How to train with only one hand?

Cerebus

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Hey, guys a little over a week ago I had an accident with my hand and now have 7 stitches in my pinky, which will probably affect my training for at least another week, or so. Kind of curious if anyone has any tips of how to properly train through a temporary injury like this that leaves one side of your body immobilized.

I've been going to the gym the past few days, and instead of my normal power lifting routine, I've just been doing one-armed dumbbell versions of everything like bench, press, and rows. I've even started using the hammer-arm machines with the just the one hand, because I figure, at this point. why not? For legs, since I can't properly grip any barbells with any real weight on them, I've been using the hack squat machine and the leg press in their absence.

Any suggestions on how to train my back during this time? Do one-armed deadlifts do anything?
 
Your pinky injury left you immobilized?
 
684_2.jpg
 
Your pinky injury left you immobilized?

Per se, in that it limits a lot of training I'm capable of doing. Any lift that requires the use of two hands would be pretty ill-advised for me right now.

Mummy Front Squats

Have to look into these, are they basically like how the above picture looks? I assume you do these with a lot less weight than normal front squats, correct?
 
Last edited:
No need to have a lot less weight than a normal front squat.
 
It's only another week or so, take it easy and enjoy Christmas!
 
You can do front squats with a cross grip, you don't have to grab it, just have it in place to prevent it from rolling off.

front-squat.jpg
 
+1 for just letting it heal, but I know that sucks. I'd do lots of zercher stuff.
 
You can also front squat with straps, grabbing them gently:

Wrist-straps-for-front-squats.jpg



I've seen people back-squatting in the smith machine with no hands on the bar, give it a try.

You can also row with ab straps... attach them to a cable and you elbow, and row your elbow back. Maybe a rope or something else can do the trick. I saw that somewhere on T-Nation.

And machines are also a good option.


Edit: found the rows:

01b.jpg



Edit 2: this grips for front squats also work for lunges/split squats.
 
It's juts one week man, take a week off, relax and let it heal.
 
Good luck
I had my thumb messed up and I was out for almost a year. I took up jogging 7 miles every other day. Couldn't load the plates to do the exercises. Stitches should heal up quickly though. Were there other pieces for the injury?
 
Zerchers will work, I found using a ankle cuff for my broken hand I could do any movement with the cables.

I trained more Hypertrophy for a month, no biggie.
 
I broke my hand a few times pretty bad and didn't want to stop lifting. But my gym had plenty of upper body machines that required no grip at all. They had an old school pec deck machine where your arms are bent at 90 degrees so I did them. I did them in reverse for my upper back. I used the sling/stirrup things attached to a cable for bi/tri/lateral raise work. I did shrugs in a standing calf raise machine. Everything else was pretty easy to figure out. It was definitely productive training.
 
You only need one hand to Masterbate
 
Start working on one handed push ups.
 
Shadow box, heavybag kicks, elbows ect


ah you´re a powerlifting hobbist ?
 
Hi Cerebus, I know you probably want to lift, but I thought it would be useful to share my story. I fell of stairs, injured my right dominant hand. I do northern shaolin kung fu, so we have to do block and attacks using both hands all the time. I just had to use one hand and arm for a few months. I got so good at it that when my other hand got well and I could use it, I felt as if I had one extra hand, like three hands or something :D It was a very funny feeling, the injury was so worth it man lol

I believe there's plenty of stuff you can do, like the awesome posts above, I would just not do a lot of unilateral exercises if that's going to imbalance your body, unless the injured side is the dominant side so this is a good opportunity to train your bad side.
 

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