Rehabbing a Stab Wound in My Hand

Towards the tail end of December I was stabbed in the palm of my hand. I was lucky enough to not sever any of my tendons or ligaments and I didnt suffer too serious of damage. I was forced to take about 2 and a half months off from my 4-5 days of training and I just recently started gettin back into the gym. I noticed that i did retain a lot of grip strength, which i was terrified of losing. However im just having trouble with benching and/or any pressing movements. There is still an obvious mass of scar tissue still in the palm of my hand, which i knew would be a problem. I also do have a slight amount of nerve damage to the side of my hand stemming from where my cut is, to the tip of my pinky. So sometimes that hinders me with moderate/heavy pressing for extended periods of time. Im just in the midst of trying to plan out how to successfully rehabilitate and be able to make some progress in the gym as well. I have been focusing a lot on rebuilding my grip strength, as well as getting comfortable with the a bar in my hand for pressing. I pretty much lost all of my strength in my bench press unfortunately. But luckily i still have a substantial amount of strength when it comes to gripping the bar for moderate/heavy deadlifting. I know i need to be very cautious in how much i lift while my hand still heals. So im looking at a typical hypertrophy program, a lot of focus on eccentric phase, with a week of heavier work closer to 90% of my 1 rep max on my main lifts. Just to get back in the groove, however its all dependent on how the bar feels in my hand when it comes time for that. I noticed using dumb bells i dont really have too much difficulty controlling the weight and i dont wear out as quick (in terms of the feeling of discomfort in my hand). But i know if i become too leniant on using dumb bells that my barbell bench will not move anywhere. So really im just trying to see what movements i can use to help with my rehab.

I didn’t see a question in there.

My only suggestion is get this cleared by a doctor. There are 17 muscles in your palm, it would be impossible to know your limitations based on a post.

dont worry about this. Progress with dumbells can absolutely build the barbell lifts

Yeah i meant to post the photo of where in my hand it is. Im gonna post it following this.
Im all cleared from my doctor. I have no serious damage done to my muscle. My question is: What can i do to improve my mobility/strength in my hand again?

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Most of the trauma is located in the Hypothenar eminance. Specifically across the Palmaris brevis and palmaris aponeurisis.

I’ve never had an injury like that, so this is kind of theoretical.

An Old School grip exercise is to lay a sheet of news paper flat on the table, and lay your hand flat on the paper. Then use your fingers to pull the paper into your hand, and squeeze it into a little ball in the palm of your hand.

You have a lot of “control” in this exercise. You can focus on wadding the paper up in your fingers, or in the “top” of your palm, or what ever you need to do to avoid messing up your scar tissue.
Reaching “out” with your fingers will get your extensors going again.

I read that the wrestler Dan Hodge loved this. Here he is at 80 years old, crushing an apple.

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Google “bucket of sand” excercises. Pitchers and wrestlers use them to avoid over use injuries and to work the muscles in each direction.

Yeah i know the exact one youre talking about actually. It looks crazy. I feel like that is gonna be my best bet as well.

This is a super interesting exercise and im gonna give it a shot. I still have a good amount of grip strength luckily. Im able to hold a barbell steady at 165 for deadlifting. Im gonna see how my hand does with some moderate weight farmers walks. Ive found using the open grip/bear claw/whatever helps ease the tension and still gives me a good amount of control.