Approx. one year ago I broke my collor bone and had to cease all training of the upper body. Unlike a tear or pull of a muscle which only effects certain areas, a break of the collor bone can be felt in every upper body exercise performed. Up until this injury I had put in four long and hard years of training to get to where I was. For instance, I was up to 300 pounds on the bench. In addition to the initial injury, I suffered two more breaks of the same collor bone within a 6 month period due to doctor malpractice. Therefore, after the third break I was put on a bone stimulator to help regrow the bone and heal it so it would not break again. Therefore, a injury that should have cost me two months of training at the most has cost me one year. I just got back into the gym today, first time since March 31st of 2002. I am weak, so much so that I believe I am right back where I started from four years ago when my training began. I have kept a log throughout my entire training and I was barely able to lift as much today as I did when I started. Which is pathetic and means four years of hard training are down the drain. My question is: how long will it take for me to regain the strength I lost during my recuperation? Hopefully not another four years right? Please give me soem advice and anyone that has gone through a simialr situation, I need to hear from you…tell me your success stories and give me some much needed motivation and confidence to get back to where I was. Thanks.
Sorry to hear about your injury but all is not lost. When coming back after an injury you oughta be able to regain your size and strength much quicker then you lost it due to muscle memory. You will probably find your strength will come back faster then your size because strength is more dependent on the nervous system which tends to “remember.” Don’t try to force anything and don’t do more then you need to do to make steady progress. Eat well, train hard (but not too hard) and enjoy the process. You should be back to where you were in no time at all. For some motivation try to run a search on Casey Viator and the Colorado Experiment. To test the effectiveness of Author Jones Nautilus training principles Casey Viator was to be paid x$$ for each lb of muscle gained so for a few months beforehand he didn’t train and starved himself and when he started the experiment he quickly gained back an astronomical (not sure of the exact amount)t of muscle mass and lost fat in the process. Yes, muscle memory is strong.
I agree with Kelly. You will be able to bounce back quickly.
Start slowly, and make sure you don’t injure yourself. Be patient and don’t get frustrated. You are re-laying the foundation, but a lot of the hard work has already been done.