So here's the deal...an injury isn't the end
of the world!

They happen to the best of us, sometimes no matter
how careful you are. And THAT is what this article is all
about...I'm going to give you examples of how I'VE
trained around a few injuries I've had over the 25+ years
I've been training.



Getting these injuries didn't mean I had to completely
stop every aspect of my training until I was fully recovered.
In fact, continuing to train actually helped with recovery!

** Before we go any further, let
me be VERY clear right up
front...every injury is different.

The examples I'm using here are from MY own
experience and used only on myself. I'm not
recommending you do ANY of these techniques.

I'm not a doctor (and especially I'm not YOUR doctor).
I'm not a physiotherapist. This should NOT be
considered medical advice. When you read this article,
PLEASE use your own common sense and PLEASE
consult with your doctor and get the all-clear to train if
you decide to train around any injury.

I just want you to know that all is not lost if you have an
injury! There is plenty more you can still do!



Injury #1 - Twisted Ankle

The first injury I want to talk about is a twisted ankle. I
was playing soccer and got my foot stuck in a hole in
the field and at the same moment got spun around by
another player. So basically, I tore up most of the
ligaments in my left ankle.

I did all the rest, ice, elevation, etc and I went to the
doctor the next day. He told me I had two choices...
because the sprain was so severe I could either put it in
a cast and it would get weaker, or I could just keep icing
and elevating it.

I asked him if I could do other things in the gym while it
was healing and he not only said "absolutely," he
actually encouraged me to start using it as soon as I felt
I could put weight on it.

I was back in the gym that same evening, hobbling
around and doing upper body training without any
problems. The next day, I was doing one-legged squats
on my RIGHT leg (the uninjured side).

By working the non-injured side, you can prevent a lot
of the strength loss and atrophy that you often see when
a limb is immobilized. This happens because of nervous
system activation.

When the right leg is used and activated, the nervous
system also activates the corresponding motor units of
the OTHER side. This can help prevent a lot of the
muscle-wasting you see with people who are in casts -
if only they would have trained their uninjured side!

The key thing to note is that even though I was working
my right leg, I wasn't putting pressure on my injured side
while I still had pain on it. As it healed and I was able to
put pressure on it without pain, then I gradually worked
it back into my training, with no loss of performance.



Injury #2 - Wrist Pain

This happened to me my very first year of training and I
very quickly figured out exactly what the cause was: too
much barbell curling.

Every time I picked up the straight bar to do curls, I
would get sharp pains in my wrists. I even got to the
point where I got a couple of wrist wraps to help ease
the pain (which worked briefly).

How did I train around that injury? Easy. Dumbell Curls.

Once I figured it out, I immediately stopped all barbell
training...curls, benching, rows, machines, everything
that locked my wrists into position while training.

I still had some pain in my wrists while I was doing
dumbbell work for several weeks after I got off barbells,
but the wrist pain gradually went completely away on
its own.

The key thing to note here - I had an injury as a result
of getting "locked in" on barbells (especially straight
barbell curls, which put a lot of pressure on the wrists,
which in itself is the reason the EZ Curl bar was
invested), and I immediately trained around that by
switching to dumbells.

Problem solved, and I actually saw increased growth
and strength because I changed things up.



Injury #3 - Pulled Tricep Muscle

This one will seem like a strange injury...I pulled the
long head of my left tricep doing heavy SHRUGS. Yep,
you read that right. Shrugs.

The reason I pulled the long head is because it's the
only head of the three-headed tricep muscle that
crosses the shoulder joint. I had been doing high
training volume (shrugs every session) and heavy
weight (about 600 lbs) for a number of weeks and it
caught up to me.

Because of the nature of the injury, it meant some
changes to my program. It meant no more deadlifts,
shrugs or stiff-legged deadlifts.

Also, I was off all rowing, chinning and pull-down
movements. Ironically enough, I could actually do
close-grip bench pressing and dips without any
problem at all, which is strange for a tricep injury.

My tricep was injured but I could hardly do any BACK
training because of it!

Training around it was relatively simple. I just avoided
those exercises I mentioned. But that left me without
many options for back training.

For back, I used a bench press machine backwards,
sitting with my chest towards the back pad. I then put
my elbows against the bench handles and pushed
back against them to get the back activated. This
took the injured tricep completely out of the movement
but allowed me to get in some decent back training.



Injury #4 - Strained Pectoral Muscle

This one happened to me doing VERY heavy weighted
dips. I had 170 lbs hanging off my waist, had just done
several sets with that weight and decided to finish with
some high-rep, top-range partials to really overload the
muscle.

It's a technique I'll never use again, because looking
back on it, I was totally setting myself up for this injury.
Very heavy weight on a stretch-focused exercise (which
in and of itself wasn't so bad) but then when I did the
high-rep partials, it was like tearing the muscle
repeatedly until it ripped even more.

The good thing is, the moment I felt the start of the strain,
I dropped to ground immediately, so I didn't get an
actual muscle tear, thought I thought was pretty much
done with chest training for at least a month.

Not even close...after swearing about it for awhile, I
began doing one-arm dumbbell bench press (on the
Swiss ball) on my right side to help keep the strength
up on both sides.

I avoided all exercises that caused any pain or stretch
on the left pec (to give you an idea, I couldn't bench
press even a 10 lb dumbbell without pain on that side).





I kept up with the one-side pressing and within a month,
I was back pressing 100 lb dumbells with both sides
with no pain and no real loss of strength in the injured
side.

The key here is that I focused on what I COULD do and
not what I couldn't. This allowed me to keep up with
regular training and not see any drop in strength or mass,
even on the injured side.



Injury #5 - Pulled Muscle in my Lower Back

This one I wanted to use as an example of an injury that
I COULDN'T train around. I did this one to myself trying
to stretch out my lower back with a twisting stretch. BAD
idea.

I was about do some incline barbell bench and I was
sitting on the bench, rotating my torso and pushing with
my right elbow against the outside of my left knee.

And then I felt and heard a "POP."

And that was that. I was doubled over on the floor and
could hardly breathe. No workout that day!

It took me about 4 times as long to walk home because
I could hardly hold myself upright. Sleeping was no fun
at all. Luckily at that point, I still owned a weight belt. I
had to wrap it tight around myself and sleep with it on
in order to not be in excruciating pain.

There was simply NO way for me to train around that
one. Breathing, let alone training, was painful. I couldn't
support any weight. To this day, when I get lean enough,
I can still see where the muscle popped through the
fascia in my lower back.

A few days later, I was able to get back in the gym and
do some light training but that was definitely something
not to be trained around.


Conclusion:

The key to remember here is to pick your battles. I've
had injuries I could easily train around and which were
more inconvenience than injury. I've also had injuries
where discretion is the better part of valor and have had
to take time off.

In all things, if YOU decide you want to try and train
around an injury, PLEASE check with your doctor first.
The last thing you want to happen is to self-diagnose
and find out later there was more going on with the
injured area than you thought.

Yeah, it stinks to have to take time off training, but the
alternative could be a MUCH longer recovery time or
even chronic re-injury and weakness.

 

Nick Nilsson
The "Mad Scientist of Muscle"