Reaching NLP Potential with Cracked Rib

[UncleBernard]

Age 38
5’11
175Lbs

Moderately untrained; just some heavy KB work over the last 3 months.

Got the book, listened to the podcasts, watched as much as I can on YouTube. Just finished putting a home gym together ready for day 1 and I cracked a rib under my left armpit doing some work in a crawl-space!

I can Squat, Deadlift and surprisingly I can Press pain free. No way I can Bench with my rib for probably 6 weeks. I’ve heard on the podcasts the the novice LP period is something to focus on entirely with no thoughts about losing weight or anything other than maximising strength gains. Should I wait until I can bench before starting? Will it stop me achieving my potential if I do the work I can do now and add in the rest when I’m fully healed?

I feel like there’s a good chance I’m overthinking this so any advice from the experience base here gratefully received.

[A Schenck]

Don't wait. Do what you can now without causing additional complications to your injury and you'll be stronger in the long term. Keep in mind that if you arn't benching, your press won't progress as well as if you were healthy and doing the full program. By the time you heal and can start benching, your upper body will be behind but that's fine.

Imagine you had started the program a year ago and then cracked a rib now... your bench would de-train while you recover and you'd have to catch it up with smart programming after you healed. Life happens to everyone and you shouldn't let an injury limitation derail everything.

[UncleBernard]

Thanks for the reply. I’ll get after it!