A ruptured gluteus medius probably doesn't qualify as my ass, but it does make up at least part of it. Of course, it covers more of the hip but is a main stabilizer so training legs while it heals is tricky.
It's also tricky because I can actually train my legs with squats, leg presses, etc., because there isn't any pain while doing the movements. It's not until after I train that the irritation and mild pain sets in and sticks around for 3 to 7 days following the session. If I were still in prep mode and trying to get to a show in a few weeks, I might gamble with it but the shows are off the table now, obviously. So, there is no good reason to gamble with a major injury and letting it heal is the best option.
Still, I want to train legs and have been trying to find a way to train them without irritating or lengthening the recovery process for my hip. There is almost always a way to train around injuries and it's times like these that you can use these situations as learning experiences. Basically, I am forced to find ways to activate the hams and quads as much as possible without using exercises that require as much hip stability.
Some things I have learned during this process:
seated leg curls work just fine for my situation but lying leg curls or even light stiff-leg-deads do not work, at all, and aggravate my hip.
Leg extensions are no problem, at all, as there is very little hip stability needed. However, l am never one to be satisfied with only doing as little as possible, so I was looking for another movement that could involve the legs without putting the hip in a vulnerable position.
I recently ordered and received a sissy squat from EliteFTS for my home gym (TITAN GYM here in FTL). It arrived a couple of weeks ago and I figured I would give this a shot. It worked incredibly well, blew up my quads, and didn't bother my hip, at all. The trick is to be as upright as possible and in doing this, it is even harder on the quads which is exactly what I was looking for.
For now, my leg sessions will look like this for the next 7 weeks:
Regular calf workout because none of the calf exercises I do causes any issues.
5 working sets of seated hamstring curls
5 working sets of leg extensions (it takes me a while to warm up my knees -- usually 4 or 5 sets -- before I can start my working sets to failure)
5 working sets of sissy squats
That's it. That's all I can do right now and even though it doesn't involve heavy weights, it at least blows the hell out of my hams and quads without hampering recovery for my hip.
I am slowly building in more calories and at the same time, my weight still continues to drop just a bit. This is likely from dropping to TRT, but I am also getting leaner at the same time. I will end the week, this week, around 216. How much do I still want to drop? Not much. I am dealing with no hunger and loading for 1.5 days on the weekend, so I will drop until I feel that I get to the condition that I want to hold while continuing to build in calories very slowly. I plan to stay below the 215 mark, at least until after TRT when I step back on the gas and can then train legs hard.
One of my main objectives this off season is to grow the shit out of my legs. So, as I get into my off season, I will likely be pushing more and more calories (slow, steady increments) to build my scale weight while keeping insulin resistance low. I want to get as much growth out of my legs this off season as possible. I don't even care if everything else stays the same, though that is not the objective. I'm just making the point that my legs are my priority for this next off season.
I will say, though, that I think with the new sissy squat machines (new, relative to the old-school, 1980s version without using the machine), sissy squats are very effective for quad development -- much more than extensions, in my opinion. So, even when I am able to return to heavy leg work, I plan to still keep the sissy squats in my leg protocol, quite a bit.
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