Working around a wee niggle

[fitman]

Hey folks

How is everyone getting on with this?

I moved away from simplefit at one stage to pursue some other goals (that wouldnt overlap). I have recently spent a couple of weeks pottering because I sustained a Coracoid Process injury (part of the shoulder from which tendons/ligaments attach to everything in the area) as well as a niggle to the Brachial Process (runs from shoulder to thumb - which was why I was feeling some tightness in my forearm).

This means I cant do pressups with elbows flared outwards without discomfort in my lat (not the source of the problem). The same goes for pullups. Now I have essentially done nothing on the area for the last two weeks having had a complete week off pushups and pullups and the second week did some light rows with elbows tucked in which doesnt hurt at all. It could take weeks to go away so I have to work around it.

My idea is to do these workouts twice a week instead of three times, with the third session being on day 1 of week 2 etc etc. I am hoping to use either narrow pushups (shoulder width hand placement with elbows tucked into sides), or Diamond Pushups instead of elbows flared out pushups (something some of you might already be doing).

With regards Pullups I am thinking of using narrow hand placement palms facing.

I might also do alternate split squats instead of squats.

I dont want to change the layout. I am just thinking of sensible ways to work around a couple of niggles. Two sessions a week instead of three will slow down progress but im being sensible and am happy to do this.

Thoughts??

[cairnstone]

I am personally coming back to simplefit after trying other programs and missing it. The reason I left in the first place was that the high volume aggravated old knee and shoulder injuries. My response this time is to use only narrow hand placement and slow reps. So, that is chin-ups only, hands slightly less than shoulder wide, no body swings, two seconds up, one second pause, two seconds down, stop when arms are straight but never lower lower shoulder. For push-up, that is hands directly under my arm-pits and elbows at my sides. Again, two seconds down, one second pause, two seconds up. For squats, I sub in a static hold near the point of parallel, weight on my toes instead of heels, hands near the floor, 5 second hold for every required rep. My joints are loving this and I am seeing really good progress. I have finally admitted that it is not worth it to just push through the pain. I would rather take it easy than have to miss out on something fun on a Saturday morning.

[fitman]

Hey cairnstone

Thanks for the reply. I have been in two minds whether to use simple fit or mark sissons 'primal blueprint fitness' which is based around higher rep sets (only two per movement per session) to failure, with two sessions a week. I think I am leaning more towards simple fit though. I was finishing level 6 last time but because i am swapping normal press-ups for diamond press-ups I think I will drop down to level 4.

I do alot of cycling (road trails, hills) and it works my legs so well. So, I am considering swapping squats for skipping. So when it says to squat 50 times, I skip 50 times.

I stopped before because it was getting a bit dull even though the change a lot. I think only doing two sessions a week will help this.

Richard