Stress Fracture or Tendonitis In My Foot - Exercises?

jessicae1aine

I run. I LOVE to run. But, after a 10 mile race, my foot is super painful when I stand, and swelling. Saw a doctor today, and she's putting off x-rays due to lack of insurance, so we're icing it and using an ace bandage and just avoiding being on it more than necessary... but now I'm at a loss for what to do, since I'm not able to run for 8-10 weeks most likely. (All other weight-bearing exercises are excluded, too, at least for now.)

I'm getting mixed answers as to whether or not the exercise bike is okay. I don't want to do nothing for that whole time, so I'd love suggestions (and a conclusive answer, if someone happens to have one)! Thanks.

melissa3324

I suggest swimming, if you can take the ace bandage off

Mmmmona

I heat the foot up on a hot water bottle, then roll it out on my rolling pin. Rinse and repeat.

jessicae1aine

I suggest swimming, if you can take the ace bandage off

I probably should have mentioned that I live in the middle of nowhere, we have no public or gym pool, and I can't swim. :P I can take it off for a little while at a time.

melissa3324

I'm sorry, that is unfortunate.

Lupercalia

Since you can't really do weight-bearing exercise, you might look into what are known as "chair workouts". Chair workouts are just what they sound like--workouts you can do from a seated position. There are free videos online...

Are you a gym member? If your gym happens to have one of those arm cycles, that would be another possibility.

If you've got resistance bands/dumbbells/exercise ball available to you, you could put together some decent circuits that wouldn't involve standing on your foot.

Hope you feel better soon, what a bummer!

jessicae1aine

Since you can't really do weight-bearing exercise, you might look into what are known as "chair workouts". Chair workouts are just what they sound like--workouts you can do from a seated position. There are free videos online...

Are you a gym member? If your gym happens to have one of those arm cycles, that would be another possibility.

If you've got resistance bands/dumbbells/exercise ball available to you, you could put together some decent circuits that wouldn't involve standing on your foot.

Hope you feel better soon, what a bummer!

Thank you! I am a gym member, but it's a little community college gym that has very, very little. I think I'll invest in an exercise ball, and go from there.

Athena98501

Since you can't really do weight-bearing exercise, you might look into what are known as "chair workouts". Chair workouts are just what they sound like--workouts you can do from a seated position. There are free videos online...

Are you a gym member? If your gym happens to have one of those arm cycles, that would be another possibility.

If you've got resistance bands/dumbbells/exercise ball available to you, you could put together some decent circuits that wouldn't involve standing on your foot.

Hope you feel better soon, what a bummer!

Thank you! I am a gym member, but it's a little community college gym that has very, very little. I think I'll invest in an exercise ball, and go from there.

Then I would say use it very, very carefully. On a balance ball, your feet would have to be on the floor for balance, and you would have to exert pressure on them (unevenly, which is worse) at times to maintain your balance, particularly if part of your body is in motion. A stress fracture could be a hairline fracture which could easily become much more severe if you don't go mega-easy on it early on. Best case scenario there would be an ER bill, x-rays, cast and crutches.

My opinion is better safe than sorry. I would (minimum) wait until you at least know what you're dealing with.

Lupercalia

Thats true, regarding the exercise ball.

However, there are a number of exercise ball exercises that do not involve your feet being on the floor, but rather lying on your back the floor with your feet up on the exercise ball. There are also exercises that involve lying across the ball with your lower body supported by the ball. I was thinking of those sorts of things.

jimmmer

I run. I LOVE to run. But, after a 10 mile race, my foot is super painful when I stand, and swelling. Saw a doctor today, and she's putting off x-rays due to lack of insurance, so we're icing it and using an ace bandage and just avoiding being on it more than necessary... but now I'm at a loss for what to do, since I'm not able to run for 8-10 weeks most likely. (All other weight-bearing exercises are excluded, too, at least for now.)

I'm getting mixed answers as to whether or not the exercise bike is okay. I don't want to do nothing for that whole time, so I'd love suggestions (and a conclusive answer, if someone happens to have one)! Thanks.

It sucks that you're not in a country where these kinds of basic medical treatments are free.......

How much would an x-ray cost? You safest bet would be to somehow scrape the money together and get it diagnosed properly. You have the right idea taking it easy in the meantime, but you really need to find out what it is so you can have it treated properly. And that means x-rays, I'm afraid.

As for exercise bikes - if you don't actually know what's wrong (because of the aforementioned) how can any exercise be deemed safe for your recovery or otherwise?