How do I exercise with a cast on?

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drroduran
drroduran Posts: 23
in Motivation and Support
Apparently my new found energy has me participating in XTREME activities...Friday night I was playing with my twins and I fell. After a long night of pain and trying to push it...turns out, I broke my foot.

I'm wearing a CAM boot right now but once the swelling goes down I get to rock a cast--Hilarious--here's to XTREME PLAY!!

Anyway...Any thoughts on how I can exercise with this stupid thing? Ironically, I just signed up for a gym membership too...

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  • velix
    velix Posts: 437 Member
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    there is a woman at my gym who has a boot thing-y on her foot, and she does most everything except the treadmill (like, elliptical, etc, that does not require her to 'put her foot down' repeatedly) and she does a lot of light weights from seated positions (legs & arms),

    Wishing you a speedy recovery!
  • kjhofstad
    kjhofstad Posts: 2 Member
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    Oh my gosh..that's terrible!! You poor thing! I know that any upper body workouts can really get your heart rate up. If I were you I'd do some punching exercises. Or grab some free weights and do some shoulder presses, bicep curls, tricep extensions..etc. Good luck..hope you heal fast!!
  • callipygianchronicle
    callipygianchronicle Posts: 811 Member
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    Do/Will you have crutches? If so, just moving around is going to up the intensity of your every day activities. I’m not a doctor, but my feeling is you *shouldn’t* exercise while you are healing. You should just heal and let the body do what it needs to do. When you have recovered and have the doctor’s okay, resume. Your gym should be willing to put your membership on hold. In the mean time, just track your calories and get plenty of calcium.

    Edited to add…and by exercise I’m thinking anything that impacts or puts pressure on your foot. Lifting weights and doing upper body resistance as others suggested seems perfectly reasonable.
  • dawnemjh
    dawnemjh Posts: 1,465 Member
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    Probably using a bike would be ok, but I would check with your orthopedist. Depending on the type of fracture if you put repeated pressure on your foot you could displace the fracture and end up needing surgery.
  • LorinaLynn
    LorinaLynn Posts: 13,247 Member
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    Do/Will you have crutches? If so, just moving around is going to up the intensity of your every day activities. I’m not a doctor, but my feeling is you *shouldn’t* exercise while you are healing. You should just heal and let the body do what it needs to do. When you have recovered and have the doctor’s okay, resume. Your gym should be willing to put your membership on hold. In the mean time, just track your calories and get plenty of calcium.

    Every word of this! You can always do core and upper body stuff, but I'd focus more on healing than hitting the gym. You don't want to do anything that will prolong the recovery.
  • tracybewick
    tracybewick Posts: 39
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    I broke my leg last year and its awful not being able to do the excercise you want to do.
    I did lots of arm weights, arm bike, sit ups and did do a few boxercise classes with my arms only once i was off crutches!! However when i was on crutches, gym health & saftey meant i wasnt allowed in even just to do upper body stuff!!!

    Once the bone is healed if u can get on a power plate it builds up that lost muscle power and is a great healer.

    Be prepared to reduce your excercise levels, as much as you try to 'do something' its very difficult to build upo a sweat!!

    Good luck
    Hope your not in cast too long
    tracy x
  • WalkingGirl1985
    WalkingGirl1985 Posts: 2,047 Member
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    When i broke my ankle about 8 years back, the stairs was my best friend for upper body workouts. I had some toned looking arms when i was healed! I didn't use my foot at all..if you have a free foot and you have steps in your house, use your free foot..your heel and push your body up along with you arms. Great workout.
  • drroduran
    drroduran Posts: 23
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    Thanks guys....your ideas are awesome and certainly motivate me to try now...typically this would be a great reason to just sit around and eat ice cream:tongue: I'm so glad I put it out there...thanks for the support!!
  • drroduran
    drroduran Posts: 23
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    Thanks guys....your ideas are awesome and certainly motivate me to try now...typically this would be a great reason to just sit around and eat ice cream:tongue: I'm so glad I put it out there...thanks for the support!!
  • drroduran
    drroduran Posts: 23
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    Oh yeah...and you're right...I need to concentrate on healing...but I think I can do some arm stuff and that will be enough to keep me from giving up on myself ( :

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