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Oberst, relieved by the news that his strongman career would continue, took the advisement seriously. He recently took to his YouTube channel to share how to train around a shoulder injury properly. His first bit of advice: “don’t make your injury worse.” Check out the full video below:
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Before hopping into his training session, Oberst calls out the dangerous practice of overworking while injured, which he sees as commonplace in strongman. He offers examples of how strongmen often underplay their injuries to train, only to set themselves back further than they were from fully healing due to re-aggravating their injury. Long story short: play it smart; give an injury proper time to heal. Training while injured shouldn’t train the injury. Focus training around the injury so other aspects of fitness don’t also suffer. Oberst’s tendon tear means he’s not going to train log lifts, but there are other movements to do.
Oberst plans to perform single-arm movements with his left arm, even though he won’t do anything with his right.
I’m not going to stop everything. I’m going to work my other side…do the best I can to…stabilize with [my right] arm, but not using it.
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The first movement of the session is single-arm Hammer Strength bench presses. Oberst lays back on the bench, takes the grip with his left hand, and notes how he maintains his alignment as though he is pressing with both arms. He does not compensate his body position towards either side. He appeared to follow a progressive overload starting with one 45-pound plate, then adding a plate for each subsequent set.
Before Oberst starts his first set of incline dumbbell bench presses, he highlights the importance of access to the proper equipment when injured. If Oberst had been training legs on the day he recorded his video, he would have struggled to perform squats as the gym did not have a safety squat bar (SSB). The difference between an SSB and a standard barbell is a lot of potential stress on the region of his shoulder he seeks to protect. An SSB would allow his shoulder to stay in a more comfortable position, given the location of his tear.
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[Related: Rhianon Lovelace Moved Up Three Weight Classes and Won the 2021 Arnold Strongman Log & Deadlift Championships UK]
Pace
An essential aspect of training with an injury is the tempo in the gym will likely change. The weight is unlikely to move as quickly, and taking the additional time to stabilize the position before each set is critical.
You have to take your time. Go slow. I’m making sure to go through it properly. It’s a whole new game now. We’re all freshman.
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Oberst is a former American log lift record holder and starts his incline dumbbell pressing with a single 35-pound weight. That is exceptionally light for the near 400-pound strongman, but he wants to show by example that it is the more thoughtful way to train when hurt. Weight can be increased, but there is no undoing the sustaining of an injury. Oberst eventually worked his way up to a 120-pound dumbbell but made sure he could stabilize it first with weight working up to it.
Don’t Neglect Upper Back
Oberst attributes much of his stability to his upper back. He trains it with a mixture of landmine presses, bent-over rows, rear delt flyes, front raises, lateral raises, and seated rows. He treated each lift as though performing them with both arms despite only using his left. He used each grip available to him and hammered home the idea that form is king. Oberst will continue to build strength around his injury so that when he is healed, he will only be so far back from where he wanted to be.
Feature image: @robertoberst on Instagram
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