How incredibly motivating. Thank you for sharing your story, trials & tribulations, & progress.
How incredibly motivating. Thank you for sharing your story, trials & tribulations, & progress.
Rip fans don't drink kool-aid. We drink bourbon.
I am right handed and right forearm and hand were where the Parkinson's was most severe. My right forearm is close to 1 inch less in circumference than the left. This has posed problems in daily life. I have had trouble opening jars, buttoning shirts, even writing my name when it was at its worst. Now that the tremor and bradykinesia are gone, it is time to reverse this atrophy. I know that grip issues are a common limiting factor for the deadlift and have read what I can find via the search function and in SS. I suspect at this point, I will probably have a real Novice effect in that pretty much anything will help. However, if anyone has found that rehabilitation is different than standard strength building, feel free to give advice. I am currently planning the following at the end of my squat/deadlift days:
1) Captains of Crush. I have the three lowest levels of these. At that point, I am warmed up. I plan to use 5 reps and three sets. The lowest levee, G, is easy to close, the next level difficult.
2) Hanging weight. I have a set of those dumbbells that take olympic plates. I plan to load it up and see how much weight I can hold at my side for two minutes. I would then use that information to plan a progression. I am not sure what to do about reps and sets of this or other programming details. This may have been addressed earlier and I may have missed it.
3) Wrist curls. I have had fairly drastic loss of the ability to do wrist extension. Wrist flexion is much better. I am planning to have my forearm supported and do both flexion and then extension with dumbbells. I am using dumbbells rather than a barbell because of the dramatic difference between the two arms.
Other than this, I am hoping that the progression of the deadlift will eventually be all that I need.
Let me know if there are problems with this approach is reasonable.
Are you able to hold your complete work set of deadlifts with a simple double-overhand grip? How much are you deadlifting this way?
I am stuck at just a few lb north of 200, which is in the intermediate range on age charts over 60 and 165 lb. I am 5 lb heavier but 10 years older. I am limited solely by grip. With that solved, I am confident I can go a lot higher now that the Parkinsons impact has gone.
I was thinking to hold the deadlift at the current level and spend several months on the weak link. I have relatively long arms and short legs and the dead lift just feels like a very natural movement.
I could use straps, but recovering grip is very important to me in terms of daily life. I farm part time and good grip strength and grip endurance are very useful on the farm. I have a pile of oak fire logs to split and it is also possible that sledgehammer work alone might solve this issue?
Without the Parkinson's I suspect my grip strength would have just steadily improved with the dead lift progression and been a nonissue.
I must admit I have a gut distaste for using age adjusting. It seems like making excuses. There is the danger of not doing something because, after all you are so old, you should not be able to do something. When all along, you really could if you tried. Better to just keep plugging away and see what happens.
Grip is an odd thing to train, in that it takes longer than you would think to recover from a heavy grip session. Long enough that powerlifters are very careful about when they do it relative to their deadlift training. I think that if you do your sledgehammer work and keep going as heavy as you can on the deadlift without straps, you'll grow a forearm back. That being said, I also think you should NOT let the grip stop your deadlift progression. Since you know the circumstances, I'd have you strap into your workset weight so the pull can proceed on up.