In this thread I mentioned that I will soon have to have my foot reconstructed. It’s an incredible arduous recovery period. 2 weeks bed rest (I can pretty much guarantee this won’t happen) 8 weeks non-weight bearing cast, followed by a walking cast and physical therapy.
While I know my first priority should be healing and a quick recovery, I’ve made a lot of progress over the last 6 months in the gym that I don’t want to lose. I have two goals that may sound counterintuitive when paired together, but I will explain:
Goal #1 - Not get skinny.
Goal #2 - Don’t develop a gut.
I am by nature a “thin” guy. I’m actually liking the way I look finally. This requires a ton of calories and very heavy lifting. If I continue to eat a ton without lifting, it will just turn to fat. If I don’t eat a ton, I will just get skinny.
What kind of routine can I get into that will help me achieve my goals? I originally thought I could easily do things like bench presses and shoulder presses in a non-weight bearing cast until I realized that I have to carry the weight from the rack to the bench…on crutches.
Bodyweight exercises. Chin ups, pullups, pushups, planks etc. Put the dumbbells rack next to your bench (assuming a home gym), then you can sit, reach over for your weights, lift and replace without having to stand and carry the weights on crutches. Is there anyone in your home who could move the plates for you?
I’m not sure about the fitness part, but I do know from experience that you had better not be sticking anything inside your cast. Get some Cast Comfort.
I could be off base here but I would assume eat protein dense food and watch your calorie intake. It will be a fine line between maintaining and getting fat.
Borrow a wheelchair, if they don’t give you one, and do your cardio in it. Go on the usual [paved] trail you might run or bike on and do 30 or so minutes of “cardio” rolling. You’ll kill two birds with one stone: upper body workout similar to what biking does for the legs, and cardio.
Been contemplating having a bunionectomy (or whatever they call it) on my foot and the recovery specs were similar, so I concocted the above workout as something I’ll probably do if/when I have it done.
Well; first, you’re going to lose something. There really isn’t any way around it. Injuries tend to do that. Years ago I broke my leg in two places and had a couple of surgeries on it, so I know what you’re facing. Initially rest is going to be necessary to get your body back to feeling “right” after the surgery. Then on to keeping some level of fitness that’s reasonably close to what you have now; meaning close enough to bounce back quickly after your recovery.
Having said that, let me say from experience that in a case like yours, machines can be your friend; no plates to carry around, just move the pin and lift. Under normal conditions they aren’t a great substitute for free weights, but under your circumstances they should work fine for a short amount of time. Pull ups/Chin ups? Sure as long as there’s a bar you can reach without having to jump to it. Core? If you can plank on one foot, go for it. Add leg lifts, crunches, bicycle crunches. Do a lot of sets and you should be fine. Same for lifting; while you won’t get the same result, you can do a lot of reps to make up for the lack of weight. It will keep your muscles working enough so that when you jump back to free weights, it shouldn’t be a real big jump. And I don’t know what’s heavy for you, so maybe the machines will be able to approximate it enough for you to keep your level closer to what it is now.
Cardio depends on what your cardio level is now. The wheelchair thing is a good idea. Equally almost every gym in the nation has a machine in the cardio section that does relatively close to the same thing.
Thanks for the info everyone. I think, aside from the wheelchair idea, I’ll be relegated to machines and it shouldn’t be terrible. Again, aside from the chair, I’m not sure how I’ll be able to any cardio but I can sure do upper body lifting.
Understood about the sweating in a cast, but the gym is so cold if I only go in and do some machine work on my shoulders, chest, arms, etc it shouldn’t be too big of an issue.
Any chance they’d put you in a hard splint instead of a full cast? If they would, you could change dressings after the workout to keep everything dry and healthy.
Yeah, I sweat like a pig doing cardio (or weights for that matter) so I didn’t think about the sweating-with-cast aspect of it. Don’t they have nylon type casts that you can swim in? If so then maybe they can use that on your leg.
To me the loss of cardio fitness would suck; it takes so long to get there it would blow to start all over. I’m not running 5-milers or biking 40 miles at a pop but nonetheless I’m in decent cardio shape. I would dread losing it to the point I’m starting all over. As we all know, be it cardio or strength, you lose it much quicker than you gain it, i.e. it might take you 6 months to get to X but it will only take you a month of inactivity to get to ZERO.
This is a full foot reconstruction. They will be severing tendons and reattaching them. Breaking my entire foot in half and reassembling it with titanium screws. It will be a full cast from my toes to my knee.
My mistake Euro. Somehow I got it into my head you were just having a bunion removed… Now that I’ve read your original thread I better understand the extent of your upcoming procedure.
Good luck with it. I hope you surprise your surgeon and have a far better recovery than he thinks possible.
Like I said ask about the nylon casts I know they use, or at least used to. IIRC it was skin beneath the thing (not any kind of wrap) which looked like a tiny waffle pattern that allowed air in and out. I remember seeing one many years ago on a kid who had it on his arm and it was during the summer so he wanted to be able to swim.
I used a rowing machine today. It seemed to work fairly well, and may even work with a cast, but I got sweaty. Fast. I’m not sure how I can maintain cardio in a cast, but I will ask about the nylon casts.
Having not done it (yet), I strongly suspect that cardio via the upper body is a whole new experience. If you use 30 minutes of cardio as a [minimal] baseline, the upper body “events” you choose to participate in will need some tweaking big-time until you get into a groove. The repetitions/pace/resistance will all have to be played with to get you a minimum of 30 minutes for cardio.
I don’t relish the time when I have to try it as I’m sure it will suck.