I've had a shoulder problems for years and last bout lasted six months with no training. Now I have severe atrophy and just wondering if there is anything I can do to help get the left side back up to par with the right.
Thanks
Left Arm/Shoulder Atrophy
Moderators: Boss Man, cassiegose
I can tell you now, I had reason to not be able train one side of body, and I knew as I had peaked, training the other side of Upper Body wouldn't create a deficeit, and for things like Side Raises, doing the motion, with both Arms, but only one Dumbbell in the Good hand, didn't throw technique off at all.
So you wouldn't have a problem using differently weighted Dumbbells
If you did Front Raises, alternating each Arm, no Problem there, and things like Shoulder Presses, shouldn't be a problem either I wouldn't have thought, as you use both Arms together, so the higher weight on one side shouldn't thrown you off balance.
I would say do the same number of Sets per exercise, on the weak Shoulder, as you would for the good Shoulder, and then just cut the sets per exercise down by one, on the Good Shoulder, so it's not working quite as hard, and won't grow as much as usual, so you should be able to at least keep it the way it is, if you're working it, but with not as many sets per exercise.
It shouldn't start to atrophy if you do that, then you can train the weaker one like you would normally train the good one, but with less weight, and it should catch up hopefully.
So however you normally train the Good shoulder, E.G. 4 sets per exercise, do that for much work for the weak one, and take the sets per exercise down by one on the good Shoulder, so if you do 4 sets per exercise, only do 3, to prevent it growing too much, and so the weaker one works a little more and can catch up.
Hopefully that makes sense.
So you wouldn't have a problem using differently weighted Dumbbells
If you did Front Raises, alternating each Arm, no Problem there, and things like Shoulder Presses, shouldn't be a problem either I wouldn't have thought, as you use both Arms together, so the higher weight on one side shouldn't thrown you off balance.
I would say do the same number of Sets per exercise, on the weak Shoulder, as you would for the good Shoulder, and then just cut the sets per exercise down by one, on the Good Shoulder, so it's not working quite as hard, and won't grow as much as usual, so you should be able to at least keep it the way it is, if you're working it, but with not as many sets per exercise.
It shouldn't start to atrophy if you do that, then you can train the weaker one like you would normally train the good one, but with less weight, and it should catch up hopefully.
So however you normally train the Good shoulder, E.G. 4 sets per exercise, do that for much work for the weak one, and take the sets per exercise down by one on the good Shoulder, so if you do 4 sets per exercise, only do 3, to prevent it growing too much, and so the weaker one works a little more and can catch up.
Hopefully that makes sense.
Thanks for all the good advice. the shoulder problem is a pinched nerve in shoulder area about half way between neck and shoulder, 3 or 4 inches down. It mysteriously gets iritated about every year or two but usually only last for a month or so.. this time it lasted almost 6 and effected arm sholder chest etc..
I didn't realize how much muscle loss i had until i actually started lifting again and realized i've prob lost as much as 25-35% of left side strength.. very frustrating.. I've been in the gym several weeks now and I can actually start to see some inprovement, just wanting to find out if anything would speed up the process..
Thanks again!
I didn't realize how much muscle loss i had until i actually started lifting again and realized i've prob lost as much as 25-35% of left side strength.. very frustrating.. I've been in the gym several weeks now and I can actually start to see some inprovement, just wanting to find out if anything would speed up the process..
Thanks again!