Right now I'm in a health situation where I can't do any sort of back or shoulder exercise for an undetermined amount of time, I'm probably looking at 2 months or so. It's been about 2 months since I've been able to do any sort of lifting and I'm starting to really see my gains over the past year or two deteriorate. I'm able to safely do chest, triceps, and biceps but I'm worried that if I hit those I will risk overdeveloping them and since I'm not doing any back exercises to cancel them out that I'll develop a weird posture or my shoulders will slump forward.

Should I go ahead and start lifting anyway and not worry about it, or should I wait until I'm fully healed and able to do full body stuff?

well take into consideration that while you won't be directly working those muscle groups you will gain some mass from working your other areas. also, lower the weight you are ifting to keep your body toned. Since I'm guessing you won't be working out as much as you used to, maybe you should invest more time into aerobic activities to keep your legs strong and keep fat burning up.

You definitely want to be getting an even distribution of load between opposiing muscle groups. I can't say with any certainty whether you'll feel any negative side effects from any workout regimen you take up, but injuries can occur over the long run if you focus primarily on your chest, lets say, while leaving out your back. The same goes for biceps/triceps, quads/hamstrings, and so forth.

Do you think the workouts at http://www.trainforstrength.com are too much? If not, they're a great alternative to weights for building strenth and to a lesser degree, mass.

I can only swim and do the elliptical, I'll try to work those in though.




I can only do workouts on a flat or incline bench. I'm taking a bit of a risk by doing some standing bicep stuff but other than that I don't want to push it. Also this "one sidedness" would only be for like 2 months, then I'd do my full workouts again.

Swim man, it's an excellent exercise, one that works out the whole body.

It's just hard to start up, that's all. It takes a bit more time than just running on the elliptical because I have to make a change into separate clothes a the beginning and end, plus it's a little boring to swim alone so I need to convince some friends to go with me. I'm trying though.

I always liked swimming because it's cardio where you can't get sweaty as fuck.

Does anyone have or know of any reputable sources that equate working out only one pair of a muscle group to long term problems? ie only working out abs and not lower back.

Dude, you want to work out your lower back to protect it from being injured at all. Trust me.

That was an example. Trust me.

And I was only replying to Leo about that particular example because I'm not a "reputable source" on any other muscle group pair. Trust me.

(this is fun)

You indeed aren't a reputable source. Trust me. (lol)

Except when it comes to lower back, where I'm a primary source because had I done more work on it, I could've prevented or severely reduced my current injury. Trust me (now you have to use italics somewhere)

Alright, I trust you.

You two should cut that out. Trust me.

All of you. Trust Arnold.