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Recovery after injury exercises

CoffinDodger

Speeding Up
Dec 4, 2008
212
13
Some of you may know that I recently had a small altercation with a pedestrian, resulting in a (non surgery) pelvic fracture for me.

I'm immobilised for up to 4 weeks, have crutches and learning to use them. What I am looking for here is advice on exercise I can do from bed specifically to strengthen shoulders as they will see a lot of use once I can start getting around more on crutches. Cheers
 
A pelvic fracture?!? First, you should be thankful that you don't need one (or two) surgeries for that.

Are PT people coming to your room (or you going there)? They should have some ideas, and may also be able to get you going on some elastic bands. (Browse amazon for extras, different tensions, ones with handles, etc.) Work with the rehab folks, push for twice a day contact with them, and use that time to get training instructions, options, and so on. If you're in a hospital bed, you might be able to leave some bands looped on at the head/foot, also on the frame on each side below the mattress.

It's hard to know how immobilized you might be, and as someone who was once in a somewhat similar situation, you might not even have a complete grasp of that yourself. Still, you (and they) don't know till you try. Personally, I'd be willing to spend a little money on my own bands (to add to theirs) so as to have more options.

Rehab should have two kinds of crutches, the traditional kind (matsuba-tsue), and another type like this (just an example, I'm not recommending that particular one), tho your condition and movement limits may not allow the latter (I used one of these 'arm' types for many months). Good luck!
 
I'm at home, no push to rehab yet, we just want the bone to knit before going to rehab which will obviously involve moving the leg and hip around.
 
I'd recommend some resistance bands and use those. When I broke my shoulder, nay destroyed is a better word, in a rugby accident, the bands were recommended to me as low impact, but high benefit. They come in variety of tensions and easy to set up.

Edit: I got the name of the bands wrong.
 
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Good Luck and be sure to take care of your mental.
Thanks to @TheAussieinJapan for going public with that side of things.
Recently when I get injured - I initially take it quite well and I do my best to understand and process what the doctors are asking me to do.
Then I do PT as directed...

But at some point, the frustration, pain, limited mobility, and maybe even the reality that I can't do anything to speed up the process - I go to a dark place. I don't talk about it with my family because I already feel like a burden being hurt at times and I don't want to add to it. Being physically broke is one thing, but admitting you are hurting mentally is another bridge I struggle to cross.

If you ever want to shoot the breeze or blow off steam - hit me up with a message. I will be sure to reply with eaither compassion or snarky sarcasm or maybe both! Good luck with recovery and sorry I don't have much to offer in the physical therapy advice.

**My experience with Injuries and recovery**

- For my knee - I use bands still. I also use balance drills and some other mess. They are very specific exercises for the thigh, quad, calf and shin - so worthless in this case.

- in the past - I have had injuries where it was recommended I just "walk in a pool" to build strength back in my lower body without too much stress.

- 25 years ago - I was told don't move except to get up to use the bathroom. <-- This one was brutal, but even just walking back to the bed after using the bathroom I coughed, lost feeling in my legs and collapsed. I was unable to catch myself on the way down... making things even worse. I had to pull myself across the carpet with just my upper body to get back to the bad. Admittedly, I was crying the whole way because I could no longer feel my legs and the doctors had given a prognosis it was possible I could be paralyzed if I do something stupid. - all I did was pee... pretty sure that wasn't their defintiion of stupid.

Every injury has been different. The good news - I have most recovered from all of them.
 
Good Luck and be sure to take care of your mental.
Thanks to @TheAussieinJapan for going public with that side of things.
Recently when I get injured - I initially take it quite well and I do my best to understand and process what the doctors are asking me to do.
Then I do PT as directed...

But at some point, the frustration, pain, limited mobility, and maybe even the reality that I can't do anything to speed up the process - I go to a dark place. I don't talk about it with my family because I already feel like a burden being hurt at times and I don't want to add to it. Being physically broke is one thing, but admitting you are hurting mentally is another bridge I struggle to cross.

If you ever want to shoot the breeze or blow off steam - hit me up with a message. I will be sure to reply with eaither compassion or snarky sarcasm or maybe both! Good luck with recovery and sorry I don't have much to offer in the physical therapy advice.

**My experience with Injuries and recovery**

- For my knee - I use bands still. I also use balance drills and some other mess. They are very specific exercises for the thigh, quad, calf and shin - so worthless in this case.

- in the past - I have had injuries where it was recommended I just "walk in a pool" to build strength back in my lower body without too much stress.

- 25 years ago - I was told don't move except to get up to use the bathroom. <-- This one was brutal, but even just walking back to the bed after using the bathroom I coughed, lost feeling in my legs and collapsed. I was unable to catch myself on the way down... making things even worse. I had to pull myself across the carpet with just my upper body to get back to the bad. Admittedly, I was crying the whole way because I could no longer feel my legs and the doctors had given a prognosis it was possible I could be paralyzed if I do something stupid. - all I did was pee... pretty sure that wasn't their defintiion of stupid.

Every injury has been different. The good news - I have most recovered from all of them.
At the moment my biggest frustration is that I'm putting on weight even though I'm down to just one meal a day. Since being diagnosed Type 2 diabetes 3 months ago I dropped 10kg through diet mainly; so sad to see this go to waste.

I am super fortunate in having a wife and teenage son at home. Never thought I'd be praising the mrs, just shows how wrong you can be.
 
Hi @CoffinDodger,

When you're used to being able to eat as you like because you burn it off through exercise, injury that forces you to become more sedentary is particularly difficult to deal with as it forces a dramatic lifestyle change.

As you know it's not simply about the number of meals but calories in, calories out. If you're gaining weight with only one meal a day (which on the face of it sounds surprising), maybe that one meal is too big? I think going 24h without any food would leave you very hungry, followed by a big spike in blood sugar, which can't be healthy. I would recommend spacing it out but with smaller portions.

How many calories from alcohol and other drinks? Calories from alcohol don't satiate when you're hungry but to the metabolism they have just as many kcal per g as sugar.

When cutting back on calories, make sure you still get protein, fiber and vitamins/minerals but cut back on empty calories such as starchy foods (white rice, potatoes, etc) and excess fat which provide energy but little else. Beans and other vegetables should stay.

Wishing you a speedy recovery!
 
Hi @CoffinDodger,

When you're used to being able to eat as you like because you burn it off through exercise, injury that forces you to become more sedentary is particularly difficult to deal with as it forces a dramatic lifestyle change.

As you know it's not simply about the number of meals but calories in, calories out. If you're gaining weight with only one meal a day (which on the face of it sounds surprising), maybe that one meal is too big? I think going 24h without any food would leave you very hungry, followed by a big spike in blood sugar, which can't be healthy. I would recommend spacing it out but with smaller portions.

How many calories from alcohol and other drinks? Calories from alcohol don't satiate when you're hungry but to the metabolism they have just as many kcal per g as sugar.

When cutting back on calories, make sure you still get protein, fiber and vitamins/minerals but cut back on empty calories such as starchy foods (white rice, potatoes, etc) and excess fat which provide energy but little else. Beans and other vegetables should stay.

Wishing you a speedy recovery!
I'm diabetic so switched to low carb diet right after diagnosis 3 months ago. Not a single potato has passed my lips! Blood sugar spikes are pretty dangerous.

What did I drink today? In the 5 hours since waking: one mug of black coffee (no sugar, obvs), a glass of probiotic yogurt, half a litre of water. Will have to wait till someone comes home to get fed, the kitchen is upstairs and I'm still terrified by steps (could go up on my arse). Probably just as well.

My recovery target is a 13hour flight to the homeland 15-20th June. Cheers!
 
I will add to what everyone said and get some resistance bands. You will need to strengthen not your shoulders, since that's for moving objects up, but your back muscles, specifically lats, traps and rhomboids. Your chest, triceps and forearms too.

When you are on crutches (I had to use them for a year in my younger days) you want to avoid resting them in your armpits, since there's a lot of nerves + blood flowing through them and you will be mostly supporting yourself with your arms. You also want to work your delts (shoulders) to balance out the muscles and not get any injuries, but they are not going to be used much.

Also you might want to hold off with working out your back muscles until your pelvis heals, since they might impact it.
 
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