What to do? Broken toes

nancy10272004

I am not a gym person - I don't lift, do classes, or use machines. I'm not an Insanity person either. All I do is walking and some yoga.

I broke a couple of toes and lost a toenail (RIP pretty pedicure) and the doctor is at a loss for what I can do. It's hard for me to walk without limping and I can't put pressure on that foot for at least a couple of weeks.

Is there anything I can do?

martinel2099

You can do upper body exercises and some isolated lower body exercises that won't bother your toes. I'm not an expert when it comes to at-home exercises, but at the gym you could totally do the bench press, free weights, and several machines that target specific muscle groups without bothering your toe.

I think the biggest thing though is accept the fact that your toe will need time to heal and you won't want to do things that will making the healing process take longer.

parkscs

You're really limiting yourself by excluding the gym from your activities. You say you're not a gym person but why couldn't you be? When I fractured the big toe on my left foot, it took a few months until I was really able to move around well and put weight on it without an aching pain. I focused on lifts during this time and cardio activities that required less mobility - but the vast majority of these require a gym (whether it's a commercial or an at-home gym). Swimming might be an option, but you'll just have to see how it feels.

MinnieInMaine

You could still do yoga, right? While it's not a huge calorie burner, it's good for your body.

Are you open to try doing some strength training? How about swimming or biking?

You could look up seated exercises.

nancy10272004

You're really limiting yourself by excluding the gym from your activities. You say you're not a gym person but why couldn't you be? When I fractured the big toe on my left foot, it took a few months until I was really able to move around well and put weight on it without an aching pain. I focused on lifts during this time and cardio activities that required less mobility - but the vast majority of these require a gym (whether it's a commercial or an at-home gym). Swimming might be an option, but you'll just have to see how it feels.

I'm in recovery from binge eating disorder and part of that recovery is not going to gyms or working out too much. I had to get permission from my therapist to even start doing yoga. I forget to mention that in original posts a lot of the time. Sorry about that.

I could try swimming. I could tape the he-l-l out of my feet so my does does move that much and see what happens.

parkscs

From what I recall, the doctor said that any activity that doesn't hurt is probably okay when it comes to broken toes (particularly after they've had a bit of time to heal and any swelling has gone down). If you go by that advice, you just need to experiment and see what activities you can do and slowly introduce more and more activities over time.

miss_smilla

I broke one of my toes earlier this year and resorted to spin classes and cycling when it was healing. Weirdly this was the one exercise where there was little pressure on the toes - running, walking (especially down) and the stair master / elliptical were all teeth gnashingly awful - dull thudding pain! I'm on the fence on the swimming - I think depending how and where you've broken them, then the water might drag them which would be pretty painful.

stealthq

Depending on where you put your foot in the pedal and how you push (mid-foot vs. ball of foot), stationary bike might be a possibility. Don't risk regular bicycling.

There's always hand bikes.

Other than that, I'd stick with weight training that doesn't involve standing or require any pressure on your foot.