Maintaining or building muscle without weights?

lbride

I've worked really hard for my muscles - but am going to stop using weights for the time being until cleared by a med professional. In the meantime, any stories of maintaining or building muscle using body weight? (push ups, planks?). Any other ideas? I do like squats but how do you make them "hard" (to maintain and build muscle) without weights? (quick edit, not a fan of bands)

lbride

Guess I could have googled first. Seems like lots of options (which all look complicated frankly but will work on them!). Something called the "pistol" squat looks tough!

concordancia

If you can't use weights, are you cleared to do body weight exercises? The whole point of them is to use most of the same muscles, in ways that are often more complicated.

lin_be

You should consider becoming a fan of bands. They’re great for adding resistance to bw exercises. They’re versatile and can used pretty much everywhere (home, hotels, work, etc).

lbride

concordancia wrote: »

If you can't use weights, are you cleared to do body weight exercises? The whole point of them is to use most of the same muscles, in ways that are often more complicated.

good point - haven't been cleared to do anything, but was just assuming that body weight would be less stress.

Chieflrg

lbride wrote: »

concordancia wrote: »

If you can't use weights, are you cleared to do body weight exercises? The whole point of them is to use most of the same muscles, in ways that are often more complicated.

good point - haven't been cleared to do anything, but was just assuming that body weight would be less stress.

Less stress equates to less stimulas. To maintain you need equal stimulas, and for hypertrophy you will need more on average.

There are several ways to skin the cat on this but without knowing your current stimulas, volume, recent trainin history...it's just random advice and not useful.

lbride

Chieflrg wrote: »

lbride wrote: »

concordancia wrote: »

If you can't use weights, are you cleared to do body weight exercises? The whole point of them is to use most of the same muscles, in ways that are often more complicated.

good point - haven't been cleared to do anything, but was just assuming that body weight would be less stress.

Less stress equates to less stimulas. To maintain you need equal stimulas, and for hypertrophy you will need more on average.

There are several ways to skin the cat on this but without knowing your current stimulas, volume, recent trainin history...it's just random advice and not useful.

Tx for the info. Recent training history is primarily strength building group classes (using 20 lb weights for chest presses, shoulder biceps, squats, rows, etc, plus planks and push ups). So generally 40lbs would be the limit on what I'm doing currently and it's been enough to build muscle. At this point, I am not able to put any of the weights on my shoulders when weight lifting and need to cut back on weights for any shoulder movements.

h7463

Hi! Sorry to hear that your fitness has been put on hold. My husband has the same condition as you (advanced state, recently underwent spinal fusion surgery), and I'm the weightlifter in this family.
Out of this experience, I can tell you, that your lifting program is about to change significantly. I have coached my husband through his recovery, and lifting is very restricted. Any exercises with impact are out of the question. I won't go into specific exercises, because all bodies and conditions are different, and best evaluated by an experienced PT. Never do anything without professional advise, in any case.
Exercise caution when participating in group training, as a competitive environment might lead you to ignore your body's limits.
Sadly, the conditions is not reversibe, and eventually, pain management will come into the mix. This will make training a bit more tricky, because anti-inflammatory meds and stronger pain meds might change the way your muscle developement works.
For OA, you will want to avoid additional inflammation in the general area, too, for obvious reasons. Isolation exercises/lifts make it easier to 'work around', compared to popular big compound lifts.
I can also recommend seeking advise from a nutrition expert, as there are foods and spices that can help soothe inflammation in general.
Eat your vitamins and keep your bodyweight in check, too. Anything that you won't have to drag around with you to the far future, will make it easier on your spine.
This is not a complete list of things to do, of course, just sharing some experience.

Take care of yourself and train safely!

lbride

h7463 wrote: »

Hi! Sorry to hear that your fitness has been put on hold. My husband has the same condition as you (advanced state, recently underwent spinal fusion surgery), and I'm the weightlifter in this family.
Out of this experience, I can tell you, that your lifting program is about to change significantly. I have coached my husband through his recovery, and lifting is very restricted. Any exercises with impact are out of the question. I won't go into specific exercises, because all bodies and conditions are different, and best evaluated by an experienced PT. Never do anything without professional advise, in any case.
Exercise caution when participating in group training, as a competitive environment might lead you to ignore your body's limits.
Sadly, the conditions is not reversibe, and eventually, pain management will come into the mix. This will make training a bit more tricky, because anti-inflammatory meds and stronger pain meds might change the way your muscle developement works.
For OA, you will want to avoid additional inflammation in the general area, too, for obvious reasons. Isolation exercises/lifts make it easier to 'work around', compared to popular big compound lifts.
I can also recommend seeking advise from a nutrition expert, as there are foods and spices that can help soothe inflammation in general.
Eat your vitamins and keep your bodyweight in check, too. Anything that you won't have to drag around with you to the far future, will make it easier on your spine.
This is not a complete list of things to do, of course, just sharing some experience.

Take care of yourself and train safely!

Thank you for the information and comment. Very helpful. My cousin had some type of "experimental" surgery and she says she is now pain free and my dad is going to do it too, if he is approved (he's already had other surgeries) (I don't know much about it, but I hope it moves from expirmental to standard of care before I need it).