17 Feb Tucker: Sympathy for the elbow

I haven’t done any lifting for the last two weeks. First, I caught a little cold at the beginning of the week two weeks ago, so I laid off and didn’t do anything for 5 days or so until I felt better…. While I was resting it gave me some time to think and gather perspective.

Before that, I had been doing my hybrid program of lots of PT work followed by 30 mins or so of machine based pump work in the gym. My goal was to just maintain body composition and work on healing up my nagging weakness in my elbow and knee. I wasn’t very successful though, and all that happened was that I maintained everything; I maintained body comp but maintained the injuries too.

I feel pretty hopeful about the knee, since Craig and I did some investigating it’s obvious there are some real weaknesses on that side of my leg and hip, and the exercises are targeting where they need to. My elbow on the other hand (pun intended) is a mystery still because what we’ve been doing hasn’t been helping the way I wanted. I’m going to see him soon, but in the meantime I decided that I’d rather take all my energy and put it towards mastering the exercises Craig and Paul have given me over the last year. I’ve got a lot them by now, and even though I do them before my workouts, I still haven’t fully committed mentally to giving it my all to get healthy… until now.

This week I’ve been doing my core and stability exercises, as well as some T-spine mobility at least once per day. I’m usually doing half the list in the morning before breakfast, and the other half at night after work. It’s been a pretty amazing change so far. Now that I’m 100% focused and conscious of them, and have lots of energy to put towards them, I can feel the difference already. I’m not out of the woods yet, but it’s given me new perspective, and a new timeline. I’m going to lay off lifting for a little while longer too, and just focus on these bodyweight exercises until my elbow stops giving me trouble, and then I’ll get back into it.

I’m thinking that if I can give myself a goal of 4-6 weeks to be most of the way healed up, meaning no pain doing most machine and dumbbell exercises, and then continue with the PT work and slowly introduce heavier weights and some barbell work I’ll be very happy. It might seem like a long time, but if I am able to train hard without worry of hurting myself from then on, a month is nothing.

I’ll keep you all posted and include some videos of the exercises I do!

The following two tabs change content below.

• Bio
• Latest Posts

Tucker Loken

Tucker Loken is a Bodybuilder turned Powerlifter turned Powerbuilder from Eugene, Oregon. He did his first bodybuilding show when he was still in high school, and has been training male and female competitors for shows since 2011. Several years ago he decided to take a step away from his normal routine and learn how to get strong. He worked with Brian for 9 months, added 200 pounds to his raw total and qualified as an Elite lifter in the 220 pound weight class. He returned back to bodybuilding much stronger and now incorporates the 10/20/Life philosophy into his training to keep himself healthy and making continual progress in the Big 3 as well as adding size and shaping his physique. Now part of Team PRS, he brings his unique expertise of nutritional knowledge and how to balance Bodybuilding with Powerlifting to help athletes achieve their best potential.

Latest posts by Tucker Loken (see all)

• Tucker: Another Normal Log Update - March 1, 2019
• Tucker: A Normal Log Update - February 16, 2019
• Tucker: Making Do - February 4, 2019