Ribs/Shoulders Injured, What Can I Train?

Hey guys,

I hit the doctor today after having pretty intense pain in my ribs (from leg pressing. did rep too quickly, came down and messed up a muscle in my ribs. i know… stupid.) and shoulders (overtraining) and was told to lay off the gym for a week or so or until the pain subsides. I plan on using this week to really clean up my diet and shed some water weight, but I still want to train whatever I can.

What lifts can I still do in the gym? So far all I’ve come up with are calf raises and wrist curls. Deads/Squats are out of the question because when I bend over, my rib pain flares up. Will preacher curls put strain on my shoulders at all? I’d really like to give them some time off seeing as how I’ve been working towards a 1RM on standing military presses lately.

Any input? Thanks!

How about taking the week off and letting your body heal? A week off isn’t going to hurt anything, but training when you are hurt can sure make it worse.

No offense, but why do you need to focus on losing water weight? Are you on your period or something?

Thats a pointless plan IMO, you’ll lose the water weight and then gain it right back. Take the week off of training to recover, clean up your diet; not for the sake of losing water weight, but for the sake of getting your shit straight.

Then when you’ve recovered, start training properly. Do not do the things that led to your injuries in the first place. Maybe ditch the leg press and go with squats? Maybe be more realistic with the amount of weight you lift? Maybe, check your form.

In the long run, a week off will probably help you more than anything, AND fixing your training is more important than continuing on with sub-par training.

I agree with the above advise about not lifting, maybe a week off is exactly what your body needs.

[quote] Matt wrote:
How about taking the week off and letting your body heal? A week off isn’t going to hurt anything, but training when you are hurt can sure make it worse.[/quote]

this

Take some time off, and understand that your body is in a state of emergency thanks to recent injury. Any stress added to it’s current workload will only exacerbate your problems, and put you back at square one, if not one step behind it. Again, take some time off, and if you were to return to the gym I would only say that the stationary bike is looking attractive. If it is no bother to the other injuries, ride the bike to at least allow blood flow and increase in heart rate to continue exercising for health reasons.

Your body will heal, you just have to let it. (And for the record, we all hate hearing that.)