bodyweight training to maintain lean mass while healing from an injury..

Hi guys,

Long story short, im going in the ADF in around 10-11 weeks ( 10th May ) and i have pulled a muscle in my lower lat/oblique area today while pulling a 185kg deadlift at week 8 of the 200kg PPP program, pretty bummed out cause i reckon i had the 200kg in me in a few weeks time but oh well shit happens, the injury is only mild its painful but will heal in a week or 2 if i dont push it.

I have considered stopping doing my current routine of compound lifting until i complete basic training ( around 22 weeks from this current date ) and concentrate more on general cardio and body weight stuff like push ups, chins, burpees, dips etc. With the main focus on not getting an injury, lifting heavy is something i love but its risky and this is my career and i cannot risk missing out on my job due to an injury doing heavy compound lifting.

My biggest concern is i dont want to lose all the mass i have worked my arse off to get, im currently 87kg with around 15 or so % BF. I would like to maintain as much of the lean mass i can if possible.

Do any of you guys have a suggestion of some kind of program or best method of doing this? Or should i just keep lifting and try to not push to hard ( still risky as i will want it bad enough to push i cant help it ).

Nutrition i will keep at a clean and high protein kind of diet, just a few calories short of what i currently am on ( 3500 cal a day ) and hopefully it should help maintain some mass.

Am i kidding myself about keeping any of this lean mass for 22 weeks without heavy lifting? Ive never attempted it before so i have no idea of the outcome. If anyone has any advice please feel free to throw it up, even if its critical!

If you want to avoid high intensity weight training (and also include a conditioning aspect) I think you should think about completing a 6 week 20 rep squat program as outlined here: 20 Rep Squats - Starting Strength Wiki

You will squatting at %s well below your 1RM. Note though, as you get fatigued, form will usually break down, and it's up to you determine when you should dump the weight

Just lift (relatively) light until it comes good then go back to the heavy stuff.

If you aren't already, do pushups, situps, chinups and bw squats in a circuit (not too hard, you want muscle fatigue not cardio to be the limiting factor) followed by a hard 2.4km run probably 3 times per week. Put a heavy backpack on (20 kg ish) and walk for an hour once per week. If you can manage 2 weights sessions as well, that's a bonus.

I wouldn't stress about muscle loss too much, there's not much you can do about it once you get to Kapooka (I'm presuming Army here). Just take it on the chin and come back to training in 6 months time. You'll lose a bit, but not a huge amount, and you should get it back quicker the second time around. Remember you've got your whole life ahead of you yet.

Surely you will have access to a gym in your free time when your on base. I know you will go camping and "out bush" for days on end, but on base you should have training facilities. Something to look into I guess.

As for the injury, I would go and see a sports physio, and get a professional opinion on how long you should rest for. Hopefully its only 2-4 weeks and maybe some light stretching/resistance exercises and ice treatment to heal the affected area.

NJA82 said:

Am i kidding myself about keeping any of this lean mass for 22 weeks without heavy lifting? Ive never attempted it before so i have no idea of the outcome. If anyone has any advice please feel free to throw it up, even if its critical!

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I believe you are basing your assumptions on a false premise Sir. You're assuming that the only way muscle growth is stimulated is through "heavy lifting". I'm here to tell you that lifting big is but one way of achieving and maintaining muscle mass, for there are many different ways of achieving that goal, it would truly be a shame to restrict yourself (and your mind) to thinking that that was the only way.

Lifting big or "heavy lifting" as you've put it was my specialty as an Olympic weightlifter. So let me speak from experience rather than from a book or a study etc. My legs were biggish as a weightlifter but their "strength" was the level of muscle density that I had built up in them. It was only when I began bodybuilding that some of that built density just simply exploded into sheer visual muscle size. So yes, what I've just said is that muscle density is muscle size of a special kind; it's the invisible muscle size...that is just waiting and ready for you to change the range of your repetitions to have it explode for all to see (visible vs. invisible).

Most (if not all the time) someone of an elite calibre gets injured and resort to lighter weights done with higher reps than they were used to, and as a consequence, they simply add size instead of lose it.

So your injury could just be the blessing in disguise you were waiting for if visible size is your aim. As far as strength is concerned, and here I'm speaking of low rep strength, then please don't worry too much as this element too is at your grasp when you're ready to get back into the heavies.

Take care and all the best to you Sir.


Fadi.

leachy said:

Surely you will have access to a gym in your free time when your on base. I know you will go camping and "out bush" for days on end, but on base you should have training facilities. Something to look into I guess.

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You don't get free time through recruit training.

Thanks for the awesome advice Fadi, much appreciated! I do like the strength aspect but size is also important to me and i do train with a fairly heavy volume most sessions ( 6-7 exercises ) with either the squat or the deadlift at higher weight low reps as the main lift in any session. This is the second injury i have sustained doing deadlifts even though its only a minor one, i dont want to let it mentally change my attitude towards the lift but it still will be in the back of my mind.

Knoted, i am going RAAF mate so 1rtu instead of kapooka, but still similar to kapooka in the lack of free time to train and lack of ability to control diet and nutrition, i have prepared myself mentally for this and like you said will just have to take it on the chin and resume at employment training once i have free time again and can control my nutrition ( 5-6 meals a day ) again. I do push ups, chins, situps, dips, burpees now once or twice a week now usually after a run on cardio days really just to keep myself pretty fit with them, ive done the 100 burpee challenge in 10:45 and can smash out 50 push ups in a row no dramas so i havent really focused to much on this stuff just mainly try to maintain the level of fitness rather than increase it.

My main concern was to stop lifting now before recruit training and just smash this sort of stuff a lot more like i will be doing down there at Wagga like bodyweight stuff and cardio etc. I have the same kind of mindset as you said though about just not worrying to much and just doing what i can for about 6 months and just resume fully when i can, would probably be one less thing to worry about down there at recruits cause im sure there will be lots of other things to worry about instead. Just would be nice to keep the size if possible which according to Fadi in his post if im reading it correctly means as long as im training and stimulating the muscles this shouldnt be a problem, heavy weights or not...

Untouchable, i do 20 rep squats once a week now, im up to 95kg for 20 reps at the moment. That feels about the max i can go at the moment to keep form strict. I normally do 20 reppers once a week on a monday for example and PPP for squats on a friday, deadlifts in between on a Wednesday.

NJA82 said:

Just would be nice to keep the size if possible which according to Fadi in his post if im reading it correctly means as long as im training and stimulating the muscles this shouldnt be a problem, heavy weights or not...

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You have read it correctly Sir and you'll be just fine.


Fadi.