Training through nerve injury?

[Nic Lane]

Hi there.

Do yny tips for training through a neurological injury? Since last July I've had a recurring brachial plexus issue. The basic drill is I do something to aggravate it (benched too heavy in July, I think dumping a missed squat did it last time in December), it hurts like holy hell for a week (feels like lit cigarettes inserted in trap, delt, triceps, forearm; the pain moves from place to place over the day; can't get comfortable to sleep), when the pain resolves part of my triceps and lat won't contract. My left tri looks like a horseshoe, the right looks like a comma. It takes a few months to build the strength back up, then I hurt it again. I'm in the second round of building back up and am hoping to break the "hurt it again" cycle.

My neuro did conduction studies. He confirmed that my right tri and trap aren't working right (Ya think??? That's why I came in.) and said no pressing for now, come back in April and we'll see how it's progressing.

I'm still pressing. I figure the way to get a muscle back in action is to ask it to do stuff. So I work up to a weight where I just feel the lateral strength imbalance and do my sets.

Have you seen much of this kind of stuff? Does it usually work out well in the end? Any ideas for speeding recovery? Thanks for any insights you may have.

[Mark Rippetoe]

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[william jackson]

I don't know what you want to hear or even if my situation is that similar to yours. I have trained through a severance-and-surgical-re-connection of my ulnar and medial nerve. The major things I had to overcome was lack of sensation and the massive atrophy resulting from a boat-load of tiny hand and finger muscles that will never be innervated again. I also get shooting nerve pains in my entire arm and involuntary contraction/twitching. I trained through it and now I can bust out 10+ pullups and DL 405 without strapping the gimp hand. This is after being told I might not ever be able to hold groceries with anything other than my pointer finger and thumb. It should be noted that the Occupational Therapists said my recovery was "remarkable" (photographed for a textbook to my understanding) and that I had worked it as much as possible during recovery, even while they told me to literally not flex or extend my fingers for a month.

I don't know what your "plexus issue" is, but you still need to do the work. What if those parts you listed never get innervated again? Would your doc just say "Don't lift overhead ever again, you don't want a muscle imbalance"?

[Carlos Daniel]

You mentioned the trapezius muscle. The trap is not innervated by the brachial plexus, it is innervated by a cranial nerve. So unless you made a mistake in your description, there's something weird about your injury.

[Nic Lane]

Mark, that uneven press thread was what got me thinking about posting in the first place, but there were not as many replies yet when I posted. Sounds like I just need to keep at it. Being impeccable about form important anyway, probably critical in this situation if I want to avoid re-recurrence.

Carlos, when this flares up I get some pain through my trap a couple inches over from my spine, but no weakness. The weakness is only in the tri and lat (bench, press, and chins all go to hell). I get pain anywhere along the line you would lay a tape measure on if you were measuring the sleeve of a dress shirt. The pain is a bitch but pretty short lived, the weakness lasts waaaay too long for my liking.

William, I'm ignoring the don't lift advice from the doc. I'm working back up as fast as I can. I just wanted a reality check that this wasn't the one type of injury that when doc says "don't lift" you'd better heed it.