Looking for advice dealing with injury limitations

[Theawesome]

I am coming off of 2 years of very difficult rehabilitation from arm/shoulder injuries. I had some hardware put into my right arm, and a labral repair on my left shoulder. I am finally done with the PT work, and have graduated to a pretty intense and involved strength routine to rebuild lost muscle. I am working with a therapist to evolve my recovery into a viable long term lifting program, so I have my arm work covered.

After my last surgery, I shot up to about 195 (6' tall 24 year old male). I decided I wanted to begin a serious effort toward generally athletic fitness levels. I don't desire to be a bodybuilder or bulk to extreme levels, I just want to be generally fit with low BF%, while looking and feeling good. Here is what I have done so far...

At my starting point of 195, I decided to cut my calorie intake to 1700, and ride an exercise bike 5 times a week for an hour per session. I did that for about a month with no strength training as I was healing and going through physical therapy. After about a month of cardio only, the strength portion of my therapy began. I am now about 2 months into my effort, and I am down to 173. Currently I am lifting for shoulder rehab 3 times per week, and I am bicycling 3 times a week for cardio. I upped my calorie intake to about 1900. The bike rides are intense uphill climbs, and the intensity will increase as my fitness levels do. These rides absolutely max me out. I am riding with someone who has been an avid cyclist for about 20 years, and our only limitations are my fitness level at any given time. Total distance to the top of the mountain and back down is about 20 miles right now.

I am getting good cardio and leg work with these rides, and good shoulder and arm work with my therapy, but I know I need to bring balance to my routine if I want to achieve my goals. I am looking for some suggestions on what I could add to my weekly routine that would bring some balance to my workouts while working around my physical limitations. Not only am I limited in what I am physically capable of in terms of upper body strength right now, but I am absolutely maxed out on arm work by my aggressive therapy. I can't afford to add anything else that will work my arms at all right now. I know I can't get an ideal routine in my current condition, I just don't want to continue much longer being totally out of balance.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated! I have learned a ton from the few days I've been reading this forum, but I am brand new to the science behind getting in shape. If anything I am doing sounds out of whack I probably have no idea, so feel free to make any suggestions that come to mind.

[zephed56]

Unfortunately riding a bike doesn't really count as "leg work". Sure it's lower body cardio but it's entirely different than strength work.

Can you DL or hold on to a barbell with your shoulder injury? I suggest doing those once or twice a week. I doubt you can squat right now with your injury.

[Theawesome]

Unfortunately riding a bike doesn't really count as "leg work". Sure it's lower body cardio but it's entirely different than strength work.

I just assumed it was based on how sore I am following the rides. I suppose I could add some leg work on lifting days too, but it might make it hard to be fresh enough to tackle a proper ride if I do much else.

Can you DL or hold on to a barbell with your shoulder injury?

I probably can't hold enough weight to do me any good at this point. To give you an idea of where am at, most of my shoulder exercises involve 30-40 reps of weights and resistance bands around 10-15 pounds, and that is a significant workout for me at this stage of recovery. Weight is going up quickly, though, so another month or two and things will be totally different. I may just have to be patient and keep on doing what I'm doing until I'm more capable. I'm just hoping someone can come up with a few creative exercises to help me maximize my progress in the mean time. I keep reading a lot about the importance of core work for example, but a lot of the exercises involve too much upper body for me right now.

[Theawesome]

Anyone else have input?