What would you do -- all upper body training not an option?

[Sassy69]

I got big, hit some of my strongest lifts ever, then over-lifted. An "always been there" rotator cuff issue on my right shoulder has finally taken its toll -- between stronger lifts, forgot to warm up the ol' rotator one day and a PR on Smith Shrugs (relying on Smith to help ease up lower back strain, result of a rotated pelvis almost 2 yrs ago) left me feeling like my arms fell out of the sockets. After a couple visits to the chiro + some really good deep tissue work the concensus is that the rotator + heavy lifting caused the whole right side of my back to try to compensate for the pain in the rotator and essentially go into an ongoign spasm - i.e. its all locked up & won't release.

I've done only 1 or two really light upper body anything the last 3 weeks, maybe 1 day of real lower body lifting (all leg press, extension, etc - no upper body involved at all) and its still there all tightly locked up. I have gone in 3 x now to get my scapulas pushed back in, but the underlying reason for that - the muscles in my lats / rhomboids basically balling up whenever I do anything upper back / rotator - is still there.

Current plan is just cardio + massage / chiro / sauna to get the muscles to release and get back to "normal" (i.e the scap doesn't stick out).

Question -- going forward, any other thoughts on approaches to training? I've got size - that is NOT an issue at this time. I'm happy to not worry about ever pressing a 55 lb DB ever again. This is sort of a complete change in the direction of training and I'm just digging around if anyone has come across a limiting injury and had to get creative w/ the whole "what do I do in the gym now?" thing. My overall goal would be to "cut" I guess. Diet will be followed as if I were going into competition prep (carb cycling, etc.) cardio is my primary activity right now - once I get the gigantic knot that runs up my spin to release, would like to ease back into something?

Is that somethign just "lighter weights" or are there some interesting other styles of training? Any feedback welcome

 

[*Bunny*]

Aww man ... Sassy that sucks ...

I fear mentioning yoga, pilates, BOSU, cables, etc in this forum honestly ... I KNOW I can find something, but you ain't gonna like it ... I get sick of the 'light' crap, & from YOUR experience, I cannot imagine you wouldn't get sick of it either. Honestly, the got some really odd pilates contraptions these days & you can get a very good workout with the proper instructor ...

Can you spar? Box? Kick box? Get into some form of martial arts?

 

[big4life]

Sorry about your injury. My main suggestion has to do with the training that you want to do now, the cardio. If at all possible do your cardio outside of the gym. When I was recovering from my shoulder surgeries I would go into the gym to do my cardio, and it would suck. I kept wanting to lift, even though I couldn't. Eventually it started to wear on me, and I just dreaded being at the gym. Hopefully it won't have the same kind of effect on you.

As for afterwards, boxing, sparring, like Bunny said. Working on the heavy bag can be a very intense workout.

 

[Sassy69]

Sparring is a waaaay no option -- no upper body at all, period, Absolutely can't' sustain the jarring right now.

Anyway -- just fishing around for some new ideas. I'll stick w/ cardio for awhile & see what comes of it. As far as "lifting goals" - basically I've got more mass than I've ever had in my life and hit PRs that far exceed anythign I expected short of going into PL, so there's really no where to go w/ just the standard stuff.

Thx for the feedback.

 

[Island Son]

imho yoga/pilates is probably still too much for you right now, some poses need a lot of endurance on the upper body in an awkward position.
that sucks; the only thing i can think of is tai chi till your muscles loosen up then yoga before doing weights again. too early and you'll only delay the muscle retraining/healing process.

 

[alex2678]

Sorry about your injury. I know that's a tough area to heal. Have you tried any of the rotator cuff exercises or shoulder horn yet?

Not sure if this helps any. It's from Dave Draper's site. He goes into some exercises at the end that he did to help heal the injury.

http://davedraper.com/shoulder-repair.html

 

[Sassy69]

Thx alex - I'll check it out. Right now pretty much anything I do fucks up my whole back. On Sat I did light cable rotator stuff - 5 lb fucked up it & sent me back to the chiro.

Right now just cardio - but eventually back to the yoga & stuff - expect a couple more chiro / LMT visits before I get there. Right now the whole right side of my back is balled up like a giant fist. That needs to release first - then should probably be ok.

 

[blut wump]

Have you tried acupuncture or ultra-sound to help the muscles to let go? They've been known to help deep-tissue spasms. Obviously massage. If you need extra massage when alone, you can use a tennis ball, either up against the wall or on the floor.

This week just accept that you're an invalid. Try to swim if you reasonably can and when doing cardio try to use the affected area.

Sorry to hear of your injury. Do you feel that using the Smith and the attendent position and lines of motion restrictions were significantly responsible for the re-injury?

 

[Sassy69]

Have you tried acupuncture or ultra-sound to help the muscles to let go? They've been known to help deep-tissue spasms. Obviously massage. If you need extra massage when alone, you can use a tennis ball, either up against the wall or on the floor.

This week just accept that you're an invalid. Try to swim if you reasonably can and when doing cardio try to use the affected area.

Sorry to hear of your injury. Do you feel that using the Smith and the attendent position and lines of motion restrictions were significantly responsible for the re-injury?

Right now I"m not going to get into the acupuncture & all that -- time , cost, etc. are all issues right now. Just do what the chiro said for the moment & see what happens. I'm not aware of any pools around here so that's not an option either. I dont' think the Smith had anything to do w/ it - that's only a very small part of my training.

Thx for your input tho Blut!

 

[silver_shadow]

try acupressure then. my dad has got alot of relief from lower back pain (3 slipped discs) by getting acupressure done. but blut is right about acupuncture as well.

 

[*Bunny*]

I know $$ is an issue with the move & all, but I do agree with trying the accu b/c it's something I'm going to do very shortly for more Stress issues ... accupress sounds very interesting though ...

The two chicks run this cardio box class are bad ass ( never tried it b/c it's too crowed with SFC's) ... do the movements themselves without actual CONTACT cause much pain?


Skinny Fat Chicks

 

[Sassy69]

I'll stick w/ what I'm doing right now & let that run its course first. I'm just really not interested in jacknig my shoulders w/ any jerky motions right now -- future stuff - fortunateson turned me onto some interesting stuff that Dave Tate did.. Will look into that.