One Arm Deadlift

Hey guys, so I broke my wrist a couple days ago and I’m just wondering if there is any way I can deadlift with my good arm without developing any imbalances? Also any other one arm excersizes I can do without developing imbalances? Thx guys

Yes, you can do one arm deadlifts.

Unfortunately, you will of course develop an imbalance if you only use one limb to perform any lift.

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Isnt’ there some sorta strap/harness for deadlifting that Brian Alsruhe was using?

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I wouldn’t recommend it, it’s an easy way to tweak your back.

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I doubt you have anything to worry about in the amount of time that it’ll take your wrist to heal.

DBs, machines, and cables are your friends.
Train like normal with the rest of your body. I suggest a hypertrophy phase.

I’d take it easy at first but you can hit your bad arm on lateral raises if you have access to the machine or you can hold DBs at the elbow.

The injured side will bounce back quick so I wouldn’t worry too much about stuff like the above. Just keep training the healthy parts of your body; there’s no reason for all of you to fail apart just because one thing is broken.

I wouldn’t deadlift, you can still work the muscles that work in the deadlift. In the longer term, that will help out.

Leg presses and SSB squats can build your leg strength
GHR, leg curl can build ham strength
Back extensions can build your low back strength
Shrugs can build your trap strength
Your lats and grip are probably on their own but you can do pullovers if you have the machine and unilateral stuff like cobra pulldowns and db rows.

how long is the healing process?

Unless you’re a high level lifter with a schedule that you need to stay on for your next competition, I wouldn’t worry about deadlifting at all. In fact, if it were me, I’d just skip deadlifts until the wrist healed, and I AM a high level competitor.

Do you have access to a safety squat bar? If so, I’d do a lot of squats with that. It’s obviously not a direct substitute for deadlift, but it is a lift I like as a compliment to deadlifts. It will make you stronger, and that’s really what you’re after. So prioritize that, and you’ll be fine. There are plenty of people who pretty much never actually perform deadlifts and still maintain good numbers through other leg and back work.

I think the harness thing is dumb, and unless you just really enjoy 1 arm deadlifts, I wouldn’t do those either.

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I know I don’t need to deadlift and I’m not really worried about losing progress, i just enjoy deadlifting and was hoping there was a way I could still do it while I heal for the next 6 weeks

Heavy good mornings, are a real strength builder, heavy back squats also activate many muscles used in the deadlift.