Bodyweight Maintaining shoulder (and overall) strength with hand injury

[crazycanuck]

Hello everyone, I usually frequent the kettlebell forum, but thought I would ask some questions here as well.

Background--46 yrs old female, not new to kettlebells, some limited bodyweight experience. Starting into 9th month of s&S program for kettlebells, reached time standard for females of 16kg getups in less than 10 min this past week, still working on swings for the 24kg goal, and currently doing 20 kg one handed for 10 sets 10 reps, just to give you all an idea where I am at.

Unfortunatly 2 days ago suffered a fractured metacarpal in my dominant hand, below the last knuckle 5th finger and am looking at 4-6 weeks in a cast, likely 6. My ring and 5th finger are in the cast bent towards my palm at 45 degrees and I am casted to 4in below the elbow.

I have been cleared to do things like rotations, stretches, pinching putty, extensions/rubber band stuff for remaining fingers, to hook fingers in a band and retract my scapula/do rows. etc. Overall that would help maintain some semblance of forearm and grip strength and lat activation when it comes back to swings, but my main concern upper body wise is that I retain some sort of upper body strength that can translate back to my getups. I would be able to do to the elbow only on the affected side, but obviously can't hold a kb overhead on the casted side so I am worried about my overhead pressing type capabilities in that shoulder when it comes to getups. Fortunately it is my dominant side/stronger shoulder. Wondering if anyone has any ideas at all...i am thinking my options are pretty limited!

As far as other stuff lower body, I have only some periodic dabblings in bodyweight stuff...enough ankle flexibility to somewhat do a pistol (I can go down with control, and get partway up, usually need to give a little pull on the support pole in my basement to get past a certain sticking point). With one legged deadlifts, I am a bit wobbly on the left vs the right coming down and back up from the hinge. Can hold planks (from the elbow now only, obviously ). I have debated just continuing to swing my kb with the other arm especially as I do not want to lose hip power and cardio endurance (that cardio has been very hard to build) but do not want to become imbalanced on this side in my upper back/lat from retracting the scapula in swings. I live very far from a gym and due to ice/snow/my cast am leery of running outside.

If any of you have ideas for me, especially things that would translate well to swings and getups in the end I would appreciate it!

 

[Boosh32]

You are 95% there with the "What can I do attitude." vs. "I can't do.".

I am currently doing physical therapy for a knee replacement. Two things that seem to directly relate to swings are glute bridges off of a box and straight leg sit ups. The images were found on the internet.

I only do the glute bridges with my calves on the box but as the photos shows there are a lot of possibilities. I was surprised I could easily do the the straight leg sit ups which I have never done before. I think it is a WTH from S&S. At PT I do 10x3 for both but they can easily be 10x10 if someone has time.

My main cardio at PT is a stationary bike. I also get a lot from 10x3 box siting and 10x3 step ups. These can be hard on the knees so don't over do these. Don't forget straw breathing. It will help you a lot more than you might think.

 

[Tarzan]

Maybe you could tie a band through the handle of a kettlebell & hook the other end over your bicep and then do partial getups. It won't do anything for grip strength but it will help a bit with the diagonal loading of your torso like a TGU.

If you get creative with the bands you should be able to improvise many positions that will work a partial range of many full lifts.

& there's always good old fashioned isometrics, where you find a solid object and just push or pull against it. Handrails, stairs or even doorways can be used.

An injury can be a blessing in disguise if you approach it the right way. It's an opportunity to identify what you can still do and work that to the best of your ability. Sometimes those things you can still do are areas that are otherwise neglected in your training, so when you resume full training again you come back stronger after a short adjustment period.

 

[305pelusa]

enough ankle flexibility to somewhat do a pistol (I can go down with control, and get partway up, usually need to give a little pull on the support pole in my basement to get past a certain sticking point). With one legged deadlifts, I am a bit wobbly on the left vs the right coming down and back up from the hinge.

Frankly, I would dedicate myself to really mastering the Pistol Squat. Six weeks is too little time, but that just means that there's plenty of work to be done and you won't be out of things to work on. I wouldn't even care much about the One-legged DL, but I'm pretty biased. I'm a huge Pistol fan. I've gotten to some pretty heavy ones (with the Beast), and that has translated to some absurd stuff like 2.5 time BW DLs without ever touching a barbell. I think there's a ton to be gained here.

An injury can be a blessing in disguise if you approach it the right way. It's an opportunity to identify what you can still do and work that to the best of your ability. Sometimes those things you can still do are areas that are otherwise neglected in your training, so when you resume full training again you come back stronger after a short adjustment period.

This.
Let me introduce you to the 5 best isometrics you could be doing right now:
1) Forearm Plank
2) Side Forearm Plank
3) Reverse Plank (on your elbows)
4) Hollow hold
5) Arch hold

Try this basic routine. Go from one to the other one, and go for a max hold (maintain good form!). It's obvious that your Hollow hold max hold won't be as good as you'll be tired from the max holds from the Planks, but that's fine. Take 30 secs of rest between attempts.

Now that you have your max holds, you can program your training. Do 3-5 circuits of half of you max hold for each exercise. Rest 30-60 secs between exercises, and as long as needed between each circuit such that you can complete the next circuit.

This will take roughly 15-20 minutes. Go ahead and do this daily. Every two weeks, go for new maxes and re-program. You should do your Pistol training before.


Here's what you will notice:
1) This kind of training is very gymnastics-oriented. In fact, it's essentially what all trainees start with when they work on the GymnasticBodies curriculum. Expect a lot of WTH effects when you get back to your KBs.
2) This kind of training will take care of your conditioning. You'll be huffing and puffing. It will feel different than the "Easy Conditioning" from S&S, but it's only 6 weeks so don't despair. This kind of training seems to build insane work capacity. It's why gymnasts seem to be able to train for 2+ hours. They're used to this kind of skill-based volume.

Just my 2 cents. If I was missing a hand for 6 weeks, this is exactly what I would do. AND I would expect to be even stronger after 6 weeks frankly.

 

[crazycanuck]

@305pelusa do you have a vid or link to arch hold? I think I know what hollow hold would be though...

 

[305pelusa]

@305pelusa do you have a vid or link to arch hold? I think I know what hollow hold would be though...

I should mention, these are usually called "BodyLine Drills" and they're incredibly useful. Think of them as the Foundation of calisthenics strength training. Daniel Vadnal made a video of the Reddit recommended calisthenics routine. From 3:22 to 5:20, you'll see all 5 exercises, with different scaling variations. Pick as you please:



I think the video is good to be on the same page.

Like I said, I can't recommend these exercises enough. They're literally the building blocks of calisthenics strength training. It's not uncommon for people to reach things like Dragon Flags and L-sits without ever trying them just from paying religious dues to these exercises.

Hope that gives you some good ideas!