injured trainee seeks help

I hope Ive put this into the right forum section, so bear with me

Hi, my name is Stergios, I am from Germany and I live right now in Peru, because I am working as a volunteer with urchins and I am new in this forum

One year ago I started with Gymnastic Strength Training™ and didnt really have a workout plan or someone who introduced me. I trained 5 days in the week and even sometimes the same joints in a row, also I started with complex exercises like iron cross without considering the basics I guess.

I combined bodybuilding workout plans with gymnastic strength exercises – in other words I splitted my workout throughout the week by bodyparts (like monday legs, tuesday chest etc...). Every workout lasted 1,5 h and exercises I used were e.g. Swiss Handstands, One Arm Pullups, Mucleup Work, Tuck Planche Pushups, Pistol-Squats, Frontlevers, Human Flags, Assisted Handstands in rings, Bodyweight Pushdowns, but also Backsquats and Deadlifts.

My regeneration wasnt very good as well – I was and am still very tensed up, eventhough it got a lot better (very tight face/jaw/neck etc...)

So of course this had to lead to injury. One day I was doing Pull ups and my Biceps and my forearms were extremely thick, but with no pain. I just had this feeling of extreme thickness.

Other symptoms were that my bicep and forearm tendons were also very tense, they almost felt like stranded wire.

Then I took a break of about 9 months (also because of my school exams) after which I wanted to start all over again.

So I decided that I would need less training days and evener trained body parts:

1st day: Pushing movements / “Chest/Triceps-dayâ€: handstands, swiss handstands, tuck planche, push ups with the fingers pointing to the feed, bodyweight push downs / triceps extensions

2nd day: Weighted leg exercises: Deadlifts, Frontsquats, Lunges, Hipthrust + Shin exercises

3rd day: Pulling Movements / “Back/Biceps-dayâ€: Iron Cross, Human Flag, Mucle Ups, Frontlevers, One Arm Pullups → dropset to suppinated Pullups

4th day: Bodyweight Leg exercises: Pistolsquats, Glute Ham Raises & Reverse GHR, Leg Pullups + calve jump exercises

At first I started again exercising when I was on vacation. Training allways like this: 1 day exercising, 1 day pausing – of course I couldnt do the weighted leg exercises, so I made a sprint-day out of it.

In conclusion it felt good, even if my forearms felt thick on the upper body training days, it disappeared shortly after. This went on for more or less 4 weeks.

When I went back to Germany I decided to add a training day on which I wanted to do abs

→ monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday, saturday exercising.

After thursday I felt again this thickness in my arms which wont disappeare this time.

Another thing is my posture – I am working years now to fix my poor posture and made even some progression (I could improve my kypho-lordosis and forward head posture a lot, but it still needs some work). So I wanted my next training program to be a hybrid made of gymnastic strength, olympic weight lifting and corrective exercises (e.g. Overhead-Squats, Front-Squats, Lunges, Deadlifts, Hipthrusts, Bodyweight Facepulls & -flys for the rear delts), because I had the feeling, that my posture got worse through the Gymnastic Strength Training™.

So my question is how to approach my next training-program and the rehabilitation of my body in preparation for working out again and more effective and sustainable then before, because I dont want to be injured once more and I think that this forum is one of the best places to get my answers. And further more, because I am interested in learning how the human body functions, I wanted to know why the muscles and tendons in my arm reacted this way (too much strait arm work / too much stress on the stabilisation muscles?).

Slowly I am getting desperate and I hope that you have got my answers, because I want to improve in my training and my knowledge and not be stuck with injuries...

And if I have put this into the wrong forum section or used false grammar, I am sorry – I tried my best

So thanks anyway!

I think you need some Gua Sha type scraping therapy for your entire arm, from the fingers up to the shoulders. Seriously.

As for corrective stuff, everyone has different opinions. I'm of the opinion that you need to start loading at the head if you want to significantly improve your forward head posture and then do curl ups and arch ups. You will need to start very light and focus on the proper neck movement as well as the back movement. I would also do hollow holds for the lordosis, and start practicing standing handstand spinal alignment drills while doing most of your upper body work (bicep curls, shoulder raises, pull ups, things like that. Not for heavy bent over rows or deadlifts or anything.)

Chances are that you have a lot of correction to do with the feet and hips as well, as most of us do. Kit Laughlin has good materials and I don't know what his recommendations are as I have not really looked at his lower body stuff yet.

You may want to start with squats using bands around the knees, and also try to grip the ground with your foot. I have a few drills I use to re-train the tibialis posterior to work, and you can start by using band-loaded ankle inversion. You can also use a cable machine for this.

If you need to know what that stuff is, I would suggest searching the terms in google and reading. If you aren't sure what you are reading is right, direct us to what you read and ask if it's reasonably accurate.

For head loading you will need a head/neck harness. I use the Headstrap Fit for Hercules, which I bought way back when I had more scholarship money. Cheaper headstraps are just as good. Try to get one rated for at least 75 lbs. Mine's rated for over 1000. I know, excessive.

I would contribute, on the topic of head/neck training, that significant (and manageable) neck training can be performed with wrestler's bridges.

Essentially, beginning with hand support, to roll onto the crown of the head and roll the head (tiny increments of 1-2 centimeters) in each of the four primary directions (toward brow, toward spine, toward left ear, and toward right ear), holding 5-10 seconds in each position. Each week, add either 1-2 centimeters of movement OR 5 seconds in each hold. Emphasize contraction of the muscles opposite the direction you are rolling, rather than "stretching" of the muscles on the rolling side.

In my years since American football and rugby play, when headstraps were standard for neck training, I returned to the bridges we utilized during my brief stints in Greco-Roman wrestling & mixed martial arts. These will also build functional movement patterns, useful in the necessary extension of your bridges from headstand-to-bridge to full bridge holds (which you certainly should do!) and in the relief of neck pain after long hours of study (with which I am all too familiar).

Just another opinion. Best luck!

Toward strength,

Dunte

Dunte said:

I would contribute, on the topic of head/neck training, that significant (and manageable) neck training can be performed with wrestler's bridges.

Essentially, beginning with hand support, to roll onto the crown of the head and roll the head (tiny increments of 1-2 centimeters) in each of the four primary directions (toward brow, toward spine, toward left ear, and toward right ear), holding 5-10 seconds in each position. Each week, add either 1-2 centimeters of movement OR 5 seconds in each hold. Emphasize contraction of the muscles opposite the direction you are rolling, rather than "stretching" of the muscles on the rolling side.

In my years since American football and rugby play, when headstraps were standard for neck training, I returned to the bridges we utilized during my brief stints in Greco-Roman wrestling & mixed martial arts. These will also build functional movement patterns, useful in the necessary extension of your bridges from headstand-to-bridge to full bridge holds (which you certainly should do!) and in the relief of neck pain after long hours of study (with which I am all too familiar).

Just another opinion. Best luck!

Toward strength,

Dunte

Done properly these can definitely be of use.

If anyone ever has any doubts about whether they are doing these right, you may want to consider doing something else for neck strength.

If everything feels good and you are being smart about progression and self-spotting like Dunte mentioned, these can be really good for you. Just be careful and always be ready to self-spot.

It is very easy to do too much of any neck work, whether head bridging or using a neck harness, which will result in some remarkably uncomfortable days/weeks of cramps and tightness. Take it super slow in the beginning either way!