How to keep size and strength while facing a training injury

Hi guys,

This is the 7^th video/article in the ”100” video/article series on Mission Critical Transformation Concepts for the older guy.

What is this article about?

I am going to discuss the following statement: When your one arm (or leg) is out of action due to injury, do not stop training with the other arm (or leg). With the available arm, train biceps/triceps/shoulders while holding the injured arm still. By just training the one-arm, the brain still sends growth and strength gain signals to both arms simply by exercising just the other non-injured arm. This holds true for legs as well.

Older guys and injuries

One of the key problems the older guy face is training downtime due to injury. My philosophy regarding older guys and training injuries is that injury should just about NEVER prevent you from training. Obviously you should not train the injured body part and allow the necessary healing, but you should continue training with wisdom around the injury. The rule is…just never stop completely!

Stopping training all together for any lengthy period for the older guy has the ability to permanently derail his future muscle and training goals. The older guy cannot like a younger guy just get back to training and recover what was lost even with muscle memory! When the older guy stops training, his body slides back at a very fast rate and as we get older, the body’s ability to build muscle, becomes problematic and a very slow process.

That means, when for example the left arm is out of action (for whatever reason), then you should keep training with the right arm and vice versa. The same applies to the legs.

Now, many of you are going to raise an eyebrow and ask…”but Gert, that will mean my one arm/leg will become bigger than the other and I will lose my balanced look”. Although that is true when we talk about long term training in this manner (let’s say longer than 3 months), it is not true for shorter durations of training.

Science studies proof

The University of Saskatchewan in Canada and the University of Oklahoma did some specific science studies in this regard and found proof to support the one limb training approach – training one arm (or leg) while the other is out of action. The studies showed that it helps you keeping the strength (and size) in the other immobilised arm (leg) that is not trained, simply via the brain sending signals to the both limbs while just the one limb is trained. Science study: https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/japplphysiol.00971.2017

Conclusion

The older guy cannot afford complete downtimes exceeding 14 days (even 14 days is too long). The time required to recover the damage done due to down time becomes so long that eventually it becomes near impossible to regain what was lost.

This is important for the over 40. For the over 50 it becomes rule that he MUST apply. For the over 60 it becomes critical. Not adhering to this training approach can completely break the older guy muscle building efforts.

So, to recap, the injury rule for the older guy is to NOT STOP TRAINING when he is facing tendon/joint or muscle injury but to wisely train around it and incorporate this concept of training just the one arm or leg when facing injuries since it will help him keeping shape, size and strength even in the limb not trained!

However, this will only help with muscle sparing effects (prevent muscle shrinkage in the affecting limb) which is all one wants when facing injury “downtime”. It cannot be used to grow muscles in the affecting limb.

Other things…

The over 40 body transformation challenge for 2021

Now all my older muscle brothers, listen up – Yearly I will be running the transformation challenge for over 40 guys. Normal “average Joe” kinda guys. I invite each of my over 40 followers to consider joining this challenge. The 2021 GFIT challenge is open.

Use this challenge to do what you always failed to do. Enter, commit and be inspired.

To enter have a look here: 2021 G-FIT TRANSFORMATION challenge

Donation request

Remember guys, my YouTube channel and website (www.gertlouw.com) is my only income. So, I kindly ask that if any of my videos have helped you, to please make a small donation for my efforts. DONATION link: https://paypal.me/GERTFITNESS