Training Hurt Part V: Training Around the Problem

T-Muscle just published an article on "work-arounds" for training. It is written by Nick Tumminello and it is called Three Work-Arounds for Physique Success. It's about more than "physique" training, though.

Why should I read this? The author addresses three training situations. The first two situations address training around an injury limitation - the first is a chronic injury, the second an acute injury.

The first scenario, the chronic one, is a client with knee injuries that prevent him or her from squatting or lunging without pain. Remember that you want to train through discomfort but you generally don't want to train through pain. One is a sign of pushing hard, the other is the body's warning system telling you to stop! Do the first and you'll push back the limits of your body; do the second and you'll create new limitations.

The second example is of an acute hand, finger, or wrist injury that prevents a lifter from grasping anything while training. This is a very clever use of some specific gym equipment - arm slings meant for ab work! You can DIY your way around these, as well, by using ropes, towels, and/or weight belts/harnesses to replicate the loading.

The third example is interesting as well - how to de-adapt someone from a particular form of training, so you can use it for fat loss again later. But it is somewhat off-topic for this post. It's worth considering in a different respect but it's not training around an injury, but adapting to previous success.