Coming to a screeching halt

[Cobalt]

The past 2 months have been nothing but a stress fest for me. My place of work getting shut down, me staying behind at the building to deal with all the property (army facility, I'm civilian), then being relocated to a new facility.

I've been dealing with so much, but managing to make it. I started work at my new job 2 weeks ago (I'm a mechanic), and they put me on a machine without proper training. Now, 2 weeks later, I'm waiting on an orthopedic surgeon to contact me so that the tops of my middle and pointer fingers on my left hand can be cleaned up because the machine smashed and ripped them up.

Needless to say, gym is out of the question. Typing is bad enough with 2 less fingers. So, I've been totally out of the gym for 2 weeks now and I'm losing my mind. Is there anything I can do to try and keep my muscle? It'll be a while before I'll be grabbing anything with my full left hand, months easily. I'm already down 4 lbs from the sudden stop.

Or should I just suck it up, take 100% time off and come back when I'm healed up?

[weekend]

seems like you could do legs and presses... unless youre missing that much finger just legs

[campcoll88]

2 weeks is plenty of time...to lose dem gainzz

planks and their variations if you can manage it without too much pain. You could possibly do some pulling movements with straps. for legs use machines; if you cant mess with plates you could try pistol squats, single leg squats with a bench, or air squats. Work on jumping and increasing your vert.

Bodyweight and calisthenics type movements that dont involve the hand or moving too much iron may be your safest bet for now. If you cant pull or push but can hold a plank then utilize isometrics and squeeze the shit out of all of your muscles and focus on breathing and contracting everything really hard. Isometrics could be your new best friend.

Work on foam rolling and stretching and become a uber-mobile automaton. You may lose some size but you could maintain some strength and gain mobility and balance.

[weekend]

heavy leg press for sure, squats dont seem out of the question how im imagining, squats alone will keep all your mass on for at least a month imo... dont need finger tips to do dips do you?

[JM1000]

Work on some cardio for a while! Had to stop 2 months few years ago. Lost some muscle but it came back quickly when I got back to the gym!

[BoneDaddy]

Speaking from experience, there's a lot to be said for some time off. The body has some dedicated healing time and your CNS thanks you! I know a lot of people will throw out muscle loss, but I think if you eat right it wont be that big of a deal. Besides, muscle memory is a god send, at least in my personal experience.

[markam]

If the company is truly negligent for putting you on a machine without proper safety procedures, legal advice should be sought. The accident could have possibly been far worse, and something should be done to help prevent further actions. I'm not advocating the popular 'sue for anything' approach. My Father lost his thumb when he was working on a machine without proper guards, and there were many other unnecessary accidents that could have been avoided.

[olddawg]

yep, leg day, and other exercises where you don't need to pull, you can push on a machine like a press likely just don't close your hands, lighter weight, higher reps. Pulling exercises, look for straps that go around your wrists and they have a hook on the other end so the hook can latch onto the handle and do the pulling. if you can't find them, make them. There is always a way Cobalt, don't let your own psyche get your down. Get up, brush yourself off, modify and move on. Hope things get better for you

[longBallLima]

not sure how hurt your hand is, or if you have a cast on, but it seems like you could do mostly anything that doesn't involve gripping.
machine chest presses, shoulder press and such? and as noted, plently of legs, abs and all that

[DJM]

Speaking from experience, there's a lot to be said for some time off. The body has some dedicated healing time and your CNS thanks you! I know a lot of people will throw out muscle loss, but I think if you eat right it wont be that big of a deal. Besides, muscle memory is a god send, at least in my personal experience.

^^^^^this