Upper body only routine? Injured

[oso0960]

Hey guys, long time. I would like some feedback on exercise selection. I stopped progressing weekly and started making amazing progress on Madcow2's advanced routine. Well, about a week ago my ass ate concrete for dinner and bruised my tail bone. Anything that requires my glutes to squeeze brings a massive amount of pain. As soon as I can, I'll be squatting and deadlifting again but for the time being I must lay off those exercises. Oh yeah and using leg drive on bench kills it as well, so I must bench with my feet on the bench

Also, I hate single muscle movements, I lift for functional strength. Don't recommend to me leg extensions, calf raises, etc. unless there's a damn good reason I should be doing them.

So here's what I was thinking:

Day 1

---Pussy Bench Press (with feet on bench)
5x5 straight sets
---Cable Rows (Pendlay if I can handle it)
5-8x5 straight sets
---Pussy Shrugs (not power/jump shrugs)
5x5 straight sets
---Abs
3x15 or something

Day 2

---Standing Press
5x5 straight sets
---Chins
5x5 straight sets
---Dips
5x5 straight sets
---1 Arm Rows
5x5 Straight sets

 

[ExtraMile]

I would still do leg extension and leg curl to keep the hams and quads working while injured.

Try dumbell benching instead of barbell see if that helps. You could also try decline bench, its pretty hard to get any leg drive into a decline bench press lol. If you cant do any bench pressing exercise I would just make dips and standing press your main upper body pressing movements for now.

For back just do what you can still do with the injury, work around it.

If its just bruised it shouldnt take too long to get better...

 

[shibs]

yeah bro i agree with em. you might not like them, but the least you could do is leg raises and stuff.

 

[oso0960]

Hmm, you guys don't think it will create muscle imbalances if I work every muscle individually in the lower region except glutes? I'm assuming when I get back to squatting I should do an assistance for the glutes to bring them back up as well. thanks guys i'll see what I can do.

 

[teenytinypecker]

This is coming from a dude that has been training a long time and the majority of the time it has been functional training: It is said that if you don't use your strength in roughly a week you will lose it. It has more to do with CNS activation and less to do with muscle strength. I think if you take a couple of weeks off of training your legs it won't be the worst thing for you. Your lifts might go down a bit when you come back, but they will come back up almost as fast. The bill starr 5x5 (Madcow) is a great way to train. The thing most people forget is squatting power comes from your hips/glutes and hamstrings as well as lower back. The leg extensions don't really do all that. The hamstring curl will activate your glutes which might put strain on your sacrum and coccyx...which might not be the best idea for you right now.

The reason I said that I am older is that I have dealt with numerous injuries in the past. I am dealing with something right now that is limiting one of my lifts. It sucks, but it's kind of a fact of life. I don't know how old you are, and I sound like an old man, but you will work through this and come back stronger than ever. Just try not to stress out about this. As for working around the injury?....A good rule is do anything that doesn't hurt. Best advice ever huh? Reminds me of the guy that goes to the doctor and says, "Doc, it hurts when I do this..." Doctor says, "Well don't do that."

 

[kx250rider]

There is a reason why I've never put pics of my legs on this forum.... I've been unable to do lower body for years. I have severely damaged knees, and a bad back (arthritis and damage to 4 disks, and also a compressed sciatic nerve). I do all upper-body, and that's the way it will be for the rest of my lifting life, I guess.

So to answer your question, I'd recommend doing whatever doesn't cause pain to the recovering area, and don't push it too fast! That tailbone bruise is a MoFo... Had it myself. Don't worry about losses and atrophy happening in a few weeks. If you do fall back a little, you will restore just fine, once the injury is gone.

Charles