Injured foot & swim like retarded sloth; how the heck do I exercise? :(

[Branwyn32]

Long time no see, NF rebels. How goes it?

Unfortunately, not too well on my end. Amongst an avalanche of other crap that's happened in my life over the past few months, I injured my left foot. I've had chronic ankle problems there (it sprains if I look at it the wrong way), and now I've got another injury in the same foot. I was in VFFs and tripped and landed HARD on the ball of my left foot with my weight sort of overly forward...so it BADLY bruised the ball (to the point where I was concerned it could be a stress fracture) and I think badly strained the plantar fascia (the ligaments that run through the arch of the foot connecting each toe to the heel sort of, specifically the one running from my 2nd toe). This was like a month ago & it's still not completely healed; I can't roll through a step (have to kind of limp slightly on the side of my foot) or do any motion that stretches the arch and pulls my toes back much at all. It REALLY sucks.

So I would love to be exercising again but I'm at a loss as to what to do. Running, walking, jogging, riding a bike...any kind of cardio I can think of I can't do right now. I know the answer to this question is usually swimming, but seriously, I swim like a drowning squirrel. I dog paddle. So what the hell can I do for exercise?

[theanne]

Perhaps this is an excellent time to learn to swim better?

[Junglizer]

Perhaps this is an excellent time to learn to swim better?

I agree. My late grandfather had a bumper sticker on his car that said "If you can't walk, SWIM!" and he continued to swim a massive amount of laps/distance even through his mid eighties.

[Alethea]

Ouch, I feel for you on this one. Here's my thoughts.

1. Sounds like you have weak feet/ankle muscles. They're not giving you the support you need. Either see a physiotherapist/sports therapist, or do lots of research online, and start building up that muscle strength and flexibility! Being injured all the time sucks.

2. If you have a double sink (or 2 buckets), fill one with very hot water, and one with very cold water. Soak your foot, 2 minutes each, for a total of 20 minutes. It encourages circulation and healing.

3. I second the swim better. I also suck at swimming, but when I was off my foot for 4 months, I swam semi-regularly and actually got half decent at it. When your muscles are screaming to be used, at least it's something to raise the heart rate.

4. Pilates. There are online videos (www.ultimatepilatesworkouts.com is my favorite) that are very injured-foot friendly.

5. Modified strength routines. You can do knee planks and knee pushups and anything to do with arms if you're careful.

6. Flexibility work. You can do a LOT from seated positions, and work pretty much every joint you have.

Thats about all I have. I'll let you know if I think of anything else.

[ertzeid]

I'm working on my swimming right now! I took a class at the Y a couple years ago that was pretty helpful, and then recently got some instruction from a friend that helped too. Use a kickboard--even get one if your local pool doesn't have any. Work your way up. You'll get a workout, but be distracted enough by the water it won't even feel like one half the time.

Don't get me wrong, learning to swim is hard.

You can also do non-swimming exercise in a pool. Yeah, you might feel weird doing aqua aerobics with all the old ladies, but that can be a great workout too, and a lot easier on injured joints.

Can you do squats? A nice squat-pushup-situp routine can be really hard. Get creative with the set/rep combinations and do them as fast as you can:

- 100 push-ups and then 200 situps and then 300 squats

- 21 pushups, 21 situps, 21 squats; 15 pu, 15 si, 15 sq; 9 pu, 9 su, 9 sq

etc.

You can cut out the squats and still get awesome cardio with some stuff that'll be easier on your ankle. Do knee push-ups if you need.

[Branwyn32]

Thanks for the thoughts everyone. I don't really know how one "learns to swim better"...I mean, I know *how* to swim, I'm just terribly uncoordinated at it.

I can't do regular pushups because that bends my toes back...I can't do *anything* that bends my toes back at all, it re-injures the ligament. The other stuff I should be able to do so I will try the other routines, so long as I can get my foot to stay flat. So sucky though because I'm used to doing everything in Vibrams (I don't even have traditional athletic shoes anymore) and I have to get some stiff soled shoes to keep my foot from toes bending/foot flexing. I've done plenty of yoga (which I haven't done lately because of the lunges that require pulling your toes back) but actually never tried pilates...will it require that kind of movement?

I don't have health insurance so medical treatment is not an option but I will do as much research as I can for exercises for my ankle/foot!

[Alethea]

Pilates instructs you to flex your toes, but you don't have to, and otherwise most of the poses are very very injury friendly (which is what Joseph Pilates was aiming for).

What about biking?

[ertzeid]

If you get fancy bike shoes, their soles are really stiff and will keep you from bending your toes. However, cycling may still put pressure on the toe, and the shoes aren't exactly loose. Not sure what your needs are, but there's some extra info. Also, cycling is way more fun on a bike outside than riding an exercise bike inside, and a lot more comfortable if the bike fits right.