Gaining muscle after being on crutches for 3 months...

[ilikemysupra]

Hey guys, I messed up my left ankle pretty bad a while back, and because of it I was limited to using crutches for three months. For the first two months I couldn't put any weight on my left foot due to the bones healing. Finally the third month I was able to walk on it with the help of one crutch. I have two questions here: I work out regularly, and want to know if I should focus on the less developed muscles more, to try and even my body out, or would even walking around using a crutch on the other side help? second, does anyone know of a pain free way to relax my foot? There's really no pain when walking around, but after standing all day, if I start to relax my foot, it starts getting painful. I'm sure it has something to do with the nerves in my foot. Thanks in advance for the help guys.

[DocSI]

Hey there... first of all welcome back to slowly being crutch free. They're a ***** and a half, which I'm sure you found out over the last three months! Couple of questions for you to hopefully better answer your own...

1. What was the actual diagnosis of your initial injury? You said bones healing... so stress fracture? Complete fracture? Where was the fracture (metatarsal, calcaneus, etc.)? You also talked about nerves....?

I work out regularly, and want to know if I should focus on the less developed muscles more, to try and even my body out, or would even walking around using a crutch on the other side help?

Was that "regularly" before the injury, or also during rehab? Are you completely aid-free now, or using a boot? The biggest thing I can emphasize here is to go back SLOWLY. I know how impatient dealing with rehab is, and how badly you probably want to get to pre-injury fitness. But if you end up re-injuring something due to over eagerness, you're only going to set it back further.

second, does anyone know of a pain free way to relax my foot? There's really no pain when walking around, but after standing all day, if I start to relax my foot, it starts getting painful. I'm sure it has something to do with the nerves in my foot. Thanks in advance for the help guys.

The muscles in your foot are probably "guarding" ... which is where they contract or put themselves in a position to prevent further injury. Sometimes it's conscious, but most often people do it without even thinking. [Depending on what your actual injury was...] If it's sore at the end of the day, you could try rolling a tennis ball under the sole of the foot. Best case is using a frozen water bottle, since you get the myofascial release and icing all in one.

Could possibly give more specific ideas depending on your actual injury. Hopefully I don't come off trying to sound as a smart ***.... I work in Sports Medicine at a D1 university, so I'd like to think I at least somewhat know my stuff.

[ilikemysupra]

Alright well I guess I should have clarified a little, or a lot, better haha. This actually happened about three years ago, so I've been crutch free for a while.

As far as the exercising, I got back into it as soon as I was walking aid free. I was also seeing a chiropractor, I think that's the right one haha, after I was walking on it. In the beginning, my foot actually wasn't too bad. Now to the present day, and the current pains, my last job and the one I'm currently at are standing ones. So for at a minimum of eight hours, I'm standing, and possibly twisting here and there. I've also been wearing steal toe shoes as required.

I don't remember the name of the fracture, but it was the bone that everything pivots off of, there were four clear fractures that we could see from the xray. Before my last two jobs, I was able to jump rope, run, even if it wasn't the most even yet, but this was without pain. I would have to agree with the 'guarding' you mentioned, honestly that would make the most sense.

At work I have my good days and bad days, my foot will get sore, but usually not unbearable or anything. Granted, once I've been off of it for a decent while, it feels like it tightens back up. Well I hope this extra info helps, if ya need anything more, please let me know and hopefully I can give you what ya need. Thank you