3 months on crutches. All my work down the drain?

There are bench and band excercises you can do while seated. Sorry, I’m new to weight training, so I don’t know the names, but I think it’s something like curls, flyaways, and other moves, things you can do seated on the end of a bench, or laying on your back on one. We do similar moves in Pilates, seated on a yoga block that is placed on one of those rubber therapy bands. Some health facilities offer chair yoga. A gym with machines will have a lot with upper body workouts. Could you do a recumbent stationary bike?

And please don’t laugh at this, but years ago, I was ill with something that gave me severely swollen joints, but had small kids who still had to be cared for. Umpteen times a day, I had to crawl up stairs on hand and knees, and slide down them on my butt. It looked ridiculous but in retrospect, it was a workout, and I’d do that if push came to shove.

I’ve been giving all this a bit of thought myself because I thought I’d fractured my ankle, but doctors visit yesterday showed it to be a stupid collapsed arch. Sheesh...no idea flat feet could be that painful. Like you, I wanted a backup plan. I’m easing off yoga and long walks til it heals up, but I’m still planning to do the weight training and Pilates, since neither is that foot intensive for me.

You won't get fat if you eat according to your activity level.

Walking with crutches is REAL exercise, so don't entirely discount that. I found that 160 lb me would burn about 381 calories an hour walking with crutches versus 251 walking at a 3 mph pace on flat ground.

Found a decent article for broad tips: https://www.livestrong.com/article/188670-how-to-lose-weight-while-on-crutches/

jls1leather9497 wrote: »

GOOD NEWS
There really is a 'muscle memory' ... it comes back easier than it took to build from scratch.

Muscle memory is (kind of?) a thing - but atrophy is very much a thing. Building back muscle after 3 months on crutches is no joke and will likely take longer than the six months he's been cycling. I get that this isn't a rosey positive post, but neither is muscle atrophy.

Chieflrg wrote: »

Continue to train what you can. I've trained and have trained people who can't walk and missing limbs/hands etc...

Find a way that your surgeon/doctors wouldn't be opposed to and would be on board for with you.

Also keep in mind that there was a study that showed some evidence that just by stimulating one limb the person's other limb that was temporarily untrained still experienced hypertrophy.

So one could do leg press with one leg and depending thr applied dose of stimulus within programming for the individual, one could still experience benefits.

Out of self interest, do you know what the title of this article was and/or who the authors were?

Will you temporarily lose strength? Yes. Gain weight? Not necessarily. I had back surgery last year, bed rest for four weeks. Light movement after that. Not even allowed to go to a desk job. In 4.5 weeks, I lost almost 15 lbs. Basically, even laying around all day, I lost weight, because, there was no stress eating, and I controlled what I ate, being at home. (Sure there was some muscle loss in there too, but...) Lack of exercise does not mean definite weight gain. Weight gain is up to you and your choices.

I had knee surgery that required me to be on crutches for almost three months.
Crutches are really tough. If you try to get around like you used to, your underarms will constantly be chaffed and sore. As will your hands from all the weight. I eventually bought gloves to help support my hands.
They once did a study where they had people go around a track walking, and then on crutches, where they measured these people's oxygen uptake. They found that crutches required something like four times more energy.
I think you cannot worry about the atrophy. It is going to happen.
There are two things you can do, however.
Watch your portion sizes to be sure you are not overeating for your activity level.
I tended to eat big lunches and dinners before my surgery, because I was so active.
I hobbled around the gym doing what I could. Arm curls. Chest machines. Lat pulldowns. Those things are not the same, but it keeps you from losing all conditioning.
Good luck.

Chieflrg wrote: »

aokoye wrote: »

Chieflrg wrote: »

Continue to train what you can. I've trained and have trained people who can't walk and missing limbs/hands etc...

Find a way that your surgeon/doctors wouldn't be opposed to and would be on board for with you.

Also keep in mind that there was a study that showed some evidence that just by stimulating one limb the person's other limb that was temporarily untrained still experienced hypertrophy.

So one could do leg press with one leg and depending thr applied dose of stimulus within programming for the individual, one could still experience benefits.

Out of self interest, do you know what the title of this article was and/or who the authors were?

First I spoke "hypertrophy" but I meant to say strength gains. Don't speech text and drive folks.

There were a few meta analysis but off the top of my head here is one.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/17043329/

Thanks - and yes, do not text (speech or not) and drive!

I had foot surgery in January and I'm now getting back into my walking routine. I'm still using a rolling walker and a post-op shoe / sandal some of the time, alternating those with hiking poles and a regular shoe that fits my swollen foot. Recovery has been slow, complicated by inflammatory arthritis and pre-existing problems in the opposite hip.

Before surgery, my PT encouraged me to keep up my leg lifts with weights, and any of the other seated or recumbent exercises I could continue with both legs. I guess foot surgery makes it a little easier in that respect than leg or knee surgery! I resumed going back to PT at 4 weeks as I started adding in more exercises. I can tell that I've lost a little ground in muscle strength. I've never been fit, but I sure gained some muscle in shoulders and chest because I started out using a platform walker so that I could lean on my elbows instead of my hands! That thing is hard especially in the first week when I was holding that foot completely off the floor. Most people are just on crutches or a regular walker after this surgery. I moved to the rolling walker (with a fold-down seat for when I need it) as soon as I was completely weight-bearing on the foot.

I'd unfortunately gained 8 pounds so my goal this week is to walk a little bit every day. What brought me back to mfp after a couple years away this week is the start of an elimination diet to find the cause of my eczema. Logging it here makes it easier.

I don't know if you'll be in a post-op shoe or a boot. But I found that even my post-op shoe gives me just enough of a height discrepancy with the shoe on the other foot that it creates a problem with the opposite hip. That gets better as I spend more time in my regular shoe.

This was my experience. I hope some of this is helpful to you. My surgery was on my forefoot. The picture could be different if your surgery is on the back part of the foot or closer to the ankle. Good luck!