I'm curious to hear other people's methods of working back after an injury or a forced break from lifting. For the most part I finish up my peak training blocks dragging half a hundred little nagging injuries and ouchies behind me. I have also found out that I am way too stubborn and chained to routine to actually take time completely off from the gym.
TRIGGER WARNING
I found that I can undo a lot of the things I've messed up by dropping weight WAY down and running what I shall refer to as a 3 sets of 5 linear profession, three times a week on squats. I do 10 pound jumps every time and really focus on form and consistency. I don't drop bench down to that level, but I don't tend to carry nagging stuff on bench.
So, what about everyone else? What have you found to be good rebuilding blocks?
Fix when you break it
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- Mkgillman
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- Chebass88
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Re: Fix when you break it
It depends on what is wrong. I've been lucky - I've only had muscle pulls.
I pulled a muscle in my back doing deadlifts with poor form a few years ago. After about a week of not deadlifting or squatting, I returned to deads, doing higher rep sets, making sure every single rep was perfect. With time. I keep increasing the weight, and eventually got to the point where I could pull a decent weight without a belt. I also tested my belted max, and it was only about 40 lbs lower than my all- time max. I was okay to return to heavy weights. That process took about 6 weeks.
I pulled the long head of my biceps tendon last year. I had to teach myself a new squat bar position and rebuild from light weights. With time I was able to surpass the max I had previously done. I laid off the bench press and dips for a while too, which helped.
I pulled a muscle in my back doing deadlifts with poor form a few years ago. After about a week of not deadlifting or squatting, I returned to deads, doing higher rep sets, making sure every single rep was perfect. With time. I keep increasing the weight, and eventually got to the point where I could pull a decent weight without a belt. I also tested my belted max, and it was only about 40 lbs lower than my all- time max. I was okay to return to heavy weights. That process took about 6 weeks.
I pulled the long head of my biceps tendon last year. I had to teach myself a new squat bar position and rebuild from light weights. With time I was able to surpass the max I had previously done. I laid off the bench press and dips for a while too, which helped.
- Murelli
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Re: Fix when you break it
I drop intensity and keep volume, but I've only had some issues, the worst being when I pulled or pinched something on my hip with a knee slide, which led me to take the load on squats way down.
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Re: Fix when you break it
I've read a fair few places that the SS 3x5 is a pretty solid way to come back after an injury or layoff. Works for me.
- mgil
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Re: Fix when you break it
What does your programming normally look like before you hit the wall?
- hsilman
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Re: Fix when you break it
The vast majority of my "injuries" have been letting nagging things build up for a long time without addressing them, until I have to.
Elbow, Knee, Shoulder. All repetitive use injuries. All "Cured" by stopping doing what hurts them, except in isolated instances. That is, eccentrics hurt a bit, but doing them helped. I did eccentric external rotation on a cable machine. Light weight, 3x20 reps. That plus laying off any benching that aggravated it(IO spent 2 months only pressing) did the trick.
Knee didn't hurt while squatting, but I knew squatting kept it aggravated for probably a year. Stopped squatting for a few months, and did eccentrics on the leg extension machine. Same 3x20. Cleared it up.
Elbow I did a ton of hammer curls and just gripped those spring clips for a bunch of reps till it was nice and tight. That did the trick.
So I'm a big believer in eccentric work for tendonitis/joints.
Now, I tore something up in my left leg last year. Hamstring or adductor(whichever one is inner leg). I was pushing way too hard on a RPE based program Jane Manley gave me. It was great, but I was stupid chasing numbers not listening to my body. That one took the wind out of my sails, big time. Every time I tried to start back, the pain stopped me. Just recently I've been able to give it a go. I'm happy to say that the tear is sore a lot, but after a steady month of SLOWLY working back up, once I warm up the pain is gone or almost totally gone. I expect in a few more months I'll forget what it feels like, just like my joints before it.
Listen to your body. Don't go crazy. I was chasing a 460 squat and finally moving my deadlift bast 515. Now another 18 months on and I'm chasing a 315 squat and 375 deadlift. The juice isn't worth the squeeze.
Elbow, Knee, Shoulder. All repetitive use injuries. All "Cured" by stopping doing what hurts them, except in isolated instances. That is, eccentrics hurt a bit, but doing them helped. I did eccentric external rotation on a cable machine. Light weight, 3x20 reps. That plus laying off any benching that aggravated it(IO spent 2 months only pressing) did the trick.
Knee didn't hurt while squatting, but I knew squatting kept it aggravated for probably a year. Stopped squatting for a few months, and did eccentrics on the leg extension machine. Same 3x20. Cleared it up.
Elbow I did a ton of hammer curls and just gripped those spring clips for a bunch of reps till it was nice and tight. That did the trick.
So I'm a big believer in eccentric work for tendonitis/joints.
Now, I tore something up in my left leg last year. Hamstring or adductor(whichever one is inner leg). I was pushing way too hard on a RPE based program Jane Manley gave me. It was great, but I was stupid chasing numbers not listening to my body. That one took the wind out of my sails, big time. Every time I tried to start back, the pain stopped me. Just recently I've been able to give it a go. I'm happy to say that the tear is sore a lot, but after a steady month of SLOWLY working back up, once I warm up the pain is gone or almost totally gone. I expect in a few more months I'll forget what it feels like, just like my joints before it.
Listen to your body. Don't go crazy. I was chasing a 460 squat and finally moving my deadlift bast 515. Now another 18 months on and I'm chasing a 315 squat and 375 deadlift. The juice isn't worth the squeeze.