3 Months Bulking & Now Injured

Training Beginners
1

About 3 months ago I was just 170 lbs, with about 14-15% bodyfat. And now I’m about 195 lbs, of course i think much of that was fat. I’m not sure but I would estimate that only about 10 lbs were of muscle, because my diet wasn’t to clean. I hurt my shoulder playing football and would only hurt when i would do exercise like Lat Pull downs, bench press or any should work.

So I have taken 3 weeks off lifting to see if it would get better and still hasn’t so I just recently went to see a doctor about it and they said that it seems to be a shoulder joint inflammation. He recommended that I take Motrin, put a heating pad on the shoulder, and of course no working out untill its good.

I’ve already went 3 weeks without going to the gym, and i’m feeling like I’m getting weaker and fatter already.
So my questions is. What would be my best alternative now?

Should I keep bulking and only working on legs and arms, where i wouldn’t be using the shoulder? ( before the injury my goal was to keep bulking until the end of the year.)
Or should I Cut and start over when I’m 100%?
(I’ve never cut before so would I decrease my intake by 250 calories a week or what?)

2

I wouldn’t “cut” per say but I would first clean up your diet.

Second drop the lat pulldowns and do some rows or straight arm pulldowns. Lat pulldowns hurt my shoulder as well.

Third, switch to DB bench verse barbell or use a hammer strength machine.

Finally cut out heavy shoulder presses or any kind and do the following:
20 front raises
20 side raises
20 rear delt raises

that’s 1 set. Repeat

Dave Tate did the above when his shoulder was hurting so thats where I got all that from. I would do that until your shoulder is better.

3

10 lbs of genuine muscle in 3 months is very good indeed. Having 15lbs of fat in addition isnt so good, but if you dont gain too much form now on you may be fine.

Watch out for arm work affecting your shoulder. You could do some maintenance work on your legs, and some light lift where the shoulder pain is a genuine zero.

Cut out the excess fats and sugars for a while, do some bodyweight squats (single leg if you’re not going to topple over onto that shoulder!)

re-start the training cycle when you’re healed with less weight than you were at and rebuild week to week. Good luck.