Pulled muscle

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Bonniemn
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Joined: Sun Jul 29, 2018 12:56 pm

Pulled muscle

Post by Bonniemn »

I'm on day 37 of the beachbody 80 day challenge. Loving the program, I started it to become more fit and toned, I've never been overweight, but havent been fit. It was so hard in the beginning, still is...but no longer mentally hard to push myself to do it. This past wednesday during total body core, I pulled an ab muscle trying to push myself too hard. Not a horrible pull, but I felt the pain instantly, I kept it iced throughput the day, took ibu, and packed in the protein over the next couple days, still worked out but had leg day, and then switched Ab day for cardio to give it and extra day. It seemed to be feeling fine. Was ready to go saturday late morning for the AAA day. Started and everything was great but then got to the move "tricep kickbacks" and they are in the plank position.....and instant pain in AB, i tried a few more, and had to stop...dropped to knees to finish them. Then the next move was on the sliders, pure AB move and I couldn't do it. I got super discouraged and shut it off, gave up. I should have just skipped those and kept going through the ones I could do, ....but I thought I would try a run(I am not a runner) but have been wanting to try. I Have knee crepitus, so I've really been wanting to build muscle before starting a running program, to help protect knees. I spent too much time searching for phone holder and earbuds that I ran out of time and had to get ready for work. And was then literally crying that I f'd up workput for the day(I should take it as a win that I was so upset of failing workout) anyways.... ..what do I do about this AB muscle, how do I modify a workout program that is based on the core of the body, i feel like not being able to work core is going to make me lose strength even for a week, how long do I have to let this heal. I can't stop, I won't stop...but don't want to hurt it more, I LOVE the ab exercises, so I'm just really let down right now. how long do I need to give this muscle, what do I do with it. It doesnt hurt as bad doing a crunch, do I do crunches during sliders, or is a crunch still to rough?
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Boss Man
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Joined: Sat Nov 25, 2006 3:27 pm

Re: Pulled muscle

Post by Boss Man »

Hi Bonnie good to talk to you.

Firstly I would avoid all direct ab exercises and then if you do exercises that work the abs indirectly like deadlifts, squats, lunges, woodchoppers, arnold press, cleans etc, work around the issue by lowering the weight.

1. On any exercises like that try a couple of reps with no weight to establish if you can get a pain free range of motion, ROM.

2. If you can't get a pain free ROM don't do that exercise and then try the same ROM test on your next workout.

3. If you can get a pain free ROM on that exercise, use a very small amount of weight and do 2 reps of that to establish if you can use any weight at all, otherwise work the usual reps and sets with no weight..

4. Whenever you feel a slight bit of discomfort on a given exercise using a certain amount of weight, drop back to the previous amount you tried and do that exercise for the usual number of reps and set.

5. When you are at the point of being able to use weight on certain exercises, then on each workout thereafter, keep doing the "happy medium" test to find out where your current level of tolerance will be.

This approach is designed to help you work within the tolerance level of a muscle, because doing nothing would cause atrophy to the area and continuously using a little bit of weight for weeks, would stem atrophy a bit, but not be as good as the approach I outlined, which is an attempt to minimise atrophy, thereby allowing the injured muscle(s), to get back to the level of weight capability before the injury happened sooner.

Hopefully that makes sense :).
rawpersonaltraining
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Joined: Fri May 03, 2019 7:10 am

Re: Pulled muscle

Post by rawpersonaltraining »

Get a structural balance assessment done with the help of an experienced Personal Trainer. This way you will be able to know your weak points that might be causing pain.
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