Hi!
I’m Anna- a 17 yr old girl who loves lifting. About 3 weeks ago, I had a pyeloplasty to fix pretty severe hydronephrosis and have finally been given the green light to lift more than 20lbs. However there are some pretty harsh restrictions due to the insertion of a stent:
no weighted squatting for 3 months
no loaded hip hinge movements for 6 months
I can:
bench without leg drive ( I’ll be taking full advantage of this, my bench was weak anything)
single leg movements that aren’t loaded on the back (ie db split squats and lunges)
hip thrusts
machine work except leg press and hack squat (too much abdominal pressure)
What can I do to maintain some semblance of lower body strength given that I won’t be able to handle heavy loads?
I’m not expert but pretty sure it’s irrelevant at this point. You are young, and it’s only three months. You don’t have a lot of options at this point anyway.
If I were you I wouldn’t worry much about load size and focus on loading the muscles themselves. No hinge movements means dead lifts and variations are out the window and that’s ok. You need to avoid valsalva maneuver as much as possible and not increase internal pressure. In weight led split squats, lunges, ham curls, hip extension variants, knee extensions are good for variety. I’d start very light and progress very slow.
Here’s a decent little variation you could do that would avoid lumber loading entirely but allow you to have so loading. I’d position the belt a little
Lower than this to avoid abdominal pressure. Basically let t hang off your hips.
Bench variations- knees up bench, dumbbells, hammerstrengh press machines etc.
Rows would be a little tough tee as many require lumbar support to perform. Oulldowns, stiff arm pulldowns, I’d avoid pull ups because the abdominal bracing you do naturally.
As far as rows I’d look for machines that have chest support pads sitting up right and you don’t lay prone on and still go light.
When you do isolation moves, or body building you’re training your CNS for intramuscular coordination.
Your training yourself to make the muscles contract more fully, individually.
Then in the future when you return to compound moves you can continue developing intermuscular coordination, or training all the muscles to work together.
When your individual muscles work “better” after this phase your big moves will be stronger than before.
If you get stronger at hip thrusts, step ups and glute/ham raises now your squat and dead will be stronger in the future.
