Help!! Modified lifting due to hand injury....

_KitKat_

OK, so 2 weeks ago, I really messed up my right hand, middle joint of thumb and lower joints of ring and pinky fingers....I dropped a plate (45lb weight) from a couple inches onto it. I have no breaks, but did tissue damage and jammed the middle knuckle on my thumb causing nerve pain.

Today it is mostly better but the thumb is still painful when doing a pushing movement (no nerve pain or swelling). I have been doing stronglifts 5x5 for a while and was still progressing (except dead, damn grip was giving out). For 2 weeks I stayed out of the gym and just did body weight exercises at home......this is driving me crazy though, I need to lift.

What I am looking for....I can front row, squat, and maybe dead but at a lighter weight....but I know I can not yet bench or overhead. I was hoping someone here could give me a modified plan to work in those lifts place (Iddon't mind if it takes longer or I need 5 exercises to make up 1). I know it won't be the same but I don't want to lose my hard work. The problem I have coming up with a plan is it has to be a pull motion. The butterfly machine should hit my chest and lat pull downs and cable rows seem like a good choice but over all I know nothing about the machines. Also wondering if I need more leg work if I can't do deads.

Please help:drinker:

SweatLikeDog

Don't lift with the injured hand for another month. You'll mess it up worse by loading it. Stretch and massage the ligaments.

For hands-free squats check out zerchers on youtube. Try pistol squats. You can also place wraps or hard braces on your forearms and use resistance bands to work biceps and triceps.

_KitKat_

Don't lift with the injured hand for another month. You'll mess it up worse by loading it. Stretch and massage the ligaments.

For hands-free squats check out zerchers on youtube. Try pistol squats. You can also place wraps or hard braces on your forearms and use resistance bands to work biceps and triceps.

Your probably right, my Dr. told me at my follow up that if it doesn't hurt I should be OK though. My wrists are fine so the butterfly machine seemed like a push movement that I could do because the pressure doesn't need to be on my thumb, lat pull downs I can use a thumbless grip. Thank you for the exercises, I will check them out.

Its just really upsetting that a knuckle can stop all my work.

Are you saying that I could mess up the thumb area by loading any of my hand though? If that is true, I think I want to cry. I hate cardio and if that's all I can do for the next month, I will lose my mind.

jimmmer

It's probably not what you want to hear, but you just need to cut out any lift that stresses/aggravates the issue until you're healed.

I recently messed up my right forearm at work and basically had to cut out a bunch of stuff that aggravated it including: chining, ohp, rowing and cleaning/jerking from my programme while it healed.

All I could do was basically bench, deadlift and do some (minimal) back squatting. So that's all I did. It wasn't a disaster, I didn't really suffer too much in the grand scheme of things and (most importantly) got better quickly so I could get back to some lifts I love.

So just get some quality work done with the lifts you can. Heal up (sometimes these things do take a month - it's unfortunate, but better one month than 3, or 6, or never doing a particular lift again) and try not to stress out too much about it. Training around injuries is something anyone who wants to train for a long time needs to become adept at.

margannmks

I have really bad arthritis in my left thumb joint/wrist and even with a tight wrap its keeps me limited on my lifts. Its not gonna get better so i just do what i can when i can. I understand your impatience, it just sucks when your injured. Hope your better soon.

_KitKat_

Thanks for the replies, I'm trying not to stress but I am worried about losing the good habits I formed.

Squats caused me no issues so at least those got done.

You guys are right, I will just need to lay off my hand...better 4 weeks than months or forever. I think it is just really getting to me because it is such a small stupid injury....literally just the middle knuckle of my thumb on my dominant hand. I almost think this would be easier if I broke it because at least then the limitations would make more sense in my head.

Thanks again, never fun to tell or be told something one doesn't want to hear.

jimmmer

It's just a thought, but you could do a modified PTTP-type routine in the interim if you can do a squat and a press. Originally the routine calls for a deadlift variant and the bent-press, but squat and butterfly press could work.

It has you lifting 4-5 sessions a week and the session's are pretty brief (something like 25 mins each, I believe). You could run it for 3-4 weeks while you heal and use it as time to drill your squat and improve your neuromuscular efficiency...

Here's a short write up of the programme:

http://blackironbeast.com/power-to-the-people

Cycles tend to be 8-16 workouts, so you could do it 4x a week for 4 weeks, then you'd get stronger and let your hand heal. Then jump back to your regular programming again.

meshashesha2012

i'm the turkish get-up pusher around here! if you can hold a weight or KB in your hand (your just stabilizing the weight, not pushing it) then you can maybe add in some TGU

jimmmer

i'm the turkish get-up pusher around here! if you can hold a weight or KB in your hand (your just stabilizing the weight, not pushing it) then you can maybe add in some TGU

Actually, there's probably a programme there with just the squat and the tgu...