Planned respawn :( (Broken ankle)

[scottjameshay@gmail.com]

Hey all. I've enjoyed great success over the last 10 months and lost 70lbs. The last 2.5 of those months have been spent maintaining my goal weight and building strength. On Monday though I ran into a new hurdle. I broke my ankle playing floor hockey and am stuck with my left foot in a walking boot for up to 6 weeks... (KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!!!!!!!!!)

 

I have heard differing advice on how to approach this period of time as far as PT is concerned. I was thinking I might be able to continue to perform modified and upper body PT (seated weightlifting, general core workouts like situps), but have been told by my paramedic friend that the best approach is Zero-PT over the next few weeks until the bone is fully healed; that I shouldn't risk in any way having the bone heal improperly.

 

I think that there is sound wisdom in both approaches, however the latter really urks me because for the last 10 months I have not gone any more than 2 days in a row without working out, and have been typically working out 5-6x/week (about 3-4 of those workouts being high-quality, and 2 light/low-impact workouts just to stay loose and mobile). Now I am being told I may have to rest for up to 6 weeks for something that is not even that painful to tolerate at the moment (it was a surprise to both Me & the doctors that it was a break)(all signs pointed to a sprain).

 

I have been very proud of myself over the last while for the healthy PT habit I've built and the last thing I want to risk is becoming lazy and complacent again for 6 weeks, but I also don't want to risk my ankle not healing properly. Is this just some new mental hurdle I will have to overcome (an unexpected boss level, perhaps)? Or is there some happy-medium I can find where I can still workout during this time? I suppose it's all relative to my siatution, but have any of you out there dealt with something similar to this in your journey?

[Jett]

What did the actual doctor who did the scans and put the boot on say? If you forgot to ask him, can you call him up and ask? It's going to be based on what exactly is going on with your break, and I don't know enough to even be able to give guidelines, but the doc ought to know. If the doc says "do nothing", then go with that, but I would be surprised if he didn't clear you for certain activities that keep weight off the ankle and still let you do some upper-body stuff.

[scottjameshay@gmail.com]

Yeah. I actually got to see my doctor again yesterday for a follow-up and asked him if I could do modified PT, and he said he's got no problem with that. PHEW! I've been growing anxious not doing anything for the last 5 days except 15min of floor hockey, so I'm looking forward to doing something today

 

I will be sticking with mostly upper body and core and sticking to the machines rather than free weights until I can rely on the ankle to carry/lift the free-weights to/from the benches. Thank God!

[starsapart]

I was about to chime in - I broke my ankle last August, in the middle of my self-improvement journey, and I went to upper body weights (seated) as my solution.  There's lots you can do!  If you ever want specifics, I think I can dig up my old training plan......

 

By the way, you can do stationary row in your boot for a bit of cardio, if you want to incorporate some!  I figured this out after awhile - just strap in your healthy foot and get going.