Losing muscle

So I fucked up my right shoulder/arm pretty good (rotator cuff injury, bicep tendonitis) and I've been told by my physiotherapist not to do any weight-lifting/arm strength exercises (other than the ones she recommends for recovery) for the next little while. However, I'm worried about losing some/most/all of the muscle I have put on over the last 6 months or so.

So my questions are, how quickly will I begin to lose muscle and is there any way to prevent it from happening or to slow it? I'm still doing intense cardio, so it's not like I'm just sitting on my ass and packing on the fat.

Eat lots (especially protein) and workout anything that doesnt hurt your arm.

This is really a shot in the dark answer and I will be honest in telling you that I am not sure...but based on people I have known, who had injuries and had to lay off training for months...yes, they did lose some, but not that much. Plus, when they got back into training, they gained it back. Six months to recover is a lot better then having to live with an injury you aggravated and will not heal completly. You say your doctor has some exercises for you to do...so it sounds like you will bounce back. I was on crutches for a month when I was 21 from an accident and I remember almost every night taking a tape measure and measuring around my body fearful that I would lose a lot...and finally resigning myself to the fact that there was nothing I could do about it, and in the end I recovered nicely.

Are they not giving you any rehab exercises? They should give you a Thera-band and have you doing really boring mundane exercises with your shoulder.....I had separated my shoulder and had bursitis in my rotator cuff and thats what they gave me to do

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Originally Posted by wesrman

Eat lots (especially protein) and workout anything that doesnt hurt your arm.

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The problem with this advice is it looks like it's been ripped off Bodybuilding.com :p

Protein can't be stored in the body like carbohydrate or fat can, so you could eat a full cow but the fact is, if you can't use the muscle, you will lose some of the mass. If you're keeping up to your cardio workouts, i'd suggest upping your carbohydrate and water intake. You'll still lose a little muscle, but you'll be keeping your muscle cells filled with glycogen and water which should keep your muscle looking 'full.'

Don't get me wrong, you'll still need a good amount of protein to recover from the cardio, but carbohydrates and water will aid with mental torture of knowing you're losing muscle, because like i said earlier, they will fill the muscle cells, thus making them look slightly fuller. I know what you're going through, and every little does help. Mentally it's a tough place to be when you've put so much work in, but it's worth remembering that you'll probably be the only one who notices any muscle loss. Other people probably won't be able to tell.

Besides once you start training again, you'll find it fairly easy to put the muscle back on. Just concentrate on making a full recovery, and when you can start to lift again just make sure you go easy. You just have to stay as positive as possible.

Out of interest, what is your carbohydrate intake like during training?

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Originally Posted by El Kabong

Are they not giving you any rehab exercises? They should give you a Thera-band and have you doing really boring mundane exercises with your shoulder.....I had separated my shoulder and had bursitis in my rotator cuff and thats what they gave me to do

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I've got several rehab exercises, but they're all aimed at stabalizing my rotator cuff and shoulder etc., and I'm not allowed to do any upper-body exercises other than the thermaband ones they gave me.

Things actually look pretty bad at the moment (relatively speaking of course). My shoulder isn't responding to treatment and my physiotherapist thinks that I possibly have a torn labrum and that I might need surgery. I need to get an MRI done, but because I live in Canada it is going to take a while, and then if I need surgery it's going to take even longer. Until then, I can't do anything but cardio and core/lower body workouts.

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Originally Posted by ono

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wesrman

Eat lots (especially protein) and workout anything that doesnt hurt your arm.

---

The problem with this advice is it looks like it's been ripped off Bodybuilding.com :p

Protein can't be stored in the body like carbohydrate or fat can, so you could eat a full cow but the fact is, if you can't use the muscle, you will lose some of the mass. If you're keeping up to your cardio workouts, i'd suggest upping your carbohydrate and water intake. You'll still lose a little muscle, but you'll be keeping your muscle cells filled with glycogen and water which should keep your muscle looking 'full.'

Don't get me wrong, you'll still need a good amount of protein to recover from the cardio, but carbohydrates and water will aid with mental torture of knowing you're losing muscle, because like i said earlier, they will fill the muscle cells, thus making them look slightly fuller. I know what you're going through, and every little does help. Mentally it's a tough place to be when you've put so much work in, but it's worth remembering that you'll probably be the only one who notices any muscle loss. Other people probably won't be able to tell.

Besides once you start training again, you'll find it fairly easy to put the muscle back on. Just concentrate on making a full recovery, and when you can start to lift again just make sure you go easy. You just have to stay as positive as possible.

Out of interest, what is your carbohydrate intake like during training?

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Are you asking me or Wes?

I eat quite a bit of carbs. I almost always have a sandwich for lunch and I eat pasta fairly regularly. Aside from that, I don't really know. I'm more focused on my calorie intake, mostly because I have no idea how to monitor anything else in any meaningful way.

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Originally Posted by CFH

I've got several rehab exercises, but they're all aimed at stabalizing my rotator cuff and shoulder etc., and I'm not allowed to do any upper-body exercises other than the thermaband ones they gave me.

Things actually look pretty bad at the moment (relatively speaking of course). My shoulder isn't responding to treatment and my physiotherapist thinks that I possibly have a torn labrum and that I might need surgery. I need to get an MRI done, but because I live in Canada it is going to take a while, and then if I need surgery it's going to take even longer. Until then, I can't do anything but cardio and core/lower body workouts.

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......oh really


....Do those rehab exercises like it's your job, that's all I can tell you, I separated my shoulder and had bursitis and I had to do rehab and I half assed it and ended up fucking my shoulder up again.