Was back at the gym this morning and decided to try the hand out a bit and do more of the stronglifts routine.  After adding 20 lbs and doing squats I moved over to Bench.  Starting out with 135 lbs I pressed only 3 before I had to rack it.  The Pain was way too great and I was all I could to to maintain a grip on the bar.  The last physical therapy appointment I had for my hand included a strength test.  Turns out I have lost over 50% in that hand. I moved on to Bent over Rows.  My grip was still an issue but I had far less pain than what I had on the bench.  I completed 5×5 with 115 lbs.  Afterwards I stepped up the jogging to 20min  and bookended it with a 5 min warmup and cooldown.

Since January I had been doing the Stronglifts 5×5 program and I feel was making major progress in my general health and in building strength and muscle.  I was up to 295 for squats, 140 for overhead press, 220 for dead-lifts, 205 for bench, and 165 for bent-over rows.  I say “was” due to I’ve been off the program for over 7 weeks now.  I took a week break from the program to go to Outdoor School with my Kids 5th grade classes and ended up on the night of the last day getting my hand munged up so bad that it required surgury and 4 pins to fix the damage.

After 4 weeks with a cast, it was removed and the pins were taken out.  And with 2 physical therapy appointments so far,  I have almost full movement back in my fingers but with a SERIOUS lack of strength in the hand.  I headed back to the gym last week but for just cardio only.  Today I decided to step back into the weights and at least do squats.  Starting slow I did 5×5 with 135 lbs.  Wednesday I will bump it up a 10 lbs plate on both sides and keep doing that until I am back up to par and then from there shoot for that 300 mark once again.  The rest of the stronglifts program I will start next Monday if my grip strength will allow it.  Wish me luck