Refinding my muscles after injury

NeedToLoseWeight2000

I broke my foot 3.5 months back after losing 25 lb. I was out of commission for a while, and my muscles turned to mush. I’ve managed to regain a nice bit muscle, but the injured leg is still 2 inches thinner than the other. I’m beginning to think that since I’m working it out with 25 lbs less, it might never catch up to the other. Anybody been through this? Just a fun little pondering!

FibroHiker

Yes, I sprained my foot in 2020 and it took me a really long time to gain back mobility like I had before the sprain. I'd say about two years was necessary to have usage similar to before without any pain. I know that's not what you want to hear.

More recently, I was having hip problems and doing lower body exercises like squats and lunges were impossible. So instead, I did any possible weight training for my lower body that would strengthen muscles except squats and lunges. After two months of muscle building, I was able to do a squat without pain. Now I am slowly adding weight to the squat exercises and building up more strength that way.

It is possible, but you need to be careful and work with a PT to ensure you don't harm in the process of trying to build.

Retroguy2000

I haven't been through it personally, but from what I've seen about injury recovery (check out Dr. Mike at Renaissance Periodization on YT for example), you'll want to:

1. Do isolateral work for the legs. So you could do (in rough order of complexity): leg extension, leg curl, single leg press, lunges, Bulgarian split squat, etc., whatever you can safely do already.

2. Start with the weaker leg. Do 10-20 reps to near failure (not failure), then do the other leg to the same volume. Usual volume recommendations apply for muscle building of 10-20 working sets per week depending on your training age.

This should help the weaker leg grow, while the other leg probably maintains.

Unknown

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tomcustombuilder

Muscle memory will restore it just train normally

HoneyBadger302

If you have full ROM and things are working normally, isolate each leg and work them the same amount. Anything that uses both legs, REALLY watch out for favoring the 'bad' leg, as it's very easy to do.
I had a pilon fracture 7 years ago, and have limited ROM in that ankle (perma fubared), and that calf in particular just does not look the same despite a ton of work to try to get it back to where it was - but I believe the lack of ROM is to blame by this point as I simply cannot fully activate that muscle (one side of the calf in particular) as I can with full ROM.

nossmf

Retroguy2000 wrote: »

2. Start with the weaker leg. Do 10-20 reps to near failure (not failure), then do the other leg to the same volume. Usual volume recommendations apply for muscle building of 10-20 working sets per week depending on your training age.

To add on top of this, using the SAME WEIGHT. Your good leg may be able to go heavier, but resist the temptation to do so. Let the weaker leg lead the way; whatever reps and weights that leg does, the good leg repeats.