Week 23
Basically at six months here now, got another week. Have a long ways to go, but have made some pretty decent progress. I think that in three months of more intense training, I can get mostly back to where I was pre-injury (by month 9). Probably won’t feel injury-free by then, but can aim high. I read about some others’ experiences with this recovery and feel blessed that I’ve not had any major setbacks or roadblocks. It’s been immensely helpful and inspiring reading the blogs of folks like Jayli, Beanie, and numerous others.
I fully expect things to “take off” along with the exponential ramping up of training, i.e. more intense plyometrics. Will be interesting to see what my PT tells me to start doing next week and over the next several weeks. I’ve tested the waters with some agility ladder drills, light one-legged hopping, and squat thrust jumping/box jumps, and seem to tolerate them quite well. I still definitely lack the spring that I”m looking for on the injured leg, but that’ll come back.
Going to continue onward with a focus on:
- Weighted lunges
- Stairmaster interval walking on toes
- Jogging up and down stairs on toes
- Burpees
- Up on two, down on one, holding a dumbbell now on the injured side and adding weight incrementally
- Box jumps
- Jump rope
- Top range squeeze in unilateral calf press movements
Just this morning I noticed while looking down that the deficit (complete lack of muscle) on the inside of my calf is less than it was the week previous. There is some muscle coming back, in addition to definition, finally.
My scar is looking a little rough. It’s totally healed and nothing’s wrong with it, it’s just how my skin is. The scar is something I’ll just have to deal with. Might get a creative Achilles-related tattoo to cover it.
Setting goals for myself has been very motivating. And again I’ve based a lot of these on the progress of other bloggers here who are also athletes. I’ve met all of my goals so far, but missed the SL raise by a week or two. Oh well!
Goals going forward:
- 36″ box jump by 7 months - that leaves me 5 weeks, I’m able to do 24″ now
- Run 15mph by 6 months - made 12 last week
- Add 2cm to the top range of my heel raise by 7 months - I actually have no idea what this measurement is right now so should probably check it for a benchmark
- Equal dorsiflexion by 7 months - almost there now but this fluctuates day-to-day honestly
- Equal calf size by 8 months
- Feel injury-free by 10 months - that is 4 months from now, a LONG time
Edit:
Below is a clip of me doing some light box jumping at the 21 week/just past 5 month mark. I am now in week 23, closing in on month 6, and can jump up to two of those boxes. Will edit again once I get less lazy with uploading media.
Double Edit:
Here is a clip of me doing 24″ and 36″ box jumps during week 23. I was feeling pretty elastic and loose at the start of my session in the gym so I figured I would give 36″ a shot, just to see if I could do it. Took the leap of faith, literally. Figured if I didn’t try now, I would make excuses throughout the remainder of my recovery. For that session, just the once will have to do. Incremental, incremental, incremental.
You’re doing really well Mibball and you’ve been amazingly dedicated to your recovery and have kept an excellent blog for everyone else to draw from your experience. I think you’re going to find that your recovery “takes off” really soon now and before you know it you’ll be back to normal and feeling injury free. Although it may seem like getting to 10 months is a long time, what I found is that it was so exciting to experience such a fast pace of returning to fitness that the time flew by. When you get to 9/10 months you’ll think back and be completely amazed that 6/7 months before that you could barely walk! Good luck, I look forward to hearing how you smash all your goals
You are still giving me hope there is a way to get back to normal workouts after this injury! Looks like you are continuing to improve. How are these burpees going? I have been doing insanity and p90x programs before the injury and was thinking that it might be tough to do them after this, but reading about your recovery, it looks like it might be… with time. Keep updating.
Agnes,
No issues what so ever with burpees. No stress points, no pain, motion is essentially the same as before injury. Going down is easy (into push-up position), and jumping is easy. The only issue is cardio/stamina really. What was holding me back from doing these way back when was tendon tightness and a lack of elasticity. This got better sometime in month 4. After a few weeks of squat jumps and jogging (which I started at 16 weeks - 4 months), I regained some of that elasticity and have moved things forward progressively since then.
I remember being at the point where I asked myself if I would ever get back to normal. This is a slow recovery, but you’ll get there if you want to. With regular strength building, stamina building, and plyometric training, you will be your old self. Not sure where you are in your recovery, but things will start taking off after you’re jogging, jumping, and getting past month 5.
That’s great to hear. The reason I was asking about the burpees specifically was because of what they all involve - jumping at the top/landing and tendon’s stretch in push up at the bottom. Glad to hear that eventually with time and with work strength/elasticity come back. I hear ya about the cardio. I am only in week 5, so way early, but just looking ahead. I have been working out regularly (NWB) trying to bring up my heart rate as much as possible, but it’s hard with one leg. NWB strength exercises are plentiful though. Will continue following your progress.
When I was NWB, I still lifted weights daily. I had a mindset from day 1 that I wouldn’t let the injury get me down and that I would come out stronger and faster than before.
Certain movements seem like they would be very difficult when you’re only so far along. But you definitely heal in different stages. First comes restored ROM in the ankle, then dorsiflexion comes back (think knee-to-wall flex test) - usually you’ll see this starting to really come back around 16 weeks (this also happened to be when I started jogging and when my limp went away/I started walking fluidly, naturally), and then the tendon starts to loosen up and become more pliable, stretchy, and loose - around 20 weeks is when I really noticed it starting to actually feel like a tendon again.
You’ll get there! It seems like a long path in those first several weeks, but I swear, once you get back in two shoes and working on PT, it really flies. Best of luck.
How is single legged heel raise progress? Do you think it’s the calf strength or slightly healed long?
Slow but steady. I’m hoping calf strength (or lack thereof). I guess I won’t really know until I run into a roadblock and can’t progress in strength or growth for a long period of time. Thus far, I’ve seen constant but slow measurable progress and have been able to tack on more weight every session on calf press.
I should keep things in perspective before I start worrying, too. I’m a hard-gainer in the gym so I really shouldn’t expect to get my calf back to regular size and strength in such a short period of time.
In terms of numbers on SL raise, again I haven’t had an issue with SLs for several weeks. I can power through several reps and sets (up to 25 reps a set), but have had difficulty getting my heel up equally as high as my other side in that last bit of squeeze in the motion.
As I do more exercises on the balls of my feet, I’m starting to feel more elasticity coming back and also flexibility in that top range. Those exercises being weighted lunges, box jumps (where I try to focus on rolling up on the balls of my feet and then launching upwards), and jogging stairs on toes.
It is also reassuring that I can go up on two now to an equal height. I don’t feel that there’s a limitation there.
Hopefully by the 7 month mark I have no concerns about it. I am in what feels like the last “loosening” phase where I am seeing what feels like mostly restored range and elasticity.