Training while Healing. What's recommended?

Greetings friends,

Today we’re going to answer a question from a reader.

Here’s a question that might help clarify some things for a few people coming back from injuries out there. It comes from a 68 year-old gentleman who has been lifting all of his life.


“Bud,
Excellent article, great advice and well written.

I used to do partials and was quite good at them having long limbs I was not good at full motion. My best short-range lifts were 10 reps with 1065 in the quarter squat and 10 reps on a dead lift hopper with 625. This was 40 years ago at a body weight of about 225 at 6".

I am now recovering from a hernia surgery and wonder if you have any advice for me to get strong again after it heals. It will be three weeks on Monday and My doctor told me I could start training light in two weeks. I was thinking partials may be the best way to start. Any thoughts on this? Do you like the leg press in short movements? What about dip machines for lockouts? If you don't have the time to answer this note I understand. I'm now about 185# and back to walking my pups, without leashes, for 40 minutes a day.

Thanks,

George”


ANSWER:

George thank you so much for the compliments. It’s always wonderful to find someone with a like-mind on training and people who are blessed with common sense are few and far between. It’s also great to see someone at your age still kicking lots of butt.

Sorry to hear that you had to have hernia surgery but I’m glad to hear that you’re doing well. Here’s my answer:

First I’m not a doctor so I cannot legally tell you one thing to do or another regardless of if I know more than some of them or not. I think you definitely want to be fully healed before you start any type of heavy training, but I do think partials would be great way to start especially for someone who already knows what their leverages are because of their particular body build (long limbs). Of course I think you should be doing some full range of motion work, but so long as its not brutally heavy that’s perfectly alright. I think the partials will give you an excellent way to get back into good strength without having to overstrain yourself or put yourself in positions of extreme compromise. For instance, if you can full squat 300 as a max you can probably do short range partials with that much weight with very little effort. It will definitely be enough stimulation to begin to rebuild your core muscles and keep your bones and joints strong, but not enough stress to be damaging, and you can slowly come back to your full strength.

You asked about leg presses and dip machines. I’m not a huge fan, but I think we use whatever is at hand and what works well for your body, especially if you have enough experience to decide if they fit you better than another alternative. If the leg press allows you to train well while keeping your other issues in check and it’s a well designed machine then good for ya! Same with the dip machine.

I don’t think either of them will give you 100% of the benefits of squats or regular dips, but it definitely depends on the benefits you’re looking for. Especially when coming back from injury I say be open to any therapy that will get the job done and continue to allow you to exercise and keep moving. I might also consider some just bodyweight movements without weight to begin rebuilding the body and without overstressing anything. I’m not sure if you have access to it, but you might think about a hip or harness lift as they can give you great strength without overstressing and it’s still a stand on your feet movement.

Now we all know we’re playing in the hardcore weight lifting world where any machine work is made fun of or frowned upon but I say use any resistance as long as it really does its job.

God bless you George. Hope you heal quickly and get back to ridiculous strength. Maybe you can inspire some of those young whipper-snappers who aren’t half as strong as you to man up and get strong.


By the way if you want to know more partials and what the absolutely most complete and effective ways to use partials are then you should pick up our DVD and workbook, Partial Training for Super Human Strength.


Look for more questions answered soon.