Only training upper body

[Martin Bavngaard]

I'm curious to hear more details about this part. You can't even do a light deadlift or squat? What was the nature of the injury?

It's been a mixture of different injuries, to be honest.
The first injury was caused by deadlifting, either it was flexion or accumulated stress. I didn't feel it right away, but woke up next morning with pain in the lower left side of my back, and soon after got sciatic nerve pain in my right glute. Took 2 months of rehab and several trips to the chiro to fix it.
Okay, so back to the gym with me, but it only took 2 weeks of running LP to regain strength for me to get injured again. Same spot, but now with the addition of a very stiff and painful area around my lumbar spine. I've been seeing the chiro, and I've been trying to work around it, even if it meant only squatting the bar, but I can't do it. Too painful. It hurts like hell to set my back in extension when deadlifting, and it hurts when I approach the bottom of the squat.


Just to emphasize: It's not because I don't want to squat and deadlift - it's my favorite lifts when I get them right.

Low back injuries can usually still be trained around also. Leg Press? Isolation stuff (leg curls, extensions)? It's not squatting but it's not nothing either.

I can do isolation stuff, but I can't go heavy. Even then it hurts my back.

[Mark E. Hurling]

I am a broken record on this subject, but perhaps hip squats could serve while you heal?

[Culican]

I am a broken record on this subject, but perhaps hip squats could serve while you heal?

Mark, lots of people don't know what a record is, or what they do when they are broken.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Mark, lots of people don't know what a record is, or what they do when they are broken.

Heh, you're right. I guess it's because I was vaccinated with a phonograph needle. I forget sometimes how archaic some of my phrases are. OTOH, I make a number of them on purpose. This one was unintentional though.

Broken record: An LP with a break or scratch in the audio grooves that causes the needle on the tone arm to skip and repeat as the LP rotates on the phonograph turntable.

[Martin Bavngaard]

The only LP I know 'bout is linear progression... nah, I'm 22, I know about those frisbee-thingys.

But thanks for the suggestion, I'll try out hip squats for my next session.

[Aaron Montgomery]

FWIW, back in 2012 I was diagnosed with a triple-hernia (inguinal & umbilical), and was told to lay off weightlifting till I had surgery, because of how large the hernias were. I fooled around with lifts that I could handle without feeling pain in my groin, which basically meant I could do only upper-body related stuff. I didn't lift anything heavy, but worked with higher reps and lots of sets. The new stimulus meant that I put on a visible amount of size in just 4-6 weeks. All my relatives and friends noticed it too. Chasing that pump on upper lifts for a month or two can be a lot of fun if heavy squats and deadlifts aren't possible.

[Martin Bavngaard]

FWIW, back in 2012 I was diagnosed with a triple-hernia (inguinal & umbilical), and was told to lay off weightlifting till I had surgery, because of how large the hernias were. I fooled around with lifts that I could handle without feeling pain in my groin, which basically meant I could do only upper-body related stuff. I didn't lift anything heavy, but worked with higher reps and lots of sets. The new stimulus meant that I put on a visible amount of size in just 4-6 weeks. All my relatives and friends noticed it too. Chasing that pump on upper lifts for a month or two can be a lot of fun if heavy squats and deadlifts aren't possible.

Sounds interesting (I've also had an umbilical hernia!)
A few questions:
1. Did you eat at a caloric surplus?
2. If yes to 1., did you notice any significant fat gain on your lower body?
3. What rep range did you work within? 6-8?

[Aaron Montgomery]

Sounds interesting (I've also had an umbilical hernia!)
A few questions:
1. Did you eat at a caloric surplus?
2. If yes to 1., did you notice any significant fat gain on your lower body?
3. What rep range did you work within? 6-8?

I think I was gaining 1lb/week, with the caveat that I was underweight (~180lb @6'1"). There was minimal fat gain, maybe put on 1/2" on my waist with ~7lb of weight gain. The rep ranges depended on the exercises, but it was as low as 8, and as high as 15. The real kicker was that I was doing tons of volume, and was doing three 60-90 minute upper body sessions a week, and kept rest around 60s between sets. Basically body-builder stuff using a BB and up to 35lb of dumbbells (all I had). Didn't get any stronger, but chasing a pump was funner than sitting around and doing nothing before surgery.

[Martin Bavngaard]

I think I was gaining 1lb/week, with the caveat that I was underweight (~180lb @6'1"). There was minimal fat gain, maybe put on 1/2" on my waist with ~7lb of weight gain. The rep ranges depended on the exercises, but it was as low as 8, and as high as 15. The real kicker was that I was doing tons of volume, and was doing three 60-90 minute upper body sessions a week, and kept rest around 60s between sets. Basically body-builder stuff using a BB and up to 35lb of dumbbells (all I had). Didn't get any stronger, but chasing a pump was funner than sitting around and doing nothing before surgery.

Oh okay. I think I'll try to add some backoff sets of my bench and press with higher reps then.




Oh, and I just found out that I could do front squats relatively heavy without it hurting my back. I'll just stick to those, it seems!