Around the middle of March I had to have surgery to fix an inguinal hernia and was out of commission for six weeks after surgery (I hadn’t touched a weight since sometime in Feb. because of the many doc appointments trying to get it figured out). Now that I’m all healed up I’m back in the gym I’m trying to get back on the horse and back to where I was before I got hurt.
I’m 5’8" and around 179lbs right now with no impressive muscle mass and a bit of excess flab shit around my waist from sitting around after surgery. I’m only a few pounds heavier than I was when I was getting into good shape and putting on size, but I’m a lot weaker and smaller now. I guess what I’m trying to figure out is whether I should focus on cutting the shit off my frame or just going balls to the wall to get stronger again.
I only started deadlifting and really getting serious about my training last year, and I was actually going for my first 300lb pull the day my injury got bad enough to make me see a doctor. I know 300 isn’t all that impressive compared to some guys, but being that I had just started to do those lifts last year I was satisfied with how quickly the weight was jumping.
What do you guys think? Should I drop the fat or just focus on strength? It bugs the hell out of me that I’m such a weakling now, but every time I look down I see this disgusting bulge on my midsection that pisses me off. I never had sik abzzz before but at least I didn’t have a fucking gut! Now I’m starting to look like my old man.
Oh how I wish I could skip this shit and just focus on moving heavy things.
Just focus on getting back a decent foundation. Don’t rush into lifting the same weights and volume right away, work back up to it and keep the diet in check.
Was your diet horrible during your break?
i vote for stronger, too.
if your eating was the same as when you were strength training before then hopefully your physique will turn back into that as you get into the strength training again.
maybe clean up the diet some, but building muscle is harder than cutting fat, i hear. and sometimes focusing on the former kind of takes care of the latter. pretty hard to get stronger with a calorie deficit.
My diet was pretty bad for those weeks. Lots of junk food. Normally good eating habits are easy, but for whatever reason during that time I just didn’t want to eat it, no matter how bad I knew what I was eating would be.
I would focus too hard on kcalories. Just try to eat clean and when hungry. you’ll get there it just takes time.
First off, you need a long term view. Do you want to be active and injury free for 10, 20, or 30 years from now? Yes. Okay, then all of a sudden 6 months of rehab exercises doesn’t seem so long. Start with light weight and work your way up slowly and consistently. I came off of surgery and people were looking at me funny when I was squatting 95. 6 months later, I’m back above 315.
Thanks, GS. I know I should be taking things a bit easy for the time being. I just have little in the way of patience, so until I start making solid improvements again my workouts are going to seem very boring.
On a side note, I think dropping my training partner (aka my lazy brother who’s 40 lbs lighter than me and can’t squat or deadlift, can’t bench 135 without tons of body English, and acts like working out is a chore) will help a lot. lol I hate to do it, but I can tell my progress is lagging a lot because of his lack of commitment.