Plenty of content and advice in the fitness world — especially the online fitness world — caters to people who are working out while healthy and able-bodied. It’s always a rare gem to find an article that deals with training around injuries. But there’s another caveat.
“Training around injuries” typically refers to aches and pains — stuff that will put a lifter out for a couple of weeks, and be a figment of one’s imagination beyond that.
That’s not the reality for some lifters trying to work out, and they deserve attention, too. Some people who have permanent injuries or handicaps are left hanging out to dry. Whether you’re permanently disabled, or dealing with a long-term injury that won’t be “resolved” in a few weeks, it’s time to have some options.
And as a coach who personally ruptured both patellar tendons and had to use a wheelchair for one summer, I’ve definitely gotten my own small window into this life.
Let’s take things joint by joint. And remember, no matter your situation, always check with your doctor or trainer before trying new lifts in the gym.
Losing the ability to make a fist or hold something, using prosthetics, or dealing with a devastating hand or lower-arm injury can make lifters think they can’t do any upper-body work whatsoever, considering you can only lift as much as you can hold.
Circumnavigating the grip issue can allow you to adequately train the postural muscles and develop the upper back, however, and it comes from investing in two things: Ab sleeves and heavy loop bands. Check out these examples.
For lats, attach the sleeve to a cable stack and do unilateral single-arm pulldowns without having to hold on to anything, as seen in the video above.
This allows you to focus on setting the shoulder and engaging the back musculature more intensely, which is an added benefit of not using your hands. I also like the unilateral aspect of this lift.
Moreover, the use of a heavy band can mimic rows or reverse flyes by the way you set it up, and should be more of a staple in programs for lifters of all abilities.
I’ve used NT loops in this example, but a thick band that won’t stretch or give too easily can be a worthwhile investment to get the same effect. Simply loop the band through a handle attached to a cable stack, and you have the perfect setup for heavy reverse flyes and face pulls.
If you don’t have access to those toys in the gym, then you can also train the back with a third option: Nothing more than a couple of benches.
The back plank will prove to be one of the hardest posture exercises you’ll ever do, and you’re not a prisoner of your grip strength to be effective at it. Starting with a 15 second hold usually serves as a perfect challenge, and quickly shows the muscles of the upper back (like the low traps, teres, rhomboids and rear deltoids) how strong and enduring they really are.
Assuming you can walk (even if compromised), you can take a couple of pages out of my book when I was in the early phases of my rehab. The first thing I got back to was step-ups. And I used a stick to help my cause. This serves as a lesson to everyone.
If you can’t control certain phases of a lift, regardless of your ability levels — that lift isn’t serving you as best it could. Using the necessary assistance to achieve that control can be invaluable to the recovery or strengthening of a muscle or joint in question, as it was for me.
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If You Can’t Support Your Weight, Try Leg Extensions and Seated Curls
If you have lower-body function, but can’t support your weight just yet, then using ankle weights for some seated leg extensions could be a reasonable makeshift for the time being. Focusing on high reps and total isolation can make the best of a bad situation and shouldn’t be scoffed at.
Similarly, setting up seated hamstring curls by docking a skinny band around an immovable object and slipping the heel inside the loop is a way to keep the posterior chain active.
Compromised Joint Mobility? The Leg Press Is Your Friend
Last but not least, I like the leg press for more than just a quad pump. I find it valuable to really help put the leg musculature through a loaded stretch, due to its open-chain nature. This is a bigger deal than you think — especially when it comes to the ankle’s ability to bend, and the knees’ ability to bear load while passing over the toes — both of which I’m achieving, bigtime, in the video above. This can create OR restore plenty of range of motion that an injury may have eliminated for you, and should hold a high place in your lower-body training, if you’re in the place to do it. Even if you have to start with the empty cradle itself, like I did.
I’ve mentioned this for tall lifters often, but it applies to everyone. It’s easy to force the knees over the toes when it’s the feet that move under a fixed upper body (seen here), rather than the opposite (think squats).
It’s tough to see from this angle, but I am using a very narrow stance and high foot position. Even still, you can see how much dorsiflexion it creates for me while I make sure to keep my heels on the platform. If I want to optimize the dorsiflexion (which is a good thing for shorter or shorter-legged people to note), I would simply place my feet lower down on the platform to allow for a more angled shin.
