[Rene31]

Or more like what type of exercises can I do with a broken ankle. Three days after joining Weight Watchers two and a half weeks ago I went out and broke my ankle and pulled a bunch of legiments in my foot.

I need something to do. But unable to be on my foot very often. I would need stuff that wuoldn't involve using my foot at all.

Any ideas?

[stef]

Rene,

That has to be soooooooooooooo annoying. I would strongly recommend that you do nothing until your physio tells you you can. Even abs and back work involves the muscles of the lower leg and would hurt like h**l if you tried them.

If you did upper body work it would have to be bicep/tricep work. Any spinal twists etc also use the legs as stabilisers or support. Try one sitting down, twist TOWARDS you bad foot and see what you do with your good one! You use it as pressure to sustain the twist!

You could just about do crunches with your bad foot raised, but getting into and out of position would be iffy!

I know this sounds extreme but you did say you had damaged the ligaments. It is these that will sustain more damage if you start to work without a physio's direction. I'm off to an instructors site and I will ask the resident genius PT there if she has any suggestions.

Stef

[stef]

Hi again Rene!

I've asked my PT genius friend as she only had one question - is your ankle in a rigid cast? If it is you should be able to do most things with a couple of exceptions.

You can work all of your upper body any way you want to. You can work the lower body (above the ankle) on the good side only. BUT you will have to be absolutely sure that you keep the bad ankle off the floor. So most exercise should be done sitting and this means muscle work!

You should also be able to ride an exercise bike! If the pain isn't too bad that is!

So all you need now is either an exercise bike or a good knowledge of resistance (muscle) workouts and you can work to your hearts content.

Despite this I would just repeat that I personally would wait for your formal physio rehab to start. Then you can be absolutely certain you will do no harm. This is especially important if you have never done free weights work and would need to be shown the safe exercise you could do. A bad ankle can stay with you for many years if you rehab it incorrectly (I should know I have a shocking time with mine, and I only sprained it badly playing volleyball).

I hope this helps you out a bit! Stef