How to Train Around an Injury

Opener

I've torn a pec, both quads more than once, and a muscle in my arm. I've never missed a workout because of any of them.

"I've never missed a workout because of a torn muscle, probably almost out of stubbornness. My chest, I just trained around it. I could still do lateral raises and rear delts. I could do a lot of arm movements as long as I was locked into place. I tore my quad in 2014, within the same month as my pec, and I had two minor tears in 2019 and 2020, back-to-back years, and I just worked around it."

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1. An injury doesn't mean you can't train

One muscle is hurt. The rest of your body isn't.

"Quads are difficult to work around, because all you can do is hamstring and calf work, but you can still do leg work and you can do upper body. Same thing with this bicep. I think you get a little injury and you say, oh well, I can't train."

"Someone tells me they tweaked something and they're out of the gym for two weeks. I probably don't have a strong thought on it. For me anyway, whenever I've had an injury, I've just always tried to work around it."