How To Prevent Muscle Lose After Training Injury?

[Chittychangchang]

Strained my elbow and knee joints 3 weeks ago due to weightlifting.

Knees have healed but elbows till strained.

Been weightlifting for over a year now and was happy with the gains and overall fitness.

However since the injury's my muscle's have declined due to resting.

Seeking advice on supplements/vitamins or tips to stop the losses.

Could amino acids help? I take fish oils!

Cheers

CCC

Edited March 13, 2013 by Chittychangchang

[Kalbo]

Aside from anabolic steroids (which are illegal) I have never heard of any supplement that would prevent muscle loss, and am interested as to what is, if any, is available. just curious, but what did you do to manage to strain your knees and elbows ?

[robblok]

To be honest there is not much you can do about this, even steroids won't help as steroids still need exercise to be effective. It is really anoying for sure to loose muscles but there is a bright side to this. You will have muscle memory meaning you will be back to that point quite fast. But a 3 week stop is not that much muscle loss and wil be back real fast as it is mainly stored energy in your muscles that is not needed plus some swelling you normally get from training.

However i really understand how frustrating this is as i have enountered the same before. But a break like this is not really that bad, 2 months yes.. but this is easily recovered. I recently had a shoulder injury and i took some glucosamine, i am not endorcing the product but the shoulder is healed. It could be normal healing, it could be glucosamine. Thing is the healing started better after taking glucosamine. On the other hand i have read that it takes long for glucosamine to work so it might not have been it at all. But its available cheap 10gb incl postage at ebay.

I wish you luck working out and hope you recover fast. Good luck and don't let this get you down.

More serious is the lack of training metally, its easy to get out of the habit of training that is something you should watch for much more.

[Tolley]

I have had two months off and lost over 3kg in weight and most of it muscle but I still feel okay.

I have been playing squash but havent had the inclination to do any weights.

What is interesting is that I have also lost some weight around the midriff which is a good thing.

I think often when you do weights you end up eating too much so put on fat as well as muscle.

Anyway I am at my lowest weight for years 81 kgs but i will get back to the gym in the next week and start slowly again building up more muscle,

[Briggsy]

Do not fall into the trap of rushing back to the weights, particularly heavy weights, before joint injuries have healed. If you do, they will recur and take a very long time to heal and may never heal fully. Consider using knee and elbow supports, braces or strapping when training in the future (for evermore) to shift some of the force off the ligaments, tendons and cartilage to the support. This will dramatically reduce the chance of re-injury. Get well soon.

[robblok]

Do not fall into the trap of rushing back to the weights, particularly heavy weights, before joint injuries have healed. If you do, they will recur and take a very long time to heal and may never heal fully. Consider using knee and elbow supports, braces or strapping when training in the future (for evermore) to shift some of the force off the ligaments, tendons and cartilage to the support. This will dramatically reduce the chance of re-injury. Get well soon.

I have to agree on the part of rushing back.. can be a big mistake. As for the braces or strapping, I will look into that after having had a shoulder injury (minor) I am not keen in having any other problems.

[robblok]

I have had two months off and lost over 3kg in weight and most of it muscle but I still feel okay.

I have been playing squash but havent had the inclination to do any weights.

What is interesting is that I have also lost some weight around the midriff which is a good thing.

I think often when you do weights you end up eating too much so put on fat as well as muscle.

Anyway I am at my lowest weight for years 81 kgs but i will get back to the gym in the next week and start slowly again building up more muscle,

Tolly that is why I don't care about weight but fat percentage, i stopped my calory deficit eating more now.. but not gaining weight and getting bigger and leaner. Strange but its happening. Must be that my body is happy after a year fo a calory deficit and takes any chance to grow.

But in reality its easier to loose fat then to gain muscle.

[CobraSnakeNecktie]

cut back on the carbs to prevent body fat increases

and

work on your core strength during your lifting holiday.

So many injuries are caused by bad core and lack of muscle balance.

Often times athletes find when they work on their core strength and balance that their injuries go away much quicker because they are using their bodies correctly again.

So many elbow and knee injuries are caused by a sloppy core.

[up-country_sinclair]

I don't think there's very much you can do to prevent muscle loss.

Like others have the said, the most important think is not to rush back too quickly, because you might make the injury worse.

[JSixpack]

Forget all that diet nonsense for your issue.

Best thing you can do is flexing with isometrics. Google around and you'll find lots of info and videos. Isometrics aren't to be sneered at: Charles Atlas did well enough. http://www.isometric-training.com/Charles_Atlas_and_Isometrics.html

I do a bit to replace certain lifting exercises and find it effective. Yes, it has its limitation--which some commercial equipment can go far to overcome, but I'm not investing much.

Choose your exercise carefully enough and you may be able to correct the imbalance that helped lead to injury in the first place.

You can find DIY equipment here:

http://www.angelfire.com/ny5/shenandoah/Grunt/Isometrics.html

http://rosstraining.com/blog/2009/02/23/homemade-isometric-tool/

Good luck!

Edited March 14, 2013 by JSixpack

[Chittychangchang]

Thanks for the reply's guys!Good to know about the "muscle memory" and Glucosamine. Funily enough my mother brought me a bag of 21 tablets of Glucosamine sulphate 2kcl 1500mg last week saying they'll fix me.
I'll start taking one a day and see how i get on.
Also i'll concentrate more on my core and cardio!
The reason i strained my elbows was from stupidly jerking on bicep curls, the Knees went on squats(same day!!).
Overdid it trying to reach my goal of another 2kg of muscle, that would take me to 100kg my ultimate goal.
Now i'm 96kg and like jelly again. Argggg!!
The supplements i've been taking to aid recovery this past three weeks are
Amino 1000 6 a day
Selenium 364% RDA 1 a day
Cod liver oil 1000mg 1 a day
Ginkgo biloba 40mg 2 a day
I also have a fairly healthy diet which could probally be healthier.
Going to try some cardio today running and sit ups.
CCC

[robblok]

Hi,

I don't know how far you are muscle wise but 2 kg of muscle is a lot i have read somewhere that doing 6 kg muscle a year clean is a good result. At first it might go faster but the closer you are to your genetic optimum the slower it goes.

[Chittychangchang]

Hi,

I don't know how far you are muscle wise but 2 kg of muscle is a lot i have read somewhere that doing 6 kg muscle a year clean is a good result. At first it might go faster but the closer you are to your genetic optimum the slower it goes.

Hi Rob, I reckon i'm still far of my genetic optimum. I seem to lose and gain a kilo very quickly . Back up to 98.7 kg today!

Looking forward to getting back to lifting.

CCC

[transam]

Think it's called Isotonics or something like that, use one muscle to work against another. An exercise using no weights but you can feel stuff. Good stuff in your position.