Post Surgery Supplement Advice?

Christian,

My brother is going in shortly to have a labrum repaired, and was asking my thoughts as to anything he could do, supplement wise, to slow, or possibly prevent excessive muscle loss post surgery.

Obviously the first things to my mind were BCAAs, Fish Oils, and Creatine, but I was curious what your thoughts would be in if this sort of regimen would have any real effect over the 6 months where he will be unable to really do much.

I believe he can do some leg work (plans on walking hills), but nothing jarring to his body. He’s pretty solid now, about 6’0, and very lean at a little over two bills. While he realizes this may be an opportunity to raise his leg training frequency, would hitting nothing but legs 3x a week have any effect on preventing muscle loss in the torso and limbs?

Thanks!

S

I’ll be interested to hear Christian’s response, but the first thing that came to my mind was leucine. I took 20 grams/day for 12 weeks after my surgery a year ago and was pleased not to have lost too much size. Strength levels went down significantly, but they seemed to come back rather rapidly. Just make sure he’s not taking fish oil leading up to the surgery (I’m sure his surgeon has already discussed that with him.) Best of luck to your bro.

hey there… i am somewhat in the same position but in a diffrent way… i am having surgery done on my knee ( torn acl) and would also want to know the best ways to supplement post-surgery. also training for upper body advice would be appreciated. dont wanna lose the muscle i worked hard on gaining…

i believe curcumin is supposed to aid recovery after a surgery. for the price and the list of alleged benefits, it wouldn’t hurt to add that to the stack.

Glutamine, EAA’s, kcals, arginine, vitamin C, bioflavonoids.

To heel faster Wobenzymes, bromelian.

When a person undergoes surgery his metabolism tends to increase, and tends to be in a catabolic state and his inmune system tends to go down.

So he has to attack those areas!

thanks jorge…
can you suggest the best ways of taking these? (recommended timing and amount)

If it’s only one side of his body (I assume you are talking about the shoulder labrum), then if he is capable (if doctor says it’s ok) to utilize the other side for some lifting, studies have shown this can carry over to the other side.

I’ve never really looked into it that much, but there seems to be some cross over effect. Not sure how much it will help though perhaps CT can provide more insight

I took almost an entire year off after my shoulder surgery. Size didn’t suffer too much, but strength did. Both were back to pre-surgery levels within 3 months of lifting again, except for bench #'s.

[quote]jehovasfitness wrote:
If it’s only one side of his body (I assume you are talking about the shoulder labrum), then if he is capable (if doctor says it’s ok) to utilize the other side for some lifting, studies have shown this can carry over to the other side.

I’ve never really looked into it that much, but there seems to be some cross over effect. Not sure how much it will help though perhaps CT can provide more insight[/quote]

after about 6 weeks he should be out of the sling and starting PT. I wouldn’t train the good side for a while, because it’s going to be compensating for everything. Since my surgery, my good shoulder has become the bad one.

I say hammer the legs. If he is a gym rat split them to train quads/hams/calves on separate days so it feels like he’s going to the gym more often.

With those studies jehovasfitness mentioned, he should be able to do some strengthening on the unaffected arm I think, though the carry-over will be mostly neural, i.e. he may atrophy a bit but his strength levels shouldn’t fall too far on the affected arm.

I will say that the wobenzymes and that bromelian tend to thin blood, so you have to know what other drugs you are taking since with some drugs it can do an additive effect.

The enzymes should be taken in a empty stomach, 45 minutes before a meal and atleast 120 minutes after a meal. (3 times a day, you firts need to load since the absortion tends to be low)

Te EAA’s you can pulse them through the day. (between the meals) and at this time you can also take the glutamine.

Vitamin C with your meals,

A good multivitamin

Protein as you normally do (at least 1.5lb x pound)

Gelatin (its no joke) with meals

Kcals 300-500 above your normal intake

MSM 3 time a day

The list can go on, but this will do.
Try to train your good leg!

[quote]halamadrid09 wrote:
thanks jorge…
can you suggest the best ways of taking these? (recommended timing and amount)[/quote]

Lol, some good stuff here. I’m sure my brother’s going to be going out of his mind, he works with athletes all day, and he’s never been one to be inactive. Jorge, those are some great ideas, things I never would have thought of, thanks.

S

Inflammation after surgery is good - do not take the curcumin, at least not initially

Super Cissus Rx FTW

thanks for that tidbit ucallthatbass, i did not know that.

also, good call on the gelatin jorge. i was several little tubs of sugar-free jello with my post workout shake over the summer and shit was growing.

Thats interesting what some of you have found. i have had 2 shoulder reconstructions due to repeated dislocations from rugby. 1 on each shoulder i am currently in my 6th week post op and hav lost 7kg i am also at a low bf of pre op 10%. I tried using HMB after my first op and i found it didnt really help at all considering this time around ive lost the weight around the same speed.

I am hoping to get back to the iron next week hopefully with my sling off and just do sum leg presses , 1 - arm db deadlifts etc. I found last time i was too sore until the 3.5 month mark to start building up the weight slowly on the upper body pushes and pulls. Last time around i lost 12kg total up to that point(3.5mnths). So be interesting to see at wat rate he atrophys. So goodluck to ur bro its a slow process.

I can’t thank you enough for making this thread. I’m scheduled to go into surgery Dec 9th. I’ve been working out as much as possible up until that date so I can be as strong as possible going in. I was aware I had to stop fish oil 10 days prior but not sure on things like amount of protein to consume during recovery.

I’ll be using xmas break to recover and plan to be back in the gym a month later pounding on my legs and right side as much as possible. I’ll go crazy being away from the gym.

im also due for shoulder reconstruction in the near future, NFL injury (without the pads).

got new pb’s across the board the weeks training sessions prior to the injury, it really hits you hard when your told you cant touch a weight for a minimum of 6 weeks and then your surgery is a few months away. I, like a few other guys am also taking advantage of the increased frequency in leg training. i can really smash them over this period although it looks like its gonna be alot of leg pressing, the pressure is too much for squats.

[quote]Jorge Garzafox wrote:

Te EAA’s you can pulse them through the day. (between the meals) and at this time you can also take the glutamine.

Gelatin (its no joke) with meals

how much do you recommend i take of EAA’s and glutamine?
gelatin? really? how does this help?

thanks!

[quote]ucallthatbass wrote:
Inflammation after surgery is good - do not take the curcumin, at least not initially

Super Cissus Rx FTW
[/quote]

Can someone please enlighten me on this. Is that why they told me to stop with the fish oil? I was just looking at Circumin 500 for my next order. When would it be ok to start and how beneficial can it be?

what procedure is he having done? i tore my labrum and the majority of muscles in my shoulder. recovery was rough. the first few weeks after surgery are very painful. i had the bankart precudure on one shoulder and on the other they just tightened everything up.