My left shoulder is hurt from reaching too far rearward while lifting something off a nightstand of all things.
Dr said 6 weeks off, taking naproxen 3/day.
What is the best STYLE of training during such a period of time! I won’t be doing anything that puts an elbow above horizontal for a while.
Input is very welcome
I would be doing a lot of belt squats, safety squat bar work, prowler work, neck work, grip work, core focused work, and training the uninjured side as hard as I could.
One armed deadlift? Start light.
I would do anything that didn’t hurt.
Rather than start my own thread, I thought i’d piggyback onto this one as I am also struggling with pressing exercises.
I’m dealing with a wrist injury, currently about to be 3 weeks into it.
I’ve seen a few things saying it’s still worth training the uninjured side, so I’ll start doing some one-arm dumbell benches, cable flies etc. I have managed to do some machine shoulder presses without pain, but the machine chest press is a massive no. I managed it once or twice with a tiny bit of pain, as well as smith benching… but felt worse the following day so think maybe I should back off them for a bit.
Gym doesn’t have a safety bar or a belt squat sadly. Can’t squat with any confidence as the wrist flexion causes a lot of pain. I’ve considered stabilizing with my arms (whilst having my hands/wrists in a “don’t shoot me” pose) but not sure if that could be stupid. I’m playing about with cross-arm front squats, having to start light as I learn the movement.
Pulls are not too bad, it hurts if I get to grindy reps but think I can probably do enough to at least maintain with some high rep machine work. Doing some stiff-legged deadlifts aswell for the sake of learning a new movement whilst keeping the weight not to strenuous.
Any advice would be awesome. It’s almost embarrassing how much the gym and progression affect my mental health, I’m really struggling not being able to properly engage in what’s become a passion… but I’m sure we’re all in a similar boat.
Have you tried laying your hands (not gripping) on the collars, with just enough effort to keep the bar from rolling off of the groove on your shoulders?
Erm, kind of. I had to go super wide for it which didnt didn’t feel comfortable AT ALL, but of course it wouldn’t if I’ve never done it that way before. I will try again. I did that on my first session after the injury and was too busy sulking in my head to make rational training decisions.
Personally, I wouldn’t stress about squatting. You can get plenty done with leg curls/ extensions, leg press, hacks, etc.
Shoulders I assume you could handle cable laterals/ rear delts, etc.
Can you do rows/ pulldowns with straps?
Chest would be trickiest. Machine flyes seem like a go-to, but I can’t think of much else to be confident in. You could use the ankle cuffs on your wrists and do cable presses, I guess?
I’ve done some dumbbell lat raises with only a tiny bit of irritation. I should have mentioned that. I’ve been nervous to do anything likening to a proper routine, just a set of 20-30 reps with some really light weights. I also did trap bar OHP but it wasn’t the best of ideas for a multitude of reasons (not fitting properly on j-hooks or pins and pushed through pain I shouldn’t have).
Ankle cuffs are a good shout, would allow me to do a few things on the cables. I’ve seen some guys use them for cable laterals and chest flies already even when they’re not carrying injuries. 
I’ll give it a shot. Cheers.
Like I said, pulls aren’t too bad, just have to stay further away from the intensity I like to pull at. Stuck with machines up until now as a confidence thing.
Wish my gym had a hack squat, may have to try it on the smith machine.
I had a hand injury/ surgery that had me not allowed to put any tension on it for like 6 months and the cuffs worked pretty well.
This seems like it would work well - you only need one hand to unrack it anyway. Could do lunges and the like as well
Training the other side? Asymmetry??? I mean with just my left there’s not going to be a lot of hyper trophy but even so, using both arms to load the squat bar or other isn’t gonna happen.
I plan to get in do treadmill and machines for lower body…. The rest concerns me too much due to my condition.
Yup. It’s what I did with my right leg when I rupture my ACL, tore my meniscus and fractured my patella on my left leg.
I’d use 1 arm. Belt squats are great too.
I think you will reduce the amount of muscle you lose on the injured side. I doubt you will get a significant amount of hypertrophy in 6 weeks on the uninjured side.
Alongside this, I spent 6 MONTHS training only one side, and when asked “why”, I had this response.
“I’d rather have 1 strong leg than 2 weak ones”
You can take a much needed rest and work on some endurance running.
All responses are duly noted, and thank you 
What I have actually done is to consider this an extended break. I’ve not done a damn thing for a few weeks and figure on holding off til the dr clears me at the follow up appt.
I am having to take naproxen 3/day, and somehow the stuff actually makes me tired, even more tired than an opioid, which thank God I’ve not had to use for years now - yaay me + yaay the miracle green cannabis plant! RSO is a wonderful thing for pain. I am not using extra for this shoulder thing though oh hell no, that would get too expensive too fast. Naproxen was $0 co-pay, so that’t it.
Thank you all for the comments - I appreciate it!
I have to wonder if doing rack pulls is a bad idea…as long as my elbow stays under shoulder level it doesn’t hurt much…maybe I’ll try just picking something up at that height see what happens…
Currently dealing with a pair of pretty beat up shoulders. Tendonitis, I suspect.
Starting the second week of a 4x/week Triceps/Thighs + Back/Biceps split. My issue is mostly rotator cuff, so as long as I don’t press I can get away with a lot of arm work. Focus is hypertrophy.
Interesting, maybe I try doing pulling movements and no presses…thx for that idea
When I could not train due to a shoulder problem, I focused on rehabbing the shoulder issue along with improving scapular mobility; and did band pulls / scap retraction, chest flexibility work, dead hanging, tall planks and grip work. I trained legs, was able to do pulling work too.