How long before increased strength is obvious?

The reason I ask...

Years ago I injured my left shoulder, leaving me with practically zero strength in it.  Last winter up to about January I was doing GB exercises and handstand work.  I laid off the strength work from Jan to Feb and then got injured in early Feb.  So zero strength work since January.

I have not been able to do a hand stand push up since my shoulder injury in 2002.  I was not able to do them last winter during my work outs.

Somehow today I was able to do a single handstand push up.

Was it the magnetic pull of the moon or something?

depends on the type of conditioning work you do. since i'm coming off a few injuries myself( pretty long list but not limited to, wrecked wrists from bailed nose manuals, hyperextended knees, deviated hip, seperated shoulder, fractured and broken fingers, multiple concussions) and actually after just 8 weeks of H1, i came to meet the "speed bump" of scar tissue in my right shoulder from when i seperated it 9 yrs ago. it feels funky. 

anyway, if you have a good basic, progressive and effective(not limited to any order yet all of those included would be golden) you can bounce back from any injury unless not endorsed by your health professional(which hopefully is geared towards athletics)

my chiro told me muscle imbalance issues are not something i need to work on in my lower body or upper body, that i should just keep visiting him. so i stopped going to visit him altogether, but thats in my case. hopefully, and i pray, it is not yours. 

as your performance goes, i'm not sure if it's upto GB standards, but I have a pretty strong lower body(until I started training here) so maybe you did do it perfect, but it's highly unlikely unless your a usual here. 

no offense, of course, I just wouldn't like to, in good conscious, send you off saying "yeah, if it works for you, go for it" because im not as knowledgeable as the other forum members, not to mention the moderators, they are extremely resourceful and very smart at what they're suggesting progressive and helpful measures to ensure top quality in movement and strength gains. 

my recommendation -would- be this though, if you've already mastered Foundation 1 and 2 with good form, your injury will not be induced due to overuse injury or unprepared joints(which in fact is one in the same), that i can comfortably tell you.  

KeilaniG said:

i came to meet the "speed bump" of scar tissue in my right shoulder from when i seperated it 9 yrs ago. it feels funky. 

 

Mostly unrelated, but I have a small ball of scar tissue on my clavicular joint that is oh-so-gradually shrinking away with dislocate work can't wait till it's completely gone. The feeling of it gradually loosening and allowing my left shoulder to sit neutral (without internal rotation) is and was well worth the price of the course.

151, could you be a bit more specific - what do you want to know, exactly?

I guess what I am asking is, how come when I was healthy and working out I could not do a handstand push up, but now even though I am coming off an injury and three months of zero exercise all of a sudden I am able to do one.

Maybe things have healed up. Maybe you have been doing things that you don't realize are helpful!

This is like you walking up to us with a closed box you found somewhere in Antarctica and saying "hey, what's in this box?" We don't know, it's not our box. We weren't there when it was made, filled, lost, etc.

We can't tell you any specifics, because we don't have access to any of the relevant details.

What is important now is that you take care of yourself, train smart, and take your time so you don't get hurt!

Joshua Naterman said:

 (...) a closed box you found somewhere in Antarctica and saying "hey, what's in this box?" (...)

Do not - DO NOT - open that box!

Ever...

I recall reading something in BtGB detailing strength gains. I may be mistaken...anyone want to clarify?

Super Saiyan said:

I recall reading something in BtGB detailing strength gains. I may be mistaken...anyone want to clarify?

Vague... I will be impressed by anyone who can clarify this.

As far as I recall, Coach stated that the strength increase during the first six weeks of a program were neurological adaptations, while actual strengthening of tissue takes longer.

Ravn said:

As far as I recall, Coach stated that the strength increase during the first six weeks of a program were neurological adaptations, while actual strengthening of tissue takes longer.

Yes this is what I remember.

This is part of introductory exercise physiology (not meant to be insulting, rather I am trying to help you guys identify which free classes you might want to enroll in online to learn more about this!).

In the beginning of training, your strength gains are primarily neurological, because your nervous system isn't good at using your current muscle mass to its full potential.

From the very first workout on, you are sending physical stimuli to the tissues AND the nervous system. Tissue remodeling is slow and steady, while the increase in force production from sending more synchronized signals (and lowering activation thresholds) happens pretty quickly.

After about 10-12 weeks, your body has made virtually all of the neurological adaptation it can make to those muscles, and all future strength increase is due to tissue remodeling, which is quite slow by comparison. The following graph is not entirely accurate, but it is good enough to illustrate the point. By the 8th week, neurological adaptation is responsible for less than 5% of gains moving forward from there, and by the 10th week less than 1%.

It is very important to keep this next bit in mind: This graph is telling you what is happening inside a single muscle. It is not telling you that you will maximize your neural adaptation in a handstand, squat, front lever, etc. in 7-10 weeks. The individual muscles, internally, will have maximized their neural adaptation (assuming you're using the right muscles), but you can continue to coordinate the multiple muscle groups better and better over long periods of time. Even so, you will find that most of the motor learning aspect happens within the first 2-3 months, and that after this it is small adjustment after smalll adjustment.

The hardest part about exercise physiology is that there is zero direct connection between what happens inside an individual muscle, and what happens to your impact on the outside world. You typically learn what happens inside a single muscle first, and THEN you learn how this affects human movement. This connection is sometimes a challenge to make, but give it time and repetition and you will get there eventually.

Things you need to understand to make the connection:

• Internal muscle force production
• Muscle-tendon force-velocity and length-tension curves, including both what they mean AND why the graphs made from real subjects differ from theoretical models as muscle force increases.
• torque, particularly with 3rd class lever systems.

Good luck!