for surgery.

“The tunnel external part of the pectoralis muscle there’s a huge tear here in the muscle. You can see some part of the tendon is underneath the muscle and goes towards the humerus, the humeral insertion, which should be here so it looks like you have quite a big tear in a region of the muscle and Pantone area so it won’t be easy to say until after the surgery how it is to repair completely,” said the doctor. “Difficult to say but I think the main thing is now that this happens soon, that you can go to the surgery as soon as possible so I think I’m almost certain that it’s possible to repair most of the tandem but I’m not sure how it’s completely.”

“Usually it will heal very well. It will heal with a certain amount of scar tissue and so you will have to have a good physiotherapist after the surgery two have a good range of motion and do a good exercise and also give it good time like six to 12 weeks to heal before you start doing heavy work.”

Hafthor Bjornsson’s injury appears to be a major one. Hopefully, he undergoes a successful surgery and gets back on track to full health sooner than later.

You can watch the full video below.

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