Have come down with a frozen right shoulder. Currently awaiting an ultra sound scan . Have been giving anti inflammatory meds and exercises to do by my doctor.
I am thinking i will train my good left side once a week with six or seven exercises such as one arm rows, laterals,curls etc. I have read that this will reduce the atrophy and strength loss until i can train both sides properly again. I also plan to train lowerbody once a week.
Wondering if any of you have experienced similar and how helpful was training the good side only? .Andrew.
Yes, you are correct with your thinking. Training your good side will have a positive effect on the injured side. Let us know how it goes.
I had an elbow replaced a few years ago and trained lower body 3x weekly, no upper body for months, aside from physical therapy.
FWIW I didn’t lose much size. If anything I gained weight from the pain pill effect on metabolism.
I maintained supplementation with creatine and kept protein at ~ 1 gram per pound.
Thank you for your reply Dr Darden. Will keep you informed on how it goes. Hopefully will be of some help to someone else. Andrew.
Njord thank you for your reply.
How long did it take you to return to your former strength levels?
Andrew.
That sounds awful. What was the cause? Just arthritic?
It took a while. There was always more to give but the pain kept me from going as hard as I’d like for a year plus, and can still be limiting on presses.
If your recovery is soft tissue only and doesn’t alter anything in the joint I would think a strength based meso-cycle would have you back to normal or close enough once back in full swing.
It shattered in a motorcycle accident.
Ah. So definitely awful
Yeah. Lots of injuries, but fortunately everything else healed.
As an aside, the surgeon told me he believed I was able to avoid amputation and possibly even survived due to “appreciable muscle mass” so there was that for a silver lining
That’s an awesome testimonial, compliment, and qualified medical assessment to your jackedness… the trifecta!
I broke my right hand ((I’m right handed) and have rehab experience.
I fell down the basement stairs, and while reaching for a support to brace my fall did a karate chop on the stair hand rail breaking my right hand in 5 places.
My experiences taught me to forget training during and until total healing of the hand. When I started therapy, I went slow as pain was always present. I took no pain medication. I diligently did all the therapy until cleared to exercise. I used my Ivanko SuperGripper with statics on a daily basis. After a couple of weeks of therapy, I then used eccentrics on the Ivanko SuperGripper. My therapist was amazed at my recovery back to normal in a very short time. With accident injuries, any training methodology must utilize extremely slow speeds of movement to alleviate any pain caused by training with resistance.
Most important, I did static leg presses during this time period. No single exercise is as intense as leg presses which causes an indirect effect.
Also important is cardio, as this causes increased blood flow that heal injuries. Low intensity cardio targets slow twitch muscle fibers which function for long periods of time. This also allows them to support the body’s joints, especially supporting the body’s structures, ie. joints, bones, and in my case , right hand.
I train with a 4/4 rep speed so will continue to use that cadence for my good side. I will be not working for a while so will have plenty of time for a lot of walking.
Thanks for the info on your injury experience and your recovery. Andrew.
You’re welcome!
Consistent efforts work!
BTW, Bill DeSimone is a great source of information!
My condolences…it must have been a lonely period for you at this time…
Only you could shoe horn cardio into this. You have a remarkable ability there, ol’ one trick…
Just a quick update for anyone who may be interested. Recovery from frozen shoulder going well and should be able to resume proper training in a couple of months. I am considering training once a week fullbody with 6 to 8 exercises. At nearly 61 looking to maintain as much as possible now rather than progress. Would be very interested in hearing any ones experiences of training once a week regardless of age. Did you maintain,gain or regress? Thank you. Andrew.
I’m 62, and I couldn’t see training any less than twice/week. At this age, you really need to fight to gain muscle. I am still trying: I do 8-9 exercises Mon, Wed, and Fri. My intensity is cycled in 5 week periods. I cycled up in Wks 1-3, peak (TF) in Week 4, and active recovery in Week 5.
IMHO, once a week is not enough, twice a week is the minimum
Thanks for the reply. I have trained for a number of years and dont really expect to make any gains now no matter what i do! Just trying to maintain and fight regression the best i can. I have read on this site that dr darden now trains 4 times per week not to failure. However his friend jim flanagan trains once every 10 days to failure. Both are now training to maintain. My issue being if the best i can hope for now is to slow regression why train more than i need to? . But will training once a week be enough? I also do some swimming and mountain biking for exercise. Andrew.
Thank you for the reply. Have you ever trained once a week? If so what was your experience? I have read where people actually gained strength but felt deconditioned? I would be do some other supplementary exercise also. Thank you. Andrew.