Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

I have not done serious lifting since Early August and it is actually depressing. It is extra frustrating for me since I am 41 years old. I feel like I am running out of time to be able to enter a contest. We also lose muscle after age 40 if we are sedentary and I have been for the last few months. I did try every two weeks to lift weights again but I thikn that is why I am not healing.

A friend of mine tore his Tricep muscle and his orthopedic doc told him he needs to take 6-8 weeks and not touch a weight other than maybe some light exercises that do not touch the tricep. So, if I really tore something in my trap or near the collarbone I should probably take 6-8 weeks off and stop trying to lift. I have to suck it up and wait it out.
Legs and cardio it is. Mid November I might try to get back with some light weights.

omgwowleet,
There is no swelling at all, not really a sharp pain either....more a full ache! I might go right to the MRI or maybe just take the time off and see what happens. I was even thinking not lifting again till around Thanksgiving which would be about two months and then try light weights.

Man it really sucks because at 40 years old I really hit the ground running and became more muscular than i have been in years. I think I looked better than I did when I was 22! And just as strong. I thikn i can do it again at 42 or 45 and so on....I know my way around the gym.

My only fear is reinjury or another injury. How does anyone really avoid injury? All we can do is warm up, and use good form and eat right.

_________________
What do I do when not bodybuilding or working? Spend time with family, play guitar, write music, snowboard, roast coffee, travel, read, fight for those who are less fortunate than myself.

Keep your chin up, Boardn10 - just because you're 41 doesn't mean you can't still work to get better results than ever before, but you just have new challenges to work around. Keep seeing people to try and get a definite diagnosis on the injury, keep rehabbing it when you can, get plenty of rest, and in due time you WILL come back. I had practically given up hope myself this past year after making progress to heal up my lower back, only to have it get worse again to where light deadlifting was painful. Sometimes, you may need months or even a year or two to figure out how to work around issues in a way that will still let you progress, but it's never easy, and always frustrating. Just stay positive, and look forward to how great it will feel to get back to training once this thing is in the past!

_________________
"A 'hardgainer' is merely someone who hasn't bothered to try enough different training methods to learn what is actually right for their own damned body." - anonymous

Now that I'm back in this thread, wasn't there another post I had regarding how steroids typically make people more injury-prone due to not bringing up tendon/ligament strength to keep in balance with muscle strength? I swore I had posted something last night, but maybe I'm just losing my mind!

_________________
"A 'hardgainer' is merely someone who hasn't bothered to try enough different training methods to learn what is actually right for their own damned body." - anonymous

I honestly don't think there is any way around a shoulder injury other than rest and healing. I mean just about anything I do with my upper body involves the shoulder. My fear is that I do nothing for many months and then make a come back and injure myself again.

_________________
What do I do when not bodybuilding or working? Spend time with family, play guitar, write music, snowboard, roast coffee, travel, read, fight for those who are less fortunate than myself.

I think I am going to take the next 6-8 weeks off. I have already lost 8 lbs since stopping weights.

Maybe my body is telling me that after 40, it may be time to hang up the iron game. I think I recall a few of the guys who competed with Arnold in the 1976 Olympia were in their early 40s.

_________________
What do I do when not bodybuilding or working? Spend time with family, play guitar, write music, snowboard, roast coffee, travel, read, fight for those who are less fortunate than myself.

My Orthopedic doc said the injury may never fully heal. YIKES! Scary....

_________________
What do I do when not bodybuilding or working? Spend time with family, play guitar, write music, snowboard, roast coffee, travel, read, fight for those who are less fortunate than myself.

You may have to adapt to changes, but I wouldn't discount training altogether. Perhaps you can't train some shoulder or chest movments as well for a while, but who knows, perhaps a year from now things will feel much better and you can move forward with those areas again.

I barely trained legs or lower back for nearly 2 years in order to see how things went, I think SOME good healing did happen, but of course, atrophy and weakness came along for the ride. I may still be in my 100th attempt to regain it back again, but it's better than having called it quits without knowing that there's no way possible to fix it.

Like I said, keep your chin up, spend more time working on the areas you CAN train, and maybe every few months see how some really light (I'm talking empty bar to test things) shoulder or chest work feels until you can start adding a mere 5 lbs. at a time to work back up. If things aren't really, really bad to where you have pain in all areas of using the affected joint, it could just be one of those situations where a long period of recovery and lots of slow, steady rehab is the only way to come back. No point in quitting everything if you don't need to, so work with what you have, rest that affected area for months before giving any try to working it again, and hopefully time will help make things better!

_________________
"A 'hardgainer' is merely someone who hasn't bothered to try enough different training methods to learn what is actually right for their own damned body." - anonymous

Thanks man! My doc is sending me for an ultrasound and MRI in a few weeks. If it shows nothing he said he will ask me to maybe take the rest of the year off. He also said I could go light and if I have no pain, do that for a while...starting next month. He said as long as I have no stabs of pain while working out, I am not reinjurring it.

_________________
What do I do when not bodybuilding or working? Spend time with family, play guitar, write music, snowboard, roast coffee, travel, read, fight for those who are less fortunate than myself.

One final note. I have been seeing a chiropractor who performs A.R.T. and he really works on those muscles. But it has been getting worse. Then I read in an article that one should not massage the affected muscle! Yikes!

_________________
What do I do when not bodybuilding or working? Spend time with family, play guitar, write music, snowboard, roast coffee, travel, read, fight for those who are less fortunate than myself.

Typically, a lot of the ART work that people with shoulder issues have had done involves breaking up the scar tissue to help ease discomfort and loosen the joint up - lots of people who were told they'd "never bench or overhead press again" were only able to get back to speed from having ART done for a good length of time. Perhaps it may be best then to wait until you get the ultrasound and MRI back before continuing with it, that way at the very least you can show them a full and accurate diagnosis that may help them know what to work on as well as what NOT to work on, if there is damage that they should be avoiding.

_________________
"A 'hardgainer' is merely someone who hasn't bothered to try enough different training methods to learn what is actually right for their own damned body." - anonymous

Thanks man for he info.
To make things worse, I help my father with his landscaping business on Saturday morning to make extra money. Well today I was lifting a heavy bag of leaves into the truck and felt a sharp pain in my trap.

_________________
What do I do when not bodybuilding or working? Spend time with family, play guitar, write music, snowboard, roast coffee, travel, read, fight for those who are less fortunate than myself.

My doc ordered an MRI of the right brachial plexus, but I am worried they could miss a pec or trap tear! I have a little pain into the upper pec now.

_________________
What do I do when not bodybuilding or working? Spend time with family, play guitar, write music, snowboard, roast coffee, travel, read, fight for those who are less fortunate than myself.

Really depressed tonight. I hope getting this Brachial Plexu MRI is not a waste. Maybe it is something in the shoulder with referred pain.

This article scares me!
http://www.livestrong.com/article/381467-collarbone-pain-from-lifting-weights/

_________________
What do I do when not bodybuilding or working? Spend time with family, play guitar, write music, snowboard, roast coffee, travel, read, fight for those who are less fortunate than myself.

Three months since my injury and still not healed. The most I can do, are light workouts.
I am getting a diagnostic ultrasound tomorrow and an MRI next week.
Maybe I should not touch a weight till after Thanksgiving.
I miss the heavy weights and the size I had. I guess I will have to keep my shirt on all next summer as I will be embarrassed.

_________________
What do I do when not bodybuilding or working? Spend time with family, play guitar, write music, snowboard, roast coffee, travel, read, fight for those who are less fortunate than myself.

Muscle has great memory, so I would expect that once you get to where you can start training normally again in a few months, you should see the size and strength return fairly quickly. Believe me, after taking a long time off lower body work from my back issues, it has been a struggle to get back, but every few months things start to get better and better. Don't already let yourself be defeated by thinking the worst and expecting it to last forever - without faith that you're going to come back stronger, it's going to be hell trying to keep yourself from getting depressed about things. Just think to yourself "If I can FINALLY get this issue identified AND rehab it properly to prevent it from recurring, I should be in the best position I've been in for years and can be stronger than ever!" - you need to keep that mindset to stay focused on the long-term positives, even if the short-term situation sucks!

_________________
"A 'hardgainer' is merely someone who hasn't bothered to try enough different training methods to learn what is actually right for their own damned body." - anonymous