•First of all, thank you BBM for your time.
On 8/01/19 I had a work-related accident(construction, skilsaw) that lacerated all thumb tendons, nerves, muscle and some bone on my left hand. I’m in construction, btw. Surgery went well, everything was surgically repaired.
•I’m currently doing OT, and will be for about 8 more weeks(1x/w). Expected to regain ‘normal’ moment and strength to my hand/fingers, although I’ll have nerve pain for at least 6 months(not sure if I got nocebo’d lol)
•Now to my point: Assuming my therapist gives me the green light to start using my hand ‘normally’ to exercise and live normally, should I just train as normal as I was before? Slowly doing what I can tolerate, pain wise? Will probably run the Bridge again.
•Also, my left arm is exponentially weaker than my right since the accident. This will even out with time under the bar, right?
Thank you for your time, and I will be happy to provide pictures of the laceration. *Discretion adviced/10
Hey man, sorry to hear about your injury. Anytime there is a nerve repair involve the timeline for return to full training ends up being a variable trajectory. Have you asked your OT what your current strength deficit is side to side? They can typically measure that with something called a handheld dynamometer that is pretty standard gear for an OT office. This can give you a ball park for where you are at side to side. This is an instance where I would heavily advocate for some isolation work regarding grip even if it is just procuring a captains of crush at the lighter levels and working up over time. Starting with the Bridge is likely a decent place if you have a good training background but remember your numbers will likely be down even on squats and deadlifts from the time away.
Thanks for the input. I’ll definitely ask my pt about the handheld dynamometer. I just know that i can’t even turn a doorhandle, to give you some idea. And yes I’ll add some iso grip training in conjunction to the Bride.
Thanks again for your response, its appreciated. Before asking I knew the answer was to train, but now I have a better idea. Cheers!