I have a variety of serious old injuries from lifting, motorcycle racing, and jiu jitsu, some of which required hardware, all of which cause me daily pain and limitation.
Specifically, Im quite angry about my pullups, which have gone from 25+ bodyweight reps/set last year, to not being able to do a clean bodyweight pull up due to repeated shoulder dislocations. Have worked with a physical therapist, my doctor (Toradol), and even tried an acupuncturist. All provided temporary relief at best.
While recently researching good cycles for a first-timer, which Im considering, I discovered that, duh, cycling may help repair not just muscle, but ligaments and tendons as well.
What has been your experience with this? Any respectable articles or specific gear I should look into? Thanks much.
29 years old, -6 years lifting 5-6 days/week, no cardio, eat clean, 6 foot 170 lbs., ~10-12% fat, nkda.
AAS will likely cause you greater risk for injury. It will make the muscles stronger than the tendons, and will do nothing for ligaments. If you can’t do one pull up, you’ve got some natural training ahead of you that you’ll benefit from more. I’ve seen plenty of bodybuilders and weekend warriors who used gear and blew thrrough quad, achillies, rotator cuff, bicep long head, you name it.
@studhammer i caught that. If the injury is why he can’t do the pull ups my advice remains unchanged. Please, if you know of any AAS that will help selective tissue injury I’m sure the OP would love to hear it. Based on the info, my advice is it will make things worse.
I agree that you need to let any injury heal properly before stressing it. BPC would be a good idea for a fresh injury, supposed to be miraculous. I have used it on old troublesome injuries and didn’t get much relief though.
What does work with old injuries, joint problems is steroids like deca, and equipoise. Deca is renowned for being joint friendly but many guys also get the dreaded deca dick(look it up on this site if you don’t know much about it).
Equipoise on the other hand doesn’t have those issues and it worked wonders for joint pain, range of motion.
I get some relief from plain old test cycles, but with EQ stacked it just disappears, and lasts for months after the end of the cycle(test and EQ cycle).
That being said before you touch steroids you need to thoroughly educate yourself on how to use them properly, lowest effective dose, and what the long term potential risks are.If you decide to go down that path start with a test only cycle, see if you have any issues with that before adding in other substances or you won’t know which substance is causing you problems.
I would also add, you need to work out and sort out what caused the original injuries from lifting. eg technique problem, genetic predisposition, too aggressive/abuse. If you don’t its likely even with steroids the problem will eventually reoccur.
25 chin ups is good if you are doing them properly, but if you are just letting the body drop in the negative portion, you are placing a lot of stress on the shoulder joints. 10 perfect chin ups, done for several sets is better than trying one max out set of sloppy pull ups.
Conservative management depending on the severity of the tear may allow one to revert back to some semblance of compensated training nearing 100% intensity.
Family member of mine dislocated his/her shoulder badly, tore his/her RC and was recommended surgery. As this individual was a pro athlete at the time he/she decided to forego surgical intervention and pursued conservative treatment protocols despite doctors recommending for a more invasive approach.
It took 12 months, and this individual still has minor pain/laxity of the shoulder joint; but he/she was back to training with full intensity. Does this work for everyone? No!
Some tears/injuries require surgical intervention, but a small portion can get by without… I’m an example of this, I’ve suffered from around 3 incomplete shoulder dislocations throughout my lifetime. As a result I have visible damage within the shoulder capsule (MRI) and could opt for surgery. There is no weakness, but I can’t use/contract many muscles on my one side comparative to how the degree of mind muscle connection I have the other as a result. A minor imbalance is present, more than what one would want if they were to go into bodybuilding. Excess unilateral work on that one side does wonders.
At this point I’m putting off surgical intervention unless it happens again, and I’ve put in many hours on PT to strengthen the muscles around my shoulder girdle to serve as a preventative measure. I’ll probably require the surgery one day… but not today, not whilst I’m still in my prime.
The recovery time for these procedures is long, arduous… Particularly if you don’t have access to or can’t afford GH, peptides etc.
I understand that with a pro athlete who’s career is in jeopardy because of it, but I’d say everyone else has better healing capacity when they are young. Injuries usually heal faster and completely compared to older folks.
I have my reasons for not wishing to go under the knife at this point. I won’t detail them on here, but this is something I’ve made a benefit/cost assessment with.
For the time being, I believe I’m better off putting off surgery. That will remain the case unless further deterioration becomes evident.