OK, I will post a little bit of background about myself and my situation and then my thoughts and then leave everything open for informed comments.
Basically, I had been training for about 2 1/2 years solidly, going from around 140lbs to around 205lbs at the same bodyfat perrcentage, around 13% or so. I am 5’10". I guess I was at intermediate or advanced intermediate stage by strength and size standards… my big lifts were in the 300-450lb club, I could do 10 chins with an added 66lbs of weight, and whilst I appreciate by T-Nation standards my build was nothing to shout about, the average person used to constantly comment on me being massive.
Anyway, for personal reasons that aren’t relevant and I won’t bore you all with, I had 14 months off from training, but then about 3 months ago I started again and got back to not all that far behind where I was after 9 weeks of solid training.
Unfortunately I then encountered the rather major problem of fracturing my ankle and tearing all the ligaments and tendons 2 1/2 weeks ago (quite painful it was, may I add), as well as a couple of days ago damaging the cartilage in my other knee from hopping about on it so much.
So basically the situation is I won’t even be able to walk for 6 weeks, and can’t train my legs for 6 months, and even then I will have to be careful and go quite light, at least to begin with. It was a pretty bad fracture and tear of the ligaments, it’s pulled the bones out of place and all sorts. So basically: no squats or deadlifts. I can’t train my legs.
I was planning to start a 20 rep squat/20 rep deadlift routine but obviously that’s out of the question now. Normally I would favour an upper/lower split or a full body, depending on how often I would want to train, since training would always come second to my personal/social life.
Anyway, at the moment training frequency isn’t an issue (particularly since I’m signed off work for another 4 weeks at least) so I figure training more often is a good thing, and would help alleviate boredom. So I was thinking of a chest&back/shoulders/arms/rest split GVT routine. I figure the high volume of repeat work would stimulate GH and test production, and of course I would be using light weight which whilst not ideal pretty much fits my predicament at the moment.
I don’t really fancy lying underneath my 5RM on the bench without a spotter when I can’t push with either of my legs, do you know what I mean? Equally getting into position on a bench with my 5RM dumbbells is going to be next to impossible without using my legs. Obviously I would also have to select appropriate rowing exercises, i.e. everything would have to be seated. I train at home too, so no cable exercises.
I would do two routines, alternated. So I figure my routine would look something like this:
Chest/back
Incline dumbbell bench or bottom position wide grip barbell bench
Seated chest supported barbell rows or chinups
Shoulders
Seated upright EZ bar rows or seated dumbbell shoulder press
Seated lateral raises or incline lateral raises
Arms
Flat close grip bench press or seated incline overhead barbell extensions
Preacher curls or seated incline curls
I could obviously look at changing exercises for my upper body once I was able to stand again, but legs are definitely out for the time being. And again, I might have to reassess my routine if I found my social life became busier, but her, that’s life.
So yeah, if anybody could offer me any suggestions as to anything I could do to improve things as they stand, knowing my situation, then I am all ears.
Thanks guys!
