Back to the gym questions

I'm ready to hit the gym again after recovering from an injury for around a year. I overworked myself at the gym and should have known better.

This time I plan to take it easier and learn from my mistakes. However, I have lost all my gains and am essentially a beginner again. Hopefully there are some knowledgeable lifters here on ATS. My question is, for a beginner would it be wise to just stick to the typical program of Full Body Workouts 3-4x a week, or do you think splitting it up by Upper Body/Lower Body 4x a week would be okay? I know consistency is key but I'm not sure which would be more beneficial in terms of strength gains and general improvement.

Any advice?

Thanks

a reply to: that1lurker

I honestly couldn't say except to tell you that when I was getting off my shoulder surgery, I was starting to take some different classes while I was still in physical therapy. I found that my PTs were invaluable in guiding me towards what I could do and how I should do it in terms of my injury and working back up from it.

a reply to: ketsuko

Right on, my injury was shoulder related as well. Not too sure what happened exactly, never did get it checked out but it feels a ton better now after doing some PT exercises I found online and doing lots of stretching. I plan on continuing to do PT and yoga while I workout this time.

Glad your shoulder is doing better, hopefully? I know how it feels.

Need a lot more details to get you along the perfect plan. You can get a lot of good info im sure of it. However everybody is a little different. A proper consultation is needed to get you on the best path or perfect for your goals. Any path that makes you do more and adapt is good of start than any.

I have trained the whole spectrum over 20 years. 1 thing I know is fitness is not a one size fits all!
a reply to: that1lurker

a reply to: randomthoughts12
Thanks for the reply. A reason why I ask is because it seems beginners are often discouraged from doing a upper/lower split. I am not sure why. I feel like as long as you hit the basic compound lifts/movements twice a week it should be okay. By that I mean, Squat, deadlift, bench, OHP, Rows, pullups.

So in theory, there shouldn't be too big of a difference between Fullbody 3x a week vs Upper/lower splits 4x a week, right?

a reply to: that1lurker

It's not 100%, but it never probably will be again. I had severe, severe frozen shoulder, a SLAP tear, and nerve compression issues all going on it my right at the same time. I lost nearly 100% of the internal/external rotation in my shoulder.

When they did surgery, I had a global capsulotomy, SLAP repair with biceps tenodesis (sp), and suprascapular nerve decompression all at the same time. I was a year in PT, most of it more than once/week.

Right now, I'd say I'm about 95%+ in that shoulder. I do tae kwon do since my kiddo does, and it looked like fun and I needed to keep my shoulders moving. I compete. I learned combat sparring left handed because I trusted that shoulder more, and I'm just now getting to where I feel equally comfortable with my right about two years in.

Strength-wise, both shoulders are about equal. Where I can really still tell is when my morning exercise instructor hits the rotational lifts. I have to really drop the weight for those.

a reply to: ketsuko

Oof, that's quite the injury. Terrible. I can only imagine how painful that was. Like I said, I never got mine checked out, but for the first 2-3 months I could not sleep on it at all. Had to learn how to sleep on my back. I did some research on shoulder surgery in case I had a SLAP tear, just so I would know what to expect if I went that route. I imagine it was over 6 months of recovery?

Hopefully it doesn't come down to that, but we will see. Definitely have some weird nerve issues, but I'm hoping since it has improved so much, I can just keep up with mobility and strengthening the surrounding muscles and it will all work out.

On the bright side, you can fight southpaw and orthodox now. Glad you are at least 95% recovered. It seems like shoulder injuries are some of the worst to regain full function from. I think PT is a major factor in achieving a better recovery.

a reply to: that1lurker

I had it done just before Thanksgiving the year before we all got put into lockdown. So November, and I was just getting to where I had been cleared to take a water aerobics class with it when lockdowns hit in March. That seems like it was about 4 months before I was cleared to start some basic, gentle exercise.

Instead of the pool, I ended up taking parts of kiddo's tkd Zoom classes doing basic mobility type work for my arms through lockdown.

From there, I got into a step class once things opened up, and my PTs walked me through how to do the basic lifts we were doing with that so as not to upset my arm. And I added a family TKD class over the summer with kiddo, and my instructor was more than willing to pitch in and work with us to allow for modifications but he's good about that.

By the time I was ready to roll with full classes in the fall, it basically working through the last of the soreness and stiffness and then strengthening it to catch it up to the left.

Stronglifts 5x5 program....download the app, start out light, you will be back to where you were in 3 months.


a reply to: that1lurker

IMO, and I am no expert, if your main goal is to build muscle, some kind of Upper/Lower or Push/Pull/Legs split would be awesome.

If your main goal is to build strength, do a program like Strong Lifts or 5/3/1.

If you're looking for a nice mix of functional movements, muscle building, strength gains, and cardio, a kettlebell program would be my go to.

Also check out Greyskull LP which is a pretty cool mix of strength building and hypertrophy and is very moldable to the individual and their respective goals.

a reply to: that1lurker

I crashed my tiny car at 130km an hour... I destroyed myself and had to learn to walk again
Took years to recover for me yoga was helped to get me strong .. yang yoga (power yoga ) to build core strength and yin which is hold a pose for 3 to 5 mins for a release to occur .. that one is great for preventing injuries ... Body builders have started doing yin yoga . And it is interesting to see them in our classes as they are so stiff and tight from all the heavy lifting they cannot get into the poses right they attended these classes to soften their bodies and help to prevent injuries associated with weight lifting