Squats to maintain upper body muscle/strength for a cut?

[BerserkerRage]

I have some pain in the rotator cuff of the right shoulder and have to lay off

press,bp,pull ups and dips.Luckily i hurt myself in the last week of my bulk and i gained

a good amount of muscle/strength on weighted dips,ohp,weighted chins,squat and deadlift.

I can only do the squat right now with no discomfort.My orthopaedist told me to lay off

going to the gym and doing any shoulder work so squats are my only option for now.What i

want to know is will the squats also keep my upper body strength up?

[knoted]

To some extent, but very little. If you don't stress the muscle it wont grow / maintain. You might be best served by using the down time to work on things that you don't need your shoulder for, such as heavy core work, hill sprints, that sort of thing. Also, look at doing some isolation exercises that don't work your shoulder much, like bicep curls, tricep extensions, that sort of thing.

[wrenchhands]

Why not take a break?

[BerserkerRage]

^^^^ Already did that at the end of my bulk to allow my cns to recharge.The break was for 10 days but the pain still hadn't gone.It isn't an excruciating pain but this is the first time i have a pain that is lingering for such a long time.I hurt my shoulder doing weighted dips btw.I saw an orthopaedist and have undergone 3 days of pt with 2 days left to go(ultrasound and sw diathermy).Pain is subsiding but i am scared that it will come back if i start working my shoulders too soon and want to leave a nice long 3-4 weeks for it to heal 100%.Since i have already taken my rest period it will be a problem if i go another long period without upper body stress.

[dhw]

I would keep up the squat and also deadlift. Both to some extent stress the upper body, although certainly not to the extent that upper body lifts such as the press would. Also, see how the DB Press feels. I strained a rotator cuff some time back and found that the additional range of movement allowed me to keep pressing with no pain. I also felt fine with Hang Cleans and most pulls. My guy just had me work around the injury. But, start light and if it hurts stop.

[wrenchhands]

Well, I'm a vagina, and would take off way more time than you are, but you're you and I am me

[Sam277]

Keep eating plenty of calories, don't give your body another reason to drop the muscle. May gain a bit of fat, but it's better not to drop calories. IMO

[luco]

IMO overeating when not training isn't necesarily beneficial to strength and muscle maintenance. It can however make you fat quite quickly.
I'd just do light exercises for upperbody with movements you can do painfree. If you can still squat heavy without discomfort or pain and have already taken 10 days off, do it. I think this will be more beneficial to maintaining muscle than eating more.

[Sam277]

Doing light upper body work won't keep your arms big, but it could slow recovery.

I don't mean eat more, but just don't eat less. Losing fat is easy, gaining muscle back is not.

Whatever you do, you're likely to lose some strength.

[Rockfella]

Same thing happened with me... still waiting for my right shoulder to heal. Op keep on doing squats and DLs.

[Rockfella]

Lol really? I thought loosing fat is difficult than gaining muscle!

Doing light upper body work won't keep your arms big, but it could slow recovery.

I don't mean eat more, but just don't eat less. Losing fat is easy, gaining muscle back is not.

Whatever you do, you're likely to lose some strength.

[Zendefone]

Lol really? I thought loosing fat is difficult than gaining muscle!

Doing light upper body work won't keep your arms big, but it could slow recovery.

I don't mean eat more, but just don't eat less. Losing fat is easy, gaining muscle back is not.

Whatever you do, you're likely to lose some strength.

No, gaining muscle is much more difficult than losing fat.

[BerserkerRage]

I have found gaining muscle easier than losing fat,i guess it varies from person to person.Then again when you have more muscle it gets easier to burn off the fat.

The squat has this reputation as the king of exercises,works your body as one piece(back,entire leg,abs)

In deads chest gets squeezed hard,etc.I personally enjoy every workout and look forward to it,my fav lift

being the ohp,sad i wont be able to do that for a while .Also love weighted dips but will lay off them for a

long time i suppose.

[Rockfella]

I guess it depends from person to person but all this while I believed it is easier to gain muscle as compared to loosing fat! Well maybe perhaps strength training is exciting and fat loss is utter boring! Lol. It has been 4 months I have not benched/OHPed/BW dipped so I can really understand your situation! What went wrong while doing weighted dips?

I have found gaining muscle easier than losing fat,i guess it varies from person to person.Then again when you have more muscle it gets easier to burn off the fat.

The squat has this reputation as the king of exercises,works your body as one piece(back,entire leg,abs)

In deads chest gets squeezed hard,etc.I personally enjoy every workout and look forward to it,my fav lift

being the ohp,sad i wont be able to do that for a while .Also love weighted dips but will lay off them for a

long time i suppose.

[luco]

Doing light upper body work won't keep your arms big, but it could slow recovery.

I don't mean eat more, but just don't eat less. Losing fat is easy, gaining muscle back is not.

What do you base this on exactly? Yes, if you don't bench your bench will go down. But if you do what you can it won't go down as much.
I also really don't see how doing light painfree exercises could slow recovery. Wouldn't you agree doing movements that make blood and nutrients flow to the injured area would speed up recovery? Atrophy occurs when muscles are no longer used. But if there's an inflammation in your shoulder you don't want to stress it too much until the inflammation goes away. Use it, but don't stress it=light exercise.

The losing fat being easier than gaining back muscle is already being debated and I don't really agree. If you said easier than gaining new muscle then yes, but muscle memory is a great thing and if you start lifting heavy again and upping your caloric intake once you can you'll be back at your old level faster than you'd think.