PX: About Leaning Out?

Hey Professor X

What’s your opinion on bulking when injured? I have bicep tendonitis in my right arm, so any type of barbell/smith pressing is out of the question right now. I can still train my left arm with different kinds of dumbell pressing. For back, I do various pulldowns and rows attaching one of those hanging ab raise straps onto a cable station to take out my right bicep from the movement. I do this for my left arm as well. My injury is significantly better than it was before, but it is only about 80% right now. I can train everything else properly and heavy though.

Would you recommend to wait until it’s entirely healed? I know that I have to be patient, and I’m only 19, so I know I have many years, but I still feel like I’m wasting some of my best growing years because of this injury. I’ve been slowly dropping some fat, but I’ve managed to gain size still. Would it be a good idea to just bulk and catch up my right arm later when it is healed? Did you still bulk during your bicep injury and tricep tear?

Thanks for the inspiration. I hope to shock you with my progress in a couple of years.

[quote]yvanehtnioj wrote:
Hey Professor X

What’s your opinion on bulking when injured? I have bicep tendonitis in my right arm, so any type of barbell/smith pressing is out of the question right now. I can still train my left arm with different kinds of dumbell pressing. For back, I do various pulldowns and rows attaching one of those hanging ab raise straps onto a cable station to take out my right bicep from the movement. I do this for my left arm as well. My injury is significantly better than it was before, but it is only about 80% right now. I can train everything else properly and heavy though.

Would you recommend to wait until it’s entirely healed? I know that I have to be patient, and I’m only 19, so I know I have many years, but I still feel like I’m wasting some of my best growing years because of this injury. I’ve been slowly dropping some fat, but I’ve managed to gain size still. Would it be a good idea to just bulk and catch up my right arm later when it is healed? Did you still bulk during your bicep injury and tricep tear?

Thanks for the inspiration. I hope to shock you with my progress in a couple of years.[/quote]

I appreciate the post, man.

I would not recommend bulking while injured IF you have limited mobility. Your one arm doesn’t sound like it limits your ability to get around. For instance, after my car accident, I pretty much lost my appetite for a while just due to overall stress. I used a weight gainer to help me get the calories in, not in an attempt to “gain” necessarily, but to maintain the muscle I already had as optimally as possible.

The result was my injured shoulder doesn’t seem to have lost any size at all even though dealing with that issue was sometimes painful. I also gained extra body fat because of the overall caloric intake and the fact that most of it was liquid form.

That was just from trying to keep my weight exactly the same.

You, however, seem to have a chronic injury and yes, avoiding any type of gain during this period will set you back…but I also don’t want to flat out recommend you ignore the lagging body part completely. is the arm doing better now? Is it healing?

Training the unaffected side has also been shown to decrease atrophy in some people. That means I would still train what I could using as much common sense as possible. Whether you attempt a serious weight gain is up to you…but the one thing I would do is make sure most of that gain is muscle mass and not body fat.

Years of this will lead to huge imbalances unless you recover. Hopefully you will heal soon.

[quote]Professor X wrote:

[quote]yvanehtnioj wrote:
Hey Professor X

What’s your opinion on bulking when injured? I have bicep tendonitis in my right arm, so any type of barbell/smith pressing is out of the question right now. I can still train my left arm with different kinds of dumbell pressing. For back, I do various pulldowns and rows attaching one of those hanging ab raise straps onto a cable station to take out my right bicep from the movement. I do this for my left arm as well. My injury is significantly better than it was before, but it is only about 80% right now. I can train everything else properly and heavy though.

Would you recommend to wait until it’s entirely healed? I know that I have to be patient, and I’m only 19, so I know I have many years, but I still feel like I’m wasting some of my best growing years because of this injury. I’ve been slowly dropping some fat, but I’ve managed to gain size still. Would it be a good idea to just bulk and catch up my right arm later when it is healed? Did you still bulk during your bicep injury and tricep tear?

Thanks for the inspiration. I hope to shock you with my progress in a couple of years.[/quote]

I appreciate the post, man.

I would not recommend bulking while injured IF you have limited mobility. Your one arm doesn’t sound like it limits your ability to get around. For instance, after my car accident, I pretty much lost my appetite for a while just due to overall stress. I used a weight gainer to help me get the calories in, not in an attempt to “gain” necessarily, but to maintain the muscle I already had as optimally as possible.

The result was my injured shoulder doesn’t seem to have lost any size at all even though dealing with that issue was sometimes painful. I also gained extra body fat because of the overall caloric intake and the fact that most of it was liquid form.

That was just from trying to keep my weight exactly the same.

You, however, seem to have a chronic injury and yes, avoiding any type of gain during this period will set you back…but I also don’t want to flat out recommend you ignore the lagging body part completely. is the arm doing better now? Is it healing?

Training the unaffected side has also been shown to decrease atrophy in some people. That means I would still train what I could using as much common sense as possible. Whether you attempt a serious weight gain is up to you…but the one thing I would do is make sure most of that gain is muscle mass and not body fat.

Years of this will lead to huge imbalances unless you recover. Hopefully you will heal soon.[/quote]

Thanks for the quick response.

My arm is doing better now. I strained my right pec last March, so I’ve been dealing with this for quite a while. It spread to my shoulder because I stupidly kept trying to lift through the pain. My ego got the best of me and now I’m paying for it.I managed to bring up my arms about half an inch even though I couldn’t do any pressing exercises for my triceps. Early August, the bicep tendon down by the forearm started to hurt after a back session. It was and still is a very dull pain, but feels much better now. Previously, I could do back and bicep exercises pain free, but since mid August or so, I haven’t been able to load the right bicep and shoulder aside from machine lateral raises and rear delt stuff. It’s only the tendon in the front delt and bicep that bothers me.

I wasn’t going to ignore my right arm completely, though. I’m a little under 240 (down from a much fatter 255ish) first thing in the morning and my plan is to get up to 275-280 or so. I need to play around a little more with pulldown and rowing movements with my right arm first though. Also, I was going to hammer the shit out of my left arm, but go extremely light with very high reps focusing on squeezing and control for my left arm for pressing and curling. I suppose it’s better than nothing. Just kinda gradually build up the weight over time. I am going to pay very close attention to muscle and fat gain. I figure that within the next two months my arm should be good enough to load up again. How does that sound?

I’ve just been getting frustrated lately because this has been holding me back and I just want this so badly. Again, I really appreciate you reading this and taking the time to answer me. Just know that you are changing the lives of many people out there for the better in ways you may not realize. How do I know this? I’m one of those people.

Yo X,

Not sure where else to ask, but can you please check your pm box? I have a question about gynecomastia and would be grateful if you could answer it. Thanks if you can.

I answered.

I replied

Yeah man you look awesome, I know I’ve said this before but every display pic gets better and better. I want to try and drop some bf here soon. So pretty much you’ve been dropping carbs on most days and then loading on carbs or having cheat meals a couple times a week am I right?

How many carbs do you normally eat these days compared to before the cut?
Have you dropped cals anywhere else like fat or maybe even protein?

I hear ya on the clothes. During my recomp this has been an issue with me as well. Being described by well meaning people as little, small, and less intimidating tends to make you doubt yourself. BigOrexia can be a BITCH!

You look great X, Keep up the hard work!

[quote]paulieserafini wrote:
Yeah man you look awesome, I know I’ve said this before but every display pic gets better and better. I want to try and drop some bf here soon. So pretty much you’ve been dropping carbs on most days and then loading on carbs or having cheat meals a couple times a week am I right?

How many carbs do you normally eat these days compared to before the cut?
Have you dropped cals anywhere else like fat or maybe even protein?[/quote]

Dude, my progress has taken a huge hit since the motorcycle accident. I’ve lost more fat since then, but I also would be carrying more muscle without the accident. When I dropped most of that, my carbs were very low and so were my calories. I was drinking the MAG-10 all day long though. That would not have worked if I was trying to do the same with chicken breasts. I would still eat what I wanted two days a week but was really cutting way back the rest of the week.

[quote]Colin Wilson wrote:
I hear ya on the clothes. During my recomp this has been an issue with me as well. Being described by well meaning people as little, small, and less intimidating tends to make you doubt yourself. BigOrexia can be a BITCH!

You look great X, Keep up the hard work!

[/quote]

I appreciate that.

[quote]Professor X wrote:

Dude, my progress has taken a huge hit since the motorcycle accident. [/quote]

On that note, how are you healing up? Are you able to train at all? Eating changed any?

Sorry if you’ve covered this in another thread somewhere. If you have, just point me there.

Either way, hope you’re doing better and have a great Christmas.

[quote]Professor X wrote:

[quote]paulieserafini wrote:
Yeah man you look awesome, I know I’ve said this before but every display pic gets better and better. I want to try and drop some bf here soon. So pretty much you’ve been dropping carbs on most days and then loading on carbs or having cheat meals a couple times a week am I right?

How many carbs do you normally eat these days compared to before the cut?
Have you dropped cals anywhere else like fat or maybe even protein?[/quote]

Dude, my progress has taken a huge hit since the motorcycle accident. I’ve lost more fat since then, but I also would be carrying more muscle without the accident. When I dropped most of that, my carbs were very low and so were my calories. I was drinking the MAG-10 all day long though. That would not have worked if I was trying to do the same with chicken breasts. I would still eat what I wanted two days a week but was really cutting way back the rest of the week.[/quote]

My bad man I just realized this was a few months old.

[quote]Professor X wrote:

[quote]paulieserafini wrote:
Yeah man you look awesome, I know I’ve said this before but every display pic gets better and better. I want to try and drop some bf here soon. So pretty much you’ve been dropping carbs on most days and then loading on carbs or having cheat meals a couple times a week am I right?

How many carbs do you normally eat these days compared to before the cut?
Have you dropped cals anywhere else like fat or maybe even protein?[/quote]

Dude, my progress has taken a huge hit since the motorcycle accident. I’ve lost more fat since then, but I also would be carrying more muscle without the accident. When I dropped most of that, my carbs were very low and so were my calories. I was drinking the MAG-10 all day long though. That would not have worked if I was trying to do the same with chicken breasts. I would still eat what I wanted two days a week but was really cutting way back the rest of the week.[/quote]

x2 what steely said I hope everything recovery wise is progressing well for you man, and dont worry about the muscle loss if there was any, muscle memory is a beautiful thing

glad to see your still around

[quote]SteelyD wrote:

[quote]Professor X wrote:

Dude, my progress has taken a huge hit since the motorcycle accident. [/quote]

On that note, how are you healing up? Are you able to train at all? Eating changed any?

Sorry if you’ve covered this in another thread somewhere. If you have, just point me there.

Either way, hope you’re doing better and have a great Christmas.[/quote]

I can’t hold the weight so I use powerlifting hooks. I can’t train shoulders but can train lower chest, biceps, triceps, back and legs even though the weight lifted is still working its way back up. People say it doesn’t look like I was injured at all but it doesn’t feel that way.

My eating has only changed this week. I’m going to see if I can gain without completely ignoring my waist most of the way.

[quote]Blackaggar wrote:

[quote]Professor X wrote:

[quote]paulieserafini wrote:
Yeah man you look awesome, I know I’ve said this before but every display pic gets better and better. I want to try and drop some bf here soon. So pretty much you’ve been dropping carbs on most days and then loading on carbs or having cheat meals a couple times a week am I right?

How many carbs do you normally eat these days compared to before the cut?
Have you dropped cals anywhere else like fat or maybe even protein?[/quote]

Dude, my progress has taken a huge hit since the motorcycle accident. I’ve lost more fat since then, but I also would be carrying more muscle without the accident. When I dropped most of that, my carbs were very low and so were my calories. I was drinking the MAG-10 all day long though. That would not have worked if I was trying to do the same with chicken breasts. I would still eat what I wanted two days a week but was really cutting way back the rest of the week.[/quote]

x2 what steely said I hope everything recovery wise is progressing well for you man, and dont worry about the muscle loss if there was any, muscle memory is a beautiful thing

glad to see your still around [/quote]

I’m probably down about ten pounds over where I would have been. That included another half inch off the waist. My strength actually isn’t down that much. It is the joint pain that is limiting me.

I am looking forward to muscle memory on this one.

totally OT and I apologize if you’ve answered this elsewhere (or don’t feel like answering):

how is the practice? when I first heard of your accident, I was concerned with your manual dexterity while performing surgery.