push ups? sit ups? pull ups? whats the best for polevaulting

[rocketman94]

So about 5 weeks ago i broke my collarbone. I got hit by a car and flew into the ground 5ft away, shoulder first. My left clavicle was fractured in 2 places.. when now its about 85% healed and i need to get back to polevaulting. One problem though, I've lost a lot of my bicep, tricep, trapezius, pecs, deltoids, abs and obliques. I know i need to get all that back again and fast! what are the best exercises to gain maximum muscle growth in as short of time as possible? season starts in the first week of march and my doctor cleared me to start polevaulting on march 1st. In the meantime he said it is ok for me to workout; including everything except pull ups and a large number of push ups. Please reply

[rainbowgirl28]

Relax! You're didn't lose _that_ much strength in only 5 weeks. The biggest things you need to worry about in the early season are your run and takeoff. The muscular strength will come back quickly, just ease into something and LISTEN to your body. Trying to rush things will only result in new injuries!

[VaultPurple]

Speaking as someone who has broken their collar bone 3 times, you do lose more strength than you would think in the 5 weeks just because you do not use your arm at all during the period. But most importantly, just because the doctor says take 5 weeks off, does not mean it is 100% after 5 weeks. I broke one and the doctor told me 6 weeks, and I re-broke it exactly 6 weeks to the day later in the exact same place. So be careful!

But as far as strength, just start light and try to do what you can without pushing it. Your going to really want to have good overall body strength so being able to do push ups and pull ups are a good thing, but I would also recommended some light weight training with dumbbells under 20 pound with like 15 reps, 3 times a week to try and build up the muscles back in your shoulder. But you are very lucky that it was your left arm and not your right, so your not too bad off. Just be careful and do not over do it.

[rocketman94]

hhhmm ok. well today i did 250 regular sit ups (5 reps of 50) then 125 facing each side to work obliques (5 reps of 25). I also did 25lb dumbbells (10 reps of 10), 8lb dumbbells (10 fast reps of 25), and upward pull of 25lb weight to top of ribcage (10 reps of 25) and forearm hand grip thingy haha (idk how many I did maybe 150). No push ups yet; I'm kinda scared of putting too much pressure on the mending bone and breaking it again..
I think I'll reduce the weight on the dumb bells to 20lb and do less reps. I don't feel any pain at all after this workout though.

thanks for the info

[Divalent]

Bone strength for athletic activities takes longer to recover than "bone strength" for average everyday non-athletic activities. Bone does strengthen in response to stress put on it, but not anywhere near as fast as muscle does. So you need to not overload it too soon.

You definitely should talk to your doctor or PT for specific advice on how (and how fast) to move. Having said that (please read the prior sentence again!), to build up the ability to do pushups, you might try lying on your back and raising free weights or a low-loaded bar straight up. Doing that to a bar that is about 2/3rds of your body weight would be equivalent to doing a normal pushup, so start *much* lower than that.

But again, talk to your doctor or a sports injury therapist before doing anything that is too much beyond normal everyday activity. The thing you want to avoid is a rebreak right now, because that would probably cancel your whole outdoor season.

[rocketman94]

i visited my family physician last week for a 4 week follow-up after the break and he said i should be able to be pole vaulting by around march 5th. He examined the bone and said it is healing very well and quickly. I've been doing push ups with no apparent pain or pressure on the bone so i'm really confident at this point. I've been drinking lots of milk so I think i'll be ok

[EIUvltr]

Honestly, you should take very little advice from anyone on this forum unless it is "go see a physical therapist." You need rehab, not a standard strength and conditioning workout.

[Lax PV]

Honestly, you should take very little advice from anyone on this forum unless it is "go see a physical therapist." You need rehab, not a standard strength and conditioning workout.

perfectly said.

[bel142]

The unfortunate punchline is is that push-up are functionally not the same as pole vault. The impulse and impact that influences that portion of the body are very high, if you are not seeing a Physio right now and rehabbing, you may step on the runway and blow up your shoulder's AC joint the first few jumps. Un-even surface training for the shoulder may be useful, because it is going to influence rotator cuff, core, and upper muscular chain stability all together... rather than fixed position push-ups.

Your original post you asked about how to get muscle back... well... Muscle is not necessarily the same thing as strength. With the immobilization that comes from your injury, we are going to see a strength deficient and perhaps atrophy... You are going to similar gains across the body depending on how you train, be it hypertrophy, strength or power, if you are in season we still want to see triple extension strength/explosion... Unfortunately your shoulder may not be able to handle cleans and snatches yet, so a leg ploymetric cycle may help... Then using a med ball for an upper body plyometric may be a good pair... But if the strength isn't there to begin with, you are at risk for re injuring your self.

Meanwhile, this may be the year where you do nothing but fix your plant, and come back to pole vault for real next year... You should talk to a hand ful of people at the same time.... Strength coach, Vault coach, and Physio, so they can get on the same page of where you are, and where you need to be in your training.

[vault3rb0y]

See a PT.

There is no "one" exercise that will fix you or make you good at pole vaulting. Especially if you are rehabilitating your shoulder, you are going to want to be doing several rotator cuff exercises, back exercises, and shoulder/neck exercises with low weight, probably sets of 10-15 reps to start. Count on at least a month of progressive training and building back up before you are ready for vaulting. But even if a PT is on this forum, he/she couldn't tell you what to do because they haven't assessed you. A family physician is not the same as a sports PT. Try to find someone who works with gymnasts if you can, because that will be most relevant to vaulting and he/she will give you the most sound advice on how to get back on the pole quickly.

[superpipe]

Sorry if I offend any PT's on this forum, but DON'T see a PT first! PTs are not orthopedic doctors and can't make a true diagnosis of any injury. They can take educated guesses just like you and me. You must see an orthopedic doctor that specializes in the area of your injury to get a real diagnosis of your exact injury (this can be difficult enough). PTs can only prescribe the right treatments and rehab based off an actual diagnosis. Am I bitter? Yeah since I've tried the direct PT route many times b/c getting an ortho appointment can take months. It's never been worth it and it's even more difficult with vaulters because 99.99% of PTs have no idea what vaulting is so they don't understand the body movements or areas of stress on the body which helps them prescribe the best rehab for you. Without a true diagnosis by an ortho, you and the PT are just guessing your life away. Even with a so called "simple" injury, an ortho should be able to tell you the severity of the true injury which would drive much different rehab from a PT. Gotta have a true diagnosis if you want to correctly and efficiently rehab any injury.

Perfect example is shin splints. Why on earth would anyone see a PT or try their own rehab before seeing a Podiatrist is beyond me. (except if they have never heard of a podiatrist, like my case in high school and college) Get a diagnosis of your feet to determine if you need orthodics first! So simple. Best case scenario, the podiatrist says you have perfect feet and a neutral running shoe is made for you. Then it's just a matter of incorrect training.

The hardest part is the diagnosis of your injury and a PT is not the answer. If your shoulder hurts, go see a specialized shoulder ortho. Doesn't matter if the PT can give a better educated guess, than you, on an AC joint problem if you don't have a true diagnosis with the severity.

Again, I'm sorry if I offended any PTs.

[Lax PV]

Sorry if I offend any PT's on this forum, but DON'T see a PT first! PTs are not orthopedic doctors and can't make a true diagnosis of any injury. They can take educated guesses just like you and me.

Ortho's are great, yes. However, to say that you (or any other joe-shmoe on the street) could make as good of a judgement as a DPT, I think is a little much. They have gone to school for it, they have been nationally certified in it by a board of their peers and have experience dealing with injuries. I will concede they my not know the exact movement of pole vaulting, but given an injury, they do have some rehab insight that you (nor I) have. Better to get opinions from them, than someone without the background--but as you said, probably not as good as a specialty ortho.

FYI... I'm not a PT, not really a fan of PTs either, but they do have a minimum expertise that non-PTs don't have, which they have demonstrated to get their DPT.