May 05 2012
Exercise Begins
Day 5:
Decided that almost a week of no exercise stimulation was enough. I started my recovery routine today. The target was the abdominals.
First post-op workout routine (x3):
200 crunches
100 leg raises
50 oblique leg raises
50 knee crunches
I did 3 sessions of that routine with no break between exercises and a few minutes break between each session. I did them outside of course, so I garnered a pretty good sweat in the Florida 90° F heat. Many of the exercises were a bit tricky with the useless leg, but it definitely felt good to get the heart pumping again.
Tomorrow, I’m going to work on arms, chest, and back with my fitness tower.
On the recover end, everything seems to be doing quite well. I have a little discomfort at night and when my leg is below the waistline for periods of time, but other than that I’m pretty much pain free. The cast is definitely becoming a nuisance and I can’t wait to get this coffin cut off my leg in about a week.
Best of luck to all of us.
Working out was the only thing that got me through these last 2 weeks (my first two post-op). I love my ps3 but i couldn’t take any more sitting on the couch. Obviously I’ve been doing nothing but upper body and core work but I’ve found my recovery on crutches to be phenomenal. Granted, I haven’t lifted nearly as heavy as i was before the injury but high rep work usually hits me the hardest from a soreness standpoint. I honestly think stimulating my shoulders, triceps and lats hundreds of reps a day on crutches is helping with my recovery from lifting weights.
I just got my cast off yesterday after i was starting to feel like that day would never come….when it came off i got this really uneasy, nervous feeling. I think part of it was the shock of how pathetic and weak my calf looked. Be prepared to be stunned when you see how pathetic your calf will look and how stiff your ankle will feel.
I was really missing my free weights, but I didn’t want to put any more stress on my tendon than I was supposed to by dragging around plates or dumbbells. When my therapist told me I could start working my core and upper body and do some leg extensions and leg curls, it really lifted my spirits. I sure do miss doing squats though and I’m really looking forward to the day I can do calf raises.
Super are your oblique leg raises essentially laying on either shoulder leg raises for your hips? If not these are good across the whole range of motion to strengthen our hip muscles doing them slowly initially 3 sets of 30 holding them a bit too if u can.