the rehab work thread
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I'm annoyed that not too long ago I was out for 5 weeks with low back pain. I did this during yoga, I was forward bending a lot during that session, and after I felt off. Then for 3 weeks I was in enough pain to know better that I shouldn't lift.
Then I started lifting again. Maybe I was getting too aggressive getting back. I was really careful with anything back related and the only thing that immediately bothered me was Pendlay Rows. Then now my knee hurts when i bend it. My guess was when I was doing sumo deadlifts and turning in my knee when i was trying to learn form. Pretty much bodyweight squats makes my knee hurt.
So I'm stuck doing upperbody. I found bench was a little tricky as with my knees bent and tension - so I felt I had some issues having that connection of power of my feet on the ground, if that makes sense. Alas, I hope after this I'm good. No more trading injuries.0 -
That sounds like me, treatin one injury after another and always having to somewhat work around issues. It's annoying but is there seriously enough time in the day to get everything done and spend 30-45 minutes prehabing and mobilizing everything to avoid injuries? You can't prevent everything! Heck, I can't even catch up on my spring cleaning! (Yes, I realize it's August already. Cut me some slack, I live alone with 2 cats!)
Shoulder mysteriously stopped hurting around 3pm yesterday afternoon. Maybe I was too tired to feel it. It's better today. I got the mindnumbing 10 minutes of rehab done just before my shower. It flared up a bit, but nothing like it was since Sunday. Physio appointment this afternoon. Hopefully I can schedule the next (and hopefully last) one in 2 weeks and be done with this injury. Ugh!0 -
is there seriously enough time in the day to get everything done and spend 30-45 minutes prehabing and mobilizing everything to avoid injuries?
this, yeah. i mean, every stretch is supposed to be held for 30-60 seconds, and if you've got multiple muscle groups or joints to be careful about then how many is that? putting together a warmup routine that will bulletproof you is like trying to choose between mobile/cell plans when you're not willing to go past a specific price range.
it's turning into a big reason why pre-work working out isn't really working out too well for me. the lifting itself i could do and still have a comfortable window for getting to work. but the mobilization and warmup, especially in the mornings . . . that really adds time.
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rehab report: i worked hard on a horrible tender spot just behind my right iliac ridge before squatting today, which was giving me five kinds of hell every time i went past halfway-down in my initial testing. took my sweet time on my shoulders as well. i also actually did some psoas/glute stretching afterwards too. i never never do the quad/flexor stretching i should, unless something happens that makes me be conscientious about it for a while. right now is one of those times.
anyway the results seem to be positive. twelve hours since i did my full sets with a work weight of 60 pounds, and i don't have that scary feeling from my lower back that was making me think about the angle of every movement before i made it, just in case of nerve impingement or a sudden disc pop. and so far at least the fallout to my knees seems to be minimal too. so i think i did better today at keeping my spine stable and the weight off my toes.
there's been a posterior-capsule pinch in my right shoulder as well for the past couple of weeks, which has been bothering me more than i was prepared to admit. that seems to be improving as i work harder on the pull-aparts, plus stretching my pecs. ever since physio, i can actually feel the tops of my own humerus(es) to see if they're out of alignment with the acromion, and that seems a bit better than it has been for a while. the flared lat/serratus/infra-sub-something or whatever it is that's been irritated and painful since forever . . . it's still there, but it seems to be responding much better to just being left alone than it ever did to any of the tough love i was using on it. so i think i'll keep on with that approach towards it.
overall (fingers crossed) pretty good.0 -
what i'm doing right now is the rippetoe prescription for finding your work weight as a brand noob. start with bar. do few sets. when form is set solid, add 5. do few sets. repeat until you find the top weight you can handle; do 3-5 and call that your workout for that particular lift. today i got 65 after getting 60 last time, so hey; i'm still calling progress for it.
i'm going to keep this up for the next workout, and then hopefully on friday trainer guy will set/watch me squatting again and can add the next layer of feedback. a couple of things:
- left wrist has long-standing habit of extending (?flexing?gah) under. and i have a long-standing habit of letting it happen because hey. poor feeble incapable left shoulder doens't know/can't do any better etc. i am no longer allowing even a slight hint of this. oddly enough, getting my left hand UP on the bar and making sure that my left wrist is rigid and STRAIGHT . . . guess what. it actually fixes some of the mess on that side.
- trying to keep both hands more on top of the bar actually. if i don't, it pushes my arm bones forwards from behind, and that leaves me with front-delt strain that i do not like in the least. and still with keeping the upper back tight tight tight.
- i learned a good thing from the trainer about placing my hands for a grip so as to be robotically consistent about symmetry. never have been especially careful about that before, but now i like it. it's about using landmark points on my thumbs or whatever, to always put my hands in exactly the same place relative to bar knurling. every time.
- i'm honestly starting to think that a full 25% of all my problems, whatever they are, would probably be eliminated if i would just stretch my damn pecs. and do it symmetrically too. not just full-treatment on the left side and then 'eh meh good enough' on the right.0 -
So after the weekend away I am pleased to say there's progress in the shoulder department (even tho I skimped on the rehab a bit while i was gone). The pec is still sore and tight as all getups (and it was actually killing me on the drive down, just uncomfortable on the drive back) but I can do incline (counter level) push-ups without pain and actually managed inchworms and upward dog holds this AM so slow progress is slow, but better than nothing. Got another physio appointment tomorrow and again hoping this is the one before last (I know better than to think it'll be the last).
I definitely have golfer's elbow (pain on the inside) on the left side, though. It now flares up on its own from time to time, so it's rather annoying. I saw this thing called the theraband flex bar that seems to be helpful for solving both that and tennis elbow, and it's like 15$ on amazon so I think I might spring for that and see if it helps. I just hope the race gets back to me about that volunteering though because I planned with that extra 50$ in mind! lol. Should be getting the voodoo bands soon so I'll also keep you guys updated on how well that "flossing" thing works.
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So after the weekend away I am pleased to say there's progress in the shoulder department
yay!!! it's so hard for me not to blow it as soon as i get a little bit of leeway back. but i'm trying hard not to this time. hope yours keeps on rewarding you for acting like a grownup too.
squats going better. much much. that whole mechanics problem blew up so out-of-nowhere without me ever really understanding where it came from, and now it (almost) feels like it's gone away the same way. not quite, i'm really not back at the cocky point yet. but so much better; really.
i'm sure finding out though that i must have been doing it wrong for a really long time. because idk which muscles my bad form was making strong enough to lift all that weight, but it sure wasn't the muscles that good form calls for. i'm really trying from second to second to hand off the job to my hamstrings and keep the weight over at least my mid-foot, and i tell ya. my hamstrings are acting like beaker throughout the whole thing. "meep meep, who me? SIXTY-FIVE POUNDS?? MEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!!!!!!!!!"
and i'm now into minuscule really anal little dilemmas like exactly when and how to pop my hips back and in what trajectory, and stuff like that.
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I was thinking the other day, a shoulder injury is gotta be rough. We use our shoulders for so many lifts, even indirectly, like holding the bar in low bar squats or hauling full plates around. My back issues and knee pain I can work around easily enough.
My knee is feeling better. It's really hard to tell sometimes - is it feeling off but I don't feel it as I got adrenaline? Maybe those painkillers I took for my period could be masking the pain? Sometimes it's like I'm so desperate to lift again I just don't care (which I ran into with my back injury).
With all the focus I've been doing on my upper body - OHP, bench, rows, shrugs, pull up progression my upperbody has visibly developed more. I've been doing all this upperbody for weeks with the back pain (yuck seating military OHP) and now this, when I get back to lower body I'm gonna have such wacky numbers!0 -
made a long bike trip today just to get myself a cheap-*kitten* massage, because i'm impractical in that kind of way.
anyway. tfl wtf, basically. i mean, SERIOUSLY. i asked her to get grizzly on anything that might be impeding my squats, and my teeth almost broke out in a sweat when she found those.0 -
awkwardsoul wrote: »I was thinking the other day, a shoulder injury is gotta be rough. We use our shoulders for so many lifts, even indirectly, like holding the bar in low bar squats or hauling full plates around. My back issues and knee pain I can work around easily enough.
Yeah, I found it aggravating with my knee injury earlier last year, but I was still able to do *some* leg work and my upper body was fine. The shoulder... well, even using just my left hard tends to be hard because whether you like it or not, you have to stabilize. Even ab work is hard to do because if I have to resist any twisting motion it hurts.
It,s getting better. I can do counter push-ups. So there is progress. I can't believe it's basically been a month already, though. Ugh.
Yesterday's appointment revealed more stuff about my musculature imbalances that I probably should have known about already. I have weak traps. Mostly the lower traps (I'll have a progress picture tomorrow, I don't need shrugs, the cleans have built my upper traps to a, eh, decent level.) behind the lats. Apparently, most people have the opposite problem and their rhomboids are underdeveloped. I just have to go against the grain even when I don't try, uh? Also, my shoulder hypermobility is my own worst enemy at the moment. Being super flexible is not always a good thing xD
Anyways, the corrective exercise for this one is going to be the most time-eating focused lame boring rehab thing ever (but for some reason, I think you'd sort of enjoy it @canadianlbs , in a twisted way). It's basically bringing up my arms slowly and getting the shrug in "naturally" because I'm so used to letting mr. Rombo take all the work that I barely use poor tiny trapezius. The physio's words here: "You have a really impressive musculature, and then I touch back there *pokes behind my shoulder blade* and I basically hit the bone right up."
That may explain why I've been having a bit of a hard time getting into that correct high bar squat position... And hey, maybe after this I can ohp 100lbs! I'll definitely have a more balanced shoulder joint.
So now I have those trapezius arm raises, the external shoulder rotation, the straight arm horizontal pull, the sleeper stretch, the pec & triceps stretches, trigger point massage all around the area and posture correction on that rehab list. We're probably talking 45 minutes a day. (I said I'd share those, so if you need a description/demo of anything just let me know)
And right now my arm is hanging off of k-tape. And I am now wondering why I didn't get myself a sling. Or think of doing that before. The strain on my shoulder is so much less. It looks wonky as hell but at least this week the tape is skin-colored lol.
And I gotta say, this thing is draining all my energy and willpower
Skipped the gym this morning. A part of me is hoping I'll have *some* energy tonight to do something, but I know better than to hold out for that considering the week I've had.
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I think I said rhomboids, maybe I meant the serratus? (My anatomy knowledge is limited, and having to translate the terms sometimes... Yeah, I'm pretty sure I got it wrong earlier lol.
Anyways, a smaller muscle is doing the work of my sleepin', overly tight trap. So it's no wonder I'm hurting back there.0 -
I think I said rhomboids, maybe I meant the serratus?
serratus is a *kitten*. both the posterior and the anterior forms. i've suspected mine too, so i know enough to know it's the one that pins your shoulderblade against your ribcage from underneath.
about your elbow . . . i picked up a factoid at my 'club' tonight that might help. he/they/we were all laughing about how for some reason it's his women clients who always want to do curls, and somebody said 'they are really great for tennis elbow though'. and he agreed that yes, they actually are. so if your shoulder can hack it, maybe that's a thing to experiment with? it sort of makes sense if you picture your elbow as just another knee, and pretend that your triceps are your quads, and . . . um, er.
biceps as the hamstrings of the elbow joint, basically.
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canadianlbs wrote: »I think I said rhomboids, maybe I meant the serratus?
serratus is a *kitten*. both the posterior and the anterior forms. i've suspected mine too, so i know enough to know it's the one that pins your shoulderblade against your ribcage from underneath.
about your elbow . . . i picked up a factoid at my 'club' tonight that might help. he/they/we were all laughing about how for some reason it's his women clients who always want to do curls, and somebody said 'they are really great for tennis elbow though'. and he agreed that yes, they actually are. so if your shoulder can hack it, maybe that's a thing to experiment with? it sort of makes sense if you picture your elbow as just another knee, and pretend that your triceps are your quads, and . . . um, er.
biceps as the hamstrings of the elbow joint, basically.
Yeah, so I did mean serratus. Mine are workhorses that takes over the traps atm. So I have no issues keeping my shoulder blades down when raising my arms at all. There is at least that, uh?
And funny story - the reason I DON'T do curls much IS because they hurt my elbows. And wrists. (Mostly when doing them with a straight bar, but technically, I can only do Hammer curls without discomfort). I also can't do upright rows, even with dumbbells because gripping that way with weight puts pressure on something in my elbow... Wow. So this problem HAS been there for a lot longer than I thought now that I think back on it. I'm pretty sure I made it worse with all those chin-up negatives back in april/may...
But perhaps I'll have better luck today, so maybe I'll try some today. Shoulder has been inflamed since the physio visit so I plan on spending a good amount of time working on that at the gym later.0 -
So I have no issues keeping my shoulder blades down when raising my arms at all.
too bad we can't go sharesies. i'll take some serratus off you and give you my . . . uh . . . well, i could mail you some tiger butter maybe. probably don't have much muscle that you'd have any use for ;-) although, i thought shoulderblades down with arms up was an impingement party in the acromion zone.maybe I'll try some today.
okay - but don't forget if it doens't work for you then maybe it's not meant to work. the stuff i've made worse for myself by just being a trooper and keeping on keeping on, i can't list. this lifting schtick has introduced me into an entire new project for life: actually trying to learn the difference between pain that can be cured by not backing away and pain that will wreck you later on down the line if you don't back away.
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Just checking in to to say HI and I was able to use a barbell for the first time in about 6 months today!! I just used the bar, did 2 sets of 10 squats, 1 set of 5 OHP and 1 set of 10 deads. I left the gym high on life.
Will see how my back feels tomorrow. For now, lots of stretching in between work stuff.0 -
Just checking in to to say HI and I was able to use a barbell for the first time in about 6 months today!! I just used the bar, did 2 sets of 10 squats, 1 set of 5 OHP and 1 set of 10 deads. I left the gym high on life.
Will see how my back feels tomorrow. For now, lots of stretching in between work stuff.
Yay!
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Just checking in to to say HI and I was able to use a barbell for the first time in about 6 months today!! I just used the bar, did 2 sets of 10 squats, 1 set of 5 OHP and 1 set of 10 deads. I left the gym high on life.
Will see how my back feels tomorrow. For now, lots of stretching in between work stuff.
yay!!
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Went back to the physio and was a little disappointed to see I was back to the guy I had before (I really liked that woman, even though I have no idea what her name was).
He re-set my shoulder blade properly (again) and massaged the back of my shoulder and pec, and also that tender weird spot in the triangle between the clavicle neck and shoulder, but none of it felt like it really needed it that bad. So I wasn,t given any more exercises, and I was told i could keep coming but it wasn't necessary. Since I am not made out of money I decided to wait it out and see.
I'm basically cleared to work at it uber slowly (basically, minimal discomfort only), but I wasn't told I couldn't do things and he said I was doing a lot better. So yay!
Altho I gotta say, all this work he did on it has made the poor shouldy sore and a little angry xD Maybe that's what that uncomfortable feeling this morning was. Basically whenever I work at it it gets uncomfortable for a bit then back to normal.Just checking in to to say HI and I was able to use a barbell for the first time in about 6 months today!! I just used the bar, did 2 sets of 10 squats, 1 set of 5 OHP and 1 set of 10 deads. I left the gym high on life.
Will see how my back feels tomorrow. For now, lots of stretching in between work stuff.
Good to have you back! I can't wait to get back to doing more than a single set of those things. The romanian deadlifts sure as hell got me sore since my upper back is not used to staying tight anymore
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crappy crappy attempt at workout yesterday, full of dumb and stubborn. i basically just planted myself in the rack for an hour and a half and tried to MAKE squats go right. and they didn't, but that didn't stop me from continuing to try.
it really proves to me that i need to do the mobility stuff first. pull-aparts and broomsticks, and i don't even know what for my super-tight tfl and whatever hte other stuff is that's making it so hard for me to get this right.
it goes right in my head, i can swear to that much ;-)0 -
Just quickly wanted to share this, since i have been reading these articles over the past few days, and although they have a lot of missing images/videos from being old, they're still very informative!
https://www.t-nation.com/training/shoulder-savers-1
https://www.t-nation.com/training/shoulder-savers-2
(There's a part in this one, #14, that just gave me a huge light bulb moment because that's EXACTLY WHAT'S HAPPENING TO ME RIGHT NOW!)
https://www.t-nation.com/training/shoulder-savers-3
So if you have/had shoulder issues at any point, this might be worth a read ^^0
