Can muscles atrophy from overuse, and can they be rebuilt again by working with weights?

Question

I am a 53y.o. leg amputee. During my physical therapy, I hopped on one leg, (daily, for a long while, and about 200yds. at a time) using a walker. Then after I had a prosthesis, I still used a walker, bearing a lot of weight upon my arms. I am morbidly obese, so the strain on my arms tore muscles, which were not able to be repaired with surgery. The muscles have atrophied, as a result. Is this possible, due to overuse, and could I still rebuild those muscles back again-perhaps with small hand-held weights?

Answer 1

It depends on the degree and location of the tear. If you tore your rotator cuff completely and that has now atrophied, I am sorry, but that will not return. Yet, some people with chronically torn rotator cuffs can compensate for this by use of the deltoid muscle (a different group of muscles). So, you may be able to build up other muscle groups to help compensate, but most likely you will not have normal shoulder mechanics.

The muscle atrophies due to disuse once it has been torn because it no longer has neurological feedback. In otherwords, the atrophy happened because it tore, not because you overused it...but because you overused it might have been the reason why it tore.

Answer 2

certainly...if you are using light weights you should be able to exercise the muscle every other day, then as they rebuild you can increase the frequency of training and the weight used. check out the website below. there are tons of exercises that you will be able to use for the upper body

http://www.exrx.net/Lists/Directory.html