Broken Leg (Upper Body Workouts)

[B-raady09]

I broke my fibula 2 weeks ago and I haven't been able to lift at all. Before the injury I was doing more weight than ever making huge gains. I was up to 205 from 184 just 5 months ago then I broke my leg at practice.

Does anyone know some good upper body workout routines where I wouldn't have to use my leg. Obviously, Ill continue to do pull ups and things like that but I need some ideas. Has anyone else experienced this? I get a boot put on today and I can start doing stuff in the weight room again.

[mindpower1]

thankfully ive never broken a bone, but fair play for not letting the injury set you back, i know many wud lie in bed 'recovering' for a while instead.

i guess the possibilities are endless...

you could still bench, dumbell fly, etc without annoying the leg. or do a press up with weight on back and put the sore leg on the good one ( so you only have 3 points of contact with ground instead of 4)

concentration curls, seated dumbell curls, shrugs, seated dumbell press, the list goes on.

you basically just want isolation exercises that wont put weight on the sore leg, you could try many and see what is pain free and what is not.

regards bro

[B-raady09]

Thanks man. All of that sounds great but I wont be able to do any of that for a while.

funny story

The day I posted this I went to the doctors office expecting to be in a walking boot but my doc walks in and says "well, we noticed that your tibia is really offset and you tore some ligaments and we have to do surgery tomorrow." So, 4 days after I though I was about to start walking again, I have 6 screws and a plate in my ankle and its going to be another 4 weeks before I cant start doing stuff. SUCKS!!

Basically all im going to be doing is eating perfectly for the next month so I don't gain a lot of body fat. I've already lost a good 10 pounds of muscle since the injury and the worst is yet to come.

For all you baseball players out there, try to avoid late slides and stick with the headfirst method.

[Oscar_Mike]

I spent most of this year unable to lift with my lower body, because of a lower back injury and knee surgery prior to that.

A push day would usually include, bench press, dips, and some seated shoulder work.
Pull days would have pullups and chest supported rows. Sometimes seated shrugs on a machine.
I also went ahead and had an arm day in there even though that's not something I would normally do. There's only so much your upper body can take, and why not hit arms hard if you can't work your legs?

One thing I did that really paid off was a ton of grip work. I did some at the end of every workout and even had entire work outs devoted to grip. It paid off huge when I healed up and returned to my sport.

[B-raady09]

Thanks a lot for the help fellas

Should be able to do some stuff next week

[chris_uk1978_old]

ive had to lift with a broken leg before, just a push, pull, off, push, pull, off, off split.

you just need to adapt, i remember doing cable rows sat on the floor with my leg in a cast, doing inverted rows rather than pull-ups, i think i needed more help getting dbs in position than normal, that kind of thing. Improvise the first couple of sessions and then you will be sorted

[spiralcrash]

I came to the forum looking for some advice for upper body workouts with a broken leg. I can't believe how similar my injury is to yours. I'm a week out of surgery (plate and 6 screws to fix the spiral fracture of my fibula). I got busted up in a rugby tackle. I've been 3 weeks now since the break and I'm going nuts! I feel like I'm just watching the muscle in my leg deteriorate. I know it's been a while, but I was wondering how your healing went. Were you able to get back into the gym when you got in the walking boot? Did you get back to your sport within the year? And most importantly, does your ankle still give you problems?

[GiveemElle]

Wow, both of you sound just like me! I broke my fibula playing roller derby and my tibia was off-set indicating torn ligaments in my ankle. So I am almost 2 weeks post-surgery and going crazy! I was skating 3 times a week for 2 hours each, teaching kickboxing 2 days per week and doing it myself another 3 days per week. I hate seeing my leg muscles atrophy. I came to this forum to see if anyone had ideas of how to keep up on cardio and for ideas for any kind of leg work I can do without weight-bearing. Something to help keep some of my quads and calf on my bad leg. I'm not good at sitting around and resting. It's holding me back!

[WhiteDynamite13]

I'm currently in a full leg cast. This thing goes up to my middle thigh. Doing upper body stuff is surprisingly easy if you can position your body right. I've been doing a lot of curls, skull crushers, military press, and even found a way to start doing pushups. I've yet yo get back in the gym cause this cast is embarrassing. I feel the best way is keep it simple and completely isolate the leg. It's tough watching the muscle disappear, but you do what you gotta do.