Road to recovery

SamanthaHarris20231

Hello friends,

I'm looking for support and advice on building strength back into my leg after an injury. Long story short, I snapped my left leg in two places and dislocated my ankle, surgery was necessary and now I have a plate and pin inside my leg.

I was doing really well physically before my accident but since I've had three months off work and the gym, the kilo's have slowly crept on.

Any advice on how I can return to training daily is very welcomed.

Tia 😊

williamsonmj1

It would probably be better to work on this with a physical therapist/rehab specialist. But if it was me I would

1) Do the lower body compound exercises (ie squat and deadlift), starting off from very low weights and gradually increase. Probably start with squatting the empty bar and deadlift 50kg- or even less if I had training plates. I would look to add weights very slowly so that it was only challenging after 2-3 months. Once it gets harder I would want to work in the 3-5 rep range, e.g. 5 sets of 4 or 5 sets of 3 as high intensity is much better for bone density.

2) I would also add some unilteral work, e.g. split squats, walking lunges. These can be done in the hypertrophy ranges, since it is mainly about ensuring good movement patterns and correcting imbalances. Still would start off low and build up cautiously.

3) I would throw in extra ankle work- once you have had one ankle injury you lose some proprioception, and that makes you more likely to have more ankle injuries. There are lots of standard programs out there. One thing you can do is practice standing on one leg, when that is easy, you do it while looking up, then you do it with your eyes closed. Learning to pistol squat (one legged squat) would also work. Squat University has some good videos about how to learn this on YouTube.