Coming off an Elbow Injury

Great to hear ryan, 

yes since we last spoke things have been feeling great .

I love the rice bucket exercises they feel immense and my elbows are feeling very good at the moment . The twinges are getting more sporadic so this fills me with confidence going forward 

Massive thanks and love again ryan 

@Leigh Kettle

YES! This is awesome news! So stoked for you  

keep with the protocal and as things continue to get better start advancing your PE's appropriately. 

Say 1-2 weeks from now and things are still good if not better then begin advancing and play it by feel. I can sense the light at the end of the tunnel  

I can almost say for certain that my mind is contributing it's fair share to this injury 

almost the immediate minutes after writing my last post of feeling greAt I've had 2/3 twinges in as many minutes when fully contracted again  

The mind at work is a very peculiar thing lol 

that said as I said before , this is the only time there is pain or a variant of pain now so I'm feeling mentally positive about things as they stand at the moment .

literally can't thank you enough for the help you've provided me with this . This thread will be invaluable to a lot of us doing gst when these kind of issues pop up as they invariably do but hopefully this will help nip them in the bud early and not too late like myself and you .

when we both completely injury free and performing planche we will meet and perform them side by side .. deal ?! :-)

@Leigh Kettle

the mind can contribute a ton to chronic pain, its one of the things that makes it so difficult to get out of. Best practice is to never dwell on where it hurts and constantly be thinking about if it hurts or not. This can make things worse and strengthen those pathways that are signaling pain. 

A good collegue of mine said a similar thing about chronic migraine patients " the more they think about their headaches the better their body gets at feeling pain, more specificaly feeling a head ache. " same applies to our case.

Now and then my arm will ache a little or burn a little. I will acknowledge it for a breif moment and then put it in the background and continue on with the day, never dwelling on it. Before you know it I have forgetten that my arm hurt and am going about my day pain free. I use this strategy alot when I know I am not doing damage to my elbows. For example months ago my elbows used to flare up while walking around not even using my hands. In the beginning I would constantly think and check if my arms were hurrting and as soon as I did within minutes they would start hurtting. I eventually got over this by keeping the mind elsewhere and also rehabing appropriately:) 

and I have it written down in my goals "straddle planche with Leigh"

glad to here things are up. Keep them that way  

Thanks Ryan means a lot your response

yes I am training my mind as much as my body to overcome this Injury so your words help me realise I'm on the right road . 

Thanks again my friend 

Hey Ryan how are you mate ?

hows things progressing with you ?

just had couple of things I'd like to run by you if that's ok ?

elbows feeling good. Very sporadic twinges (the usual when contracted quickly or when bicep is  in a contracted state and pressure applied) and some days they feel like they've been "worked" but not in a pain way . 

im currently up to 1min per wrist movement in the rice bucket and for my bicep curls and triceps skull crushers I'm using a 4kg dumbbell for 2 sets of 30 reps 

how does this sound ?

i was wondering at what stage would You think I'd be deemed ready to start the Scap shrugs again (maybe). The very first step (3x3) on Manna is what I was thinking but I'd take your advice here 

with regards to the bicep and tricep exercises I do tend to feel more fatigue in my forearms and delts than the belly of the bicep or tricep especially towards the end  . Am I doing something wrong here . I figured this was due to me doing them after the rice bucket so maybe I should do the rice bucket at the end . 

Anyway Be good to hear from you again mate 

hope all well 

leigh 

On 5/12/2017 at 0:42 PM, Leigh Kettle said:

im currently up to 1min per wrist movement in the rice bucket and for my bicep curls and triceps skull crushers I'm using a 4kg dumbbell for 2 sets of 30 reps 

how does this sound ?

i

- Increase the weight to 8kg and drop the reps down to 15. You can start loading them a little more aggressively. shoot for 2-3 sets of 15 reps with 8kg. 

I would stay in the 10-15 rep range now. Progress by increasing the weight rather than adding reps continually 

On 5/12/2017 at 0:42 PM, Leigh Kettle said:

 

i was wondering at what stage would You think I'd be deemed ready to start the Scap shrugs again (maybe). The very first step (3x3) on Manna is what I was thinking but I'd take your advice here 

 

- You could give it a try. i would start with some plank holds with straight arms to test things out. Run this for several weeks and see how the elbows adapt. 

On 5/12/2017 at 0:42 PM, Leigh Kettle said:

 

with regards to the bicep and tricep exercises I do tend to feel more fatigue in my forearms and delts than the belly of the bicep or tricep especially towards the end  . Am I doing something wrong here . I figured this was due to me doing them after the rice bucket so maybe I should do the rice bucket at the end . 

 

 - Sounds like forearms are already shot by the time you get to your bicep tricep extensions. Post a video and I could check out your form to make sure your not setting yourself up for compensation. I would move rice work to the end. 

On 5/12/2017 at 0:42 PM, Leigh Kettle said:

Hey Ryan how are you mate ?

hows things progressing with you ?

just had couple of things I'd like to run by you if that's ok ?

- Things are great! Taking the next week off to go on a road trip with my friends as well all just graduated college. Been making some solid progress in the gym, narrowing in on mastery on several of my PE1 exercises so pretty stoked off of that  

Thanks ryan

agaian appreciate all of your help

have a great break mate and great to hear all good with you, speak when you get back

leigh 

@Leigh Kettle

how did the elbows handle the increase in load? 

Also have you progressed your upper body PE's at all? 

What about the scap pushups? 

Hope all is well,

Ryan

Hey Ryan

The increased load seems to be fine mate 

I'm maintaining 5x15 push ups for now to keep my rep range high for couple of weeks so haven't moved on to pppu as yet 

I took your advice and didn't do the Scap push ups but instead have been doing plank holds for 3 x 10 secs all absolutely fine . This is another reason I've not progressed onto pppu yet as I wanted to see how the elbows adapted after the plank holds as I know the pppu loads the tendons more 

 . But What are your thoughts if my actual exercise produces zero pain yet maybe the next day the bent arm contracted "twinge" seems slightly more frequent . Is that just part of the process or is this a sign that I'm doing too much because some days the twinge never shows up 

thabks ryan hope you  well mate 

@Leigh Kettle

- a little extra sourness is okay and expected during the rehab process and in general. Its a sign tissue was stressed and damaged and your body then works to repair. Being to conservative can also lead to stalled progress as you never put an appropriate stimulus for you tissues to adapt. I would say you are at a good spot for your intensity levels, as long as that day after sourness doesn't increase exponentially and fail to return to baseline. 

You are being smart on waiting to try  your pppu. Begin progressing your plank holds, try to get at least half way to mastery volume over time (3 weeks is a good estimate). Once here you can begin starting the Scap Pushups and then play it by feel. 

On ryan thank you and completely understand what you saying about too little stimulus being another way of stalling 

I've had to order my 8kg dumbells but they should be here in couple of days so can start using them for my bi and triceps work . 

Ok I'll continue building up my plank holds . Im currently at 5 x 10 secs 

feeling very good at minute tho 

are you still continuing to make good progress mate ?

@Leigh Kettle 

Follow the Gymanstics Bodies template for the plank holds if you arent already. Try testing out longer holds say 3x24s and work up from there. Im pleased to hear things are feeling good  

Progress is good! I've just started my H1 training this week and no issue! wrist and forearms are weak forsure but there is no sharp pain or burning during or after, outside of muscle fatigue. Very stoked! also my other PE's are progressing very well. I have 4 PE's that are all at stage 8 or 9. Close to leveling up  

Keep Me posted, 

Ryan 

Awesome ryan thank you 

the jump to an 8kg dumbell has caused me to have more of a day after "ache" and throbbing at certain parts of the day . I'm going to limit to approx twice a week for now,would you agree? . There's never any Pain over 4/10 during the exercises but they are significantly harder as expected . However like I say the next day there has been more of a "feeling" of acheyness . I'm not certain whether this is down to the jump in weight or me doing my plank holds (3x24s) as recommended as they have xome at the same time as the jump in weight . Again never any pain during these in fact they are feeling good 

hoping this is just the post workout soreness you said was expected but thought I'd check in with you see what you think 

love seeing your insta videos and you making progress Ryan . :-) 

@Leigh Kettle 

keep it at twice a week mon thur

im okay with day aftwr sourness as long as it goes away before your next session. Ideally you will notice the sourness to decrease as the weeks go by. If you feel its getting worse then this stimulus is too much. 

Keep everything the same for now and keep a close eye on it and use your judgement and make sure to allow that sorness to go away before training again. 

And glad my instagram is providing intertainment/value to you. Decided it would be a good idea to create one just to document the journey

Also make sure there isnt imediate sorness/achey ess that continues to worsen after your training. Usually a sign your over doing it

Yes definitely subsided now so all good thank you ryan

im definitely gonna do the Monday Thursday split with this and see how this goes for a couple of weeks 

I was thinking of adding in some of those elbow Scap shrug drills you were doing on insta as I'm concerned my posterior chain may be falling behind without the Scap shrug she and so many push ups . 

@Leigh Kettle

Add them in! Dont see any issues with that idea and it will help you be able to progress faster once you return to full weight on your hands. We will see how the next couple of weeks go, but I am optimistic that you will be doing scap shrugs on your hands in about 4-6 weeks time. 

Keep at it!

THanks Ryan will do . 

Exciting times for us both 

@Leigh Kettle

Just checkin in to see how things are progressing

Hey Ryan yes things are great thank you . 

Twinges are getting rarer by the week and feeling like they are being looked after and  strengthened how they should have always been 

I'm currently on 4x24 plank holds working towards half mastery as you said before starting again on my Scap shrugs . No side effects from doing these at all, either  through the hold or afterwards so very happy :-) 

am also able to do all the mobility exercises that require straight arm again with no problem . The table rockers used to aggravate slightly but these are feeling good now .

how are things with you mate . Loving your posts as always 

once again thank you so much for all the help you have given me it is so much appreciated 

@Leigh Kettle

So stoked things are going good! about damn time haha. Keep pluggin away! and if you want, feel free to play around with some scap pushups on a elevated surface (such as a bench) and see how they feel. You vary well could be ready for the floor if you can get through the thoracic bridge series with no issues!

Things for me feeling really good! 99.9% pain free, all my exercises are pain free but still have two more hurdles to get over 1) straight arm scap shrugs. On the floor this is still too much (tested it out last night and there was still some sharp twinges). I am also making an adjustment in my training and moving to a elevated scap pushup as a way of safely introducing straight arm strength. 2) getting back into the thoracic bridge series. I am going to give it a run through this weekend and see how I fair. My guess is there is going to be some discomfort but going to do my best to keep a very close eye on it and make sure im not pushing it too hard. (when I returned to passive hanging, after my first session there was some serious soreness for about 48 hours, but sense then I have been able to hang and increase the amount of time spent hanging from the bar without any elevated soreness. So my guess is the first session is going to feel like a lot but eventually things will adapt and be able to handle it)  

Its gonna be a very slow paced entry back into these two but I know in another 2-3 months I should be cranking out full scap pushups and being able to train through the entire thoracic bridge sequence with no issues. 

and i'm glad your digging the posts, same goes to you! am having a lot of fun with it