Bad to work out only 1 arm?

sara1077

I broke my wrist about a month after I added strength training to my routine. I can’t do much with that arm (other than physical therapy!) but if i did an upper body workout on only one side, is that bad? Maybe I should just do core : lower body and my walks for the next month or two?

ninerbuff

No it's fine to do. Your injured arm may atrophy a bit, but once you get it up to speed, it should recover and get back to normal after about a couple of weeks or so.
If you don't want too much difference in look, then stick to light or moderate weights than normal to just keep the muscle in tone and not grow.

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nossmf

This early in your lifting career, you are still simply getting accustomed to lifting, learning about the different lifts and what feels good, learning proper form and technique. Keep doing this with your good arm, practice the technique until it feels natural. Don't worry about adding tons of weight just yet; even with two healthy arms, at this stage you'd be better off keeping the weight light and just perfecting form.

By the time you are cleared to lift with your injured arm, you will have figured out all the proper technique with your good arm, which you will very quickly learn to apply to your injured side. Then once healthy and educated on proper form, then the real fun and gains can begin.

sara1077

I mean working out my good arm : shoulder of course! Can only do physical therapy on my broken wrist.

Retroguy2000

Yes, you should work your good side.

Look up contralateral training. Your untrained side still gets some of the strength gains made by your trained side.

Once fit, catch up by doing the weaker side first and if you can do X reps on the weak side to near failure, do X on the good side.

sara1077

Thanks, all! Super helpful