I have slow-healing/chronic injuries to both wrists and an ankle. Prior to my wrist injuries, I had been working to do some yoga to try to establish something resembling a routine but, that’s not possible to continue any time soon.
Nearly every site that I’ve found has advice on exercises to do if an arm OR a leg OR one’s back is injured but none that I’ve found so far address multiple injuries.
Right now, the only things coming to my mind are:
- crunches
- forearm planks
- bicycle kicks
Anyone have any suggestions for others or resources to dig into?
Update: Thank you all for the advice. To be clear, I have already seen specialists and am waiting on an appointment with a hand and wrist specialist. Just impatient when the slow rate of healing and the timing of the wrist injuries.
This really is something you should discuss with a professional physical therapist. You can do a lot of damage when doing the wrong excercises too early
This is when you bite the bullet and talk to a trained professional.
Currently waiting on the appointment. Just impatient.
Do yourself a favor and wait.
There’s a good chance you could make your condition worse.
Last month, I had a shoulder replaced that I injured in March. Seven months to get the surgery, another month before PT could start.
Waiting while in pain is brutal, but this is not a DIY project.
Not to mention, if this affects multiple limbs, there’s a very real possibility you could e.g., fall while exercising and dramatically worsen the situation.
i was a personal trainer for a bit and honestly if you were my client id ask you to go get guidelines from a physical therapist first. swimming and light calisthenics should be fine, but listen to your body first and do not push it/make it hurt
Like others have said: go see therapist, do not try following random advice online. That is coming from someone having to deal with A few lifelong health issues of their own.
Also, start small and slow. This was huge, for me. And allowed me to do so much I never imagined I would be able to, on the long run.
I do think you should consult with a physical therapist. That said, I think machines are going to help you a lot.
With inured wrists you could do a lot with a cable machine and a wrist attachment. You could use a pec dec machine and your forearms to work your chest.
For legs you could try leg curls and leg extensions if you can lift far enough away from your ankle.
Go to physical therapy if your insurance covers it or you can afford it. They’re not omniscient but they do have some training and experience treating this stuff.
Are you able to swim? Braces necessary?
Braces, yup. Fortunately they are waterproof so, might be an option.
I’d second swimming or in general doing stuff in water. The difficult part will be to find a place to do that which can accommodate your particular needs, i.e. if you don’t wanna actually swim, does the pool have area for that, is it not full of kids (not just kids) who won’t pay any attention to you and potentially hurt you while playing
Swimming? You don’t have to swim fast to have good energy expenditure
Like others have said. If you have injuries or body irregularities go to a medical professional. Do not trust some yahoo on the internet.
I was at the Mayo Hospital’s own chronic pain rehabilitation clinic, and have all the PT exercises they had their patients all do if interested.
I would indeed be interested. I have a few from my orthopedic doctor but they’re a bit limited.
This might sound crazy, but if you can wear braces to protect yourself, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu might be an option.
I’ve trained for close to a decade, and have trained with people with spinal injuries, hand deformities, no legs, limited/no vision, and limited/no hearing. Obviously, combat sports with limb injuries without consulting a professional first is fucking stupid, but you can absolutely make it work with the right gym and coach. Sure, you won’t be doing an iminari roll any time soon, but it might be a good workout and an option to test what you can and cannot do.
That’s a great suggestion, thank you. I’ve been meaning to get back to training in a martial art for a while now but injuries over the years have made Sambo not a likely get. I’ll keep this in my pocket for after full recovery. :)
Ah, well if you’ve done or know some grappling you’ll have a great base for BJJ, especially Sambo since there’s a lot of overlap. Even if you just do some drilling or stay on bottom to work escapes you should get enough exercise and social interaction that you might not get elsewhere.
Bicycling and water jogging are both great but the former is far more accessible. Flat pedals are better if you’re injured/recovering since you can adjust your foot positioning (if clipless aren’t dialed in right you’re kinda locked in and can exacerbate injury, and if you don’t unclip in time you fall over). Padded gloves to keep vibration from aggravating things. I was in a boot for 6 months from a gnarly stress fracture but my doc cleared me for biking and I basically lived on a bike.
Also range of motion, biking helps for that since you’re constantly articulating your ankles and loosening up the ‘rust’. Trace the alphabet with your toes a couple times a day to stay on the up and up.
Check with doc ofc, and might help to get bloodwork so see if you’re deficient in anything and also see if there’s some root cause if you’re injury prone. Turns out I had a vitamin D deficiency so I started taking a ton of D+K2, couple years later I got back into running and building up mileage pretty realistically and went couch to 50k in 8 months, before that I was always getting injured. Not saying it’s specifically that, could be lots of things or nothing, but in my case I found that thing out and the sky was the limit afterwords. It’d be cool if it was some overlooked thing like that for you
Basically any movement or prolonged pose becomes it’s own exercise.
“wall sit” might not be good for the ankle.
What you can do for your back, are exercises laying on your stomach, and then lifting and moving arms and legs. Up and down, can slow or faster, just holding them up isn’t easy either. You’ll figure out which poses tire and train which muscles. If you do it straight it’s more for those along your spin, if you spread your arms it’s more for the shoulders.
Side leg raises are probably another idea that shouldn’t put strain on your injuries.
The rest kind of depends how much you can even just stand. Maybe something involving Therabands?
You want to know things before meeting the therapist. Maybe read a few things like this:
https://www.physio-pedia.com/Rehabilitation_in_Sport
But ofc I agree with the others: listen to what your therapist recommends.
I like doing chair yoga when I’m having severe flare ups! There’s some good youtube videos on it, and it’s safe for ankles and wrists!
