Fortitude After Injury

[Scott Stevenson]

Ok Dr. Scott.
I was 3 blasts into fortitude, and was as strong as I've EVER been. I had "retard strength" per my training partner.
Well, 6 weeks ago I accidentally stuck a chainsaw in my right leg while helping a friend cut down some dead trees.
I took the saw right below my knee, somehow missed my mcl and patella tendon by millimeters per my surgeon. I did cut into the bone (tibia) 4" long by 5 millimeters deep. But luckily missed everything major as far as stability goes.
I started training again 2 weeks ago, doing a typical 3 day split, going as hard as I could on upper body, and just doing what I can for lower body.
So far I've been doing everything lower body uni laterally as to hopefully help even our my legs again in size and strength.
From being non weight bearing for a few weeks and all the swelling I had quite a bit of atrophy.
I've been improving on lower body as far as weight goes and things aren't really hurting anymore. I'm even going back to work in the morning for the first time since the injury.
I need to get my strength back.
Fortitude got me strong, so why not start it again?
I mean I'll be starting from ground zero on my legs but, why not?
What's your opinion on starting fortitude again?
If so, should I continue for a while to do everything lower body uni laterally? Or both legs at a time again?
If uni laterally can you help me with some exercises I could use besides leg extensions and leg presses.
Thanks for your time,.
I appreciate it.
And plan to get my lower body bigger, AND stronger than it was before.!

Wow! Crazy accident, man.

Well, I'd go with your doctors orders as far as whether you can come back to normal activity and weigh train again.

I can't really say whether you should train bilaterally or unilaterally with having seen to you to assess your strength deficit, as well as if you have any neurological issues, too. I would guess that you have a differential loss of strength in the injured leg, too, maybe with more quad than hamstring strength loss?

Have you done any PT and where do you stand as far as that goes?...

Here's one approach that would keep things simple:

Train FT to the extent possible and train the good leg unilaterally for your compound exercises that involve free weights, etc.. Allow the injured leg to help on open chain movements and those (machines) where you are safe in case you run into problem, but not with squats and free weight kinds of stuff. This COULD mean doing knee extension and ham curls bilaterally, as well as machines like leg presses.

So, for loading sets, you might zig zag:
Romanian split squats with good leg
Bilateral knee ext
Bilateral ham curl

STILL, You'd want to avoid ANY exercises (even leg presses) where going for broke meant you're distracted by the bad leg or it's causing you issues. You don't want to re-injury anything. This may mean everything you do with FT is unilateral for legs.

THEN, outside of FT, with the guidance of your doctor or PT, you could carry out a rehab program for your injured leg. This could mean any combo of:

•Pure rehab stuff
•Regular bilateral weight truing where you focus on the injured leg
•Gradually returning to normal bilateral training with your FT.

Again, all this would be up to your Doc and PT.

Pretty generic, but I hope it helps with some ideas of what you could do. (Not a prescription on my part, but what I'd consider.)

-S