Getting over the fear after an injury
23 post(s),
9 voice(s)
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Ok guys here's the thing- I'm doing great and everything is running on all cylinders. My lifts are shooting up like I'm on heroin and my back feels stronger than Captain America. However, I always have the fear of getting hurt again in the back of my mind. Especially when I unrack that heavy weight from the squat rack, all I can think is "don't get hurt, this is really heavy" etc etc. Now it's a good thing that I'm being super-anal about my form, but I don't think it's healthy to have these negative thoughts about injury. I feel like if I'm not 1000% confident everytime I lift, I could be setting myself up for something bad. I know my body is ready to get back into things, so how can I convince my mind to stop worrying and just go with it? I need to be cautious, but not fearful.
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Hey Sleeplifter, i now exactly how you feel. Last year i was 10 weeks out from nancy's show when i had the pleasure of knowing what a biceps tear feels like.(total detachment)Had it fixed and got back on track. But, i still can't shake off the feeling that it's going to happen again. Even thow it probably won't due to the fact that i changed the way i lift from lift-pause-lift to pause-think-lift. My dear friend murph helped me threw that very tough time and i am forever greatful. Something i learned on the way back was that putting in only 99.9% is still pretty dam good. I guess we'll see if that works come may! |
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Hi Dan Good to meet you. Unfortunately, I cannot say that I have too much positive to say on this. I am training under Sean's guidance at the moment, and am constantly referring old injuries to him, that I need to work around. In fact I have one, at the moment. Most of my injuries occurred between the ages of 27 & 33, with 2 exercises being entirely responsible, the squat and the deadlift. Until I was 25, I thought I was invincible and that my back could handle anything, with the deadlift being my favourite exercise. I was brought down to earth with a crash. I am mechanically not made to squat, and injuries from this exercise involved going too heavy and in poor form. I have always maintained that if I had my time over again, I would never squat or deadlift heavy from the outset. No doubt that drew a sharp intake of breath . . . . . . . what's this old guy talking about !!! My mindset these past few years is that if it hurts, don't do it and, if you think it could hurt because of past experiences, just don't push it. I maintain that good form is better for me and I always leave one rep in the tank ( on heavy moves ), which is a positive thing in my view both mentally and physically.You come back to the next workout knowing there was a little left from the previous workout and not setting yourself up for failure. You are young and cannot even contemplate training when you are my age, but if you carry on this great hobby through your life, you will have a book to write on your own experiences on the subject! Good luck! |
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Strength doesn't have to and shouldn't be pushed without logical progression and breaks. It's the intensity, effort, and over-10 rep sets that cause growth. (Just reviewed a great article on testosterone production in different rep ranges in my Science or Fiction column to come out in 3 months). Example on how I played a scenario a couple of months ago: Slowly rebuilt my dead lift to 450 with about 12-14 weeks of NLP training and I was really struggling to get bigger lifts every cycle. I too feared that I was reaching the end of what I could get this round and decided to back off and for the next 2-3 months stopped at 315 (supersetting into the dead with pulldowns to pre-exhaust the lats) and built my rep ranges higher and higher until I reached my goal of 25 reps at 315....took painful weeks/months to do that. I guarantee that was worth more than the strength work....but you need to get stronger in a smart way along the way to use intensity work with bigger loads. I could have pushed and pushed for bigger than 450, but I knew it was time to switch.
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I'm aware of the hypertrophy ranges and what not, but I have to say my legs have been pretty destroyed on a weekly basis from 4-6 rep heavy squats. There's got to be some growth going on there.
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Not as much. Destroyed is one thing; growth is another. Hypertrophy vs. Power vs. Strength rep ranges aren't just pretty words in a textbook - there's research showing the biochem and phys behind them.
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http://www.t-nation.com/article/most_recent/hungarian_oak_leg_blast interesting article from t-nation.....time + tension = hypertrophy this guy builds up to 8 minute squats |
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So does the 10+ rep range for hypertrophy apply to all bodyparts- for example- I've been going in the 5-8 range on arms.
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Yes but you can be toward the bottom edge. Legs are more 12-20 reps due to slow-twitch dominance, for example. And as Stu showed, time under tension is THE basis of the physics principle WORK. I'm tell'n ya, Fred Dimenna has had 4 great articles in a row in NB&F on it. Being a current PhD student, he reads like the I-haven't-gotten-over-how-smart-I-can-sound-using-big-words typical grad student, but if you can get by that, he's dead on.
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I've read a few of Dimenna articles and I will say the content is good- but you're right, the vocabulary gets a little obviously over-complicated. Just not a quick read- I hate reading stuff I have to THINK about.
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Good articles, though - he covers the physiology of what actually constitutes growth.
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speaking on the topic of rep ranges and strenght v power v hypertrophy: |
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speaking on the topic of rep ranges and strenght v power v hypertrophy: the alternate heavy and high volume style that you write about is largely predicated on strength reps 2-5 and then perhaps a rep range of 10-12 as a finishing exercise for 1-2 sets. does this exclude the "power" rep ranges? and if so, is there any consequence of this by way of bodybuilding? or is the high volume intended to incorporate the power and hypertrophy rep ranges? |
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if you are referrig to NLP, high volume is meant to be a form of active rest, allowing you to get solid work into a muscle group without killing it with heavy weight every single week. It lets you train with intensity on the workouts that are not "strength" workouts. But at the end of the day, intensity is key. You can stimulate muscle growth by a variety of training methodologies. Truth be known, variety is the spice of life in the gym.
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ah please..what do YOU know McCauley?
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