Broke ankle no weight bearing

gregwself
gregwself Posts: 2 Member
in Introduce Yourself
I am a 60 year old male. Broke ankle first of March 2023 requiring surgery plate and 12 screws. I was active at work with average steps at 15,000 for a 12 hour period. Was no weight bearing for 2 months, after which weight bearing with air soft cast. Was giving the ok to stop airsoft June 1st(today). I have picked up 10 pounds, was always on the heavy side to 255lbs. Cardiologist wants me to drop some weight for blood pressure and I need to drop some anyway so again started using my fitness pal. Therapy said absolutely no treadmill instead can start walking 1/2 mile to start getting steps back up and to lose weight. Back to work scheduled for June 2023.
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  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,226 Member
    Dang, that's awful - how frustrating!

    I've had a few periods when some injury/surgical recovery/illness severely limited activity, but nothing so extreme or lengthy as that. (One was an ankle break, but by far not so major.) It does make life harder, and not just on the weight management front. Good for you for deciding to take positive action, including doing what exercise you safely can when you can.

    I started here on MFP at about your current age (I was 59), and was able to lose 50ish pounds without materially changing my exercise routine, just from managing the food side of things better. (But I wasn't doing zero exercise, just didn't increase it while losing . . . but that suggests to me that food alone can help with the weight loss.)

    That's not the point, though. My point is that my blood pressure used to be high (as was my cholesterol/triglycerides). Losing down to a healthy weight brought all of that down into solidly normal ranges . . . and improved my quality of life in a diversity of other ways. The BP and lipids have stayed good for 7+ years since, I guess from maintaining a healthy weight. I hope and believe that you'll get the results you're seeking that way, too.

    I'm cheering for you!
  • yiantaysg8601
    yiantaysg8601 Posts: 2 Member
    Is it possible to go swimming instead? Are there swimming pools that are suitable for the mobility impaired? Like a ramp to get in an out of the pool?
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 10,222 Member
    edited June 2023
    Take it slow, your not a spring chicken anymore, like myself, and I like the swimming therapy mostly for cardio and burning some energy. Losing weight and exercise is a very powerful influencer for improving all our health markers. Cheers.
  • cyndi2012
    cyndi2012 Posts: 65 Member
    Lots of things you can do besides walk. Swim, bike, box - do you have access to a gym? If you can gain some muscle mass, you will burn more calories and possibly will help with weight loss.
  • chris_in_cal
    chris_in_cal Posts: 2,520 Member
    gregwself wrote: »
    I am a 60 year old male. Broke ankle first of March 2023 requiring surgery plate and 12 screws.

    D'oh, that's tough. I am a 60 year old male and three years ago I got a stress fracture in my shin, and stopped all weight bearing activity. Covid hit right then too. I blew up and gained a bunch.

    You have a journey in front of you, keep at it.

    Two things that come to mind.

    1) You have to 100% not shortcut your healing. At age 63 or 65 the healing is not going to be easier. No pushing it, no shortcuts, no making do. Be a good patient, do everything you are supposed to.

    That's the easy one.

    2) Become a hardcore devotee to MFP, or some other program that changes your eating, so that while you are physically healing you're moving toward a healthier weight.

    Any extra gram, ounce, kilogram, lbs., or stone is going to make a lower extremity injury more difficult.

    Join me here, we lose three stone and our lives and health and mood and outlook will all be better.
  • zebasschick
    zebasschick Posts: 1,067 Member
    can you use a mini pedaller - a good quality one - and pedal with your arms? that's what i used to do when my leg couldn't bear weight. another thing i used to do was lower back and ab crunch work with resistance bands or a cable machine. no legs involved, and you can do a lot of them without too much resistance- it's like bicycling but with your abs!

    best wishes for your complete recovery!
  • martiparolin
    martiparolin Posts: 3 Member
    Try more upper body workout also using hand weights and resistance bands as well as seated leg lifts and abdominal core workouts. Videos and tips by exercise physiologist and physiotherapist Mike Kutcher in Better Health are brilliant: one example - he has heaps standing and sitting and combined plus is also on FB community

    https://youtu.be/hzYCL86BFH8

    I also have this sliding exerciser which gives a great little boost to burning calories and conditioning legs etc you can use for quite a while at one time whilst seated and watching the news, a show or a movie etc from Physios 'Bob and Brad' from Canada

    https://www.bobandbrad.com/program/the-fitglide-–-what-you-should-know-

    https://youtu.be/NNNIKMUK6To

    So good if you have to avoid weight bearing, want to get more blood flow and mobility to legs/ injury, keep moving so do burn up more calories if do consistently and over longer period of time, can go much faster than shown in promo above. IDK if you are able to use those mini cycle things you use when seated or not but if so that is a better option for a bit more cardio

    All the best!
  • Ernest_Nigma
    Ernest_Nigma Posts: 69 Member
    If walking is ok, you might also consider an elliptical trainer. Years ago we got one for my late wife but now I have it in the corner where I can watch the tv news, etc. It doesn't have to be a hard workout, just roll along on it and you're moving your whole body. We got a fairly good one with a long forward and backward stride length. I'm personally not a fan of the really short stride steppers, though they have their place too I'm sure.

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