I have recently started going back to the gym after not going much for a few months. I am out of shape anyway and I have not trained very hard for a long time.
After my first weekend back, my wife noticed that I had some red marks on my back which looked like broken blood vessels. They were about 4 inches long and oval shaped, about an inch wide at the widest point. I had one on each side about where my shoulder blades are.
Does anyone have any idea what this is or what may have caused it.
My theory is that it is broken blood vessels, caused by doing something like dumbbell presses or flys because they seem to be about as far apart as the bench I was using is wide. I don’t know why this would occur now though. It may have occurred in the past, but before no one would have seen it except the other people in the changing room when I was getting changed.
Are the red marks uniform or are they like bruises and splotchy? Smack your forearm with your hand, your forearm will turn red in a few seconds - if it looks like that no worries, it’s just from the bench pressing into your back.
If they’re splotchy and don’t look like the above test, go see a doctor. I’m guessing it’s just from the bench and that they fade within a few hours after working out.
I actually get long scratch like marks on my shoulders
from doing calf raises (this caused some trouble the
first time my GF saw them) She was mad at me because
she thought I was cheating and it was the first time I
had seen them and I was mad at her (though a bit proud)
that she had done it.
I have no idea what it is, but it goes away in a
day or two.
Were you using good form (pin shoulder blades back, ect.) and proper poundages? Did you feel pain during or after your workout, in that area or any other area?
IANAD, but I have lifted and seen people lift for years and never seen or heard of anything like what you are talking about. All I can think of are stretch marks, which don’t happen to look like a busted blood vessel (whatever that looks like!) and don’t happen on the back from benching.
My guess is they will go away, but who knows? If they were symetrical, then it could be depressions on your back from the bench. And, that’s from bad form and too much weight.
They are just marks left by the compession between you and your weights and the pads of the machines and/or benches. Squats are notorious for causing these marks along the shoulders…so is standing calf raises using the standing calf machine.
They are normal and will go away in a couple of days. Once your figure out which excersize you are using causes them, try using a strategically placed towell between you and the pad. If squats was the cause, most gyms have pads that fit over the bar.
Broken blood vessles cause hematomas. They look like purple bruises, tend to be irregularly shaped and will change colour with time as the blood gets broken down.