Stress Fracture
posted on August 25, 2008 by jdcox1999
I made the standard rookie mistake of overtraining and wound up with a shiny new stress fracture for my troubles. Obviously I'm not running for 6 - 8 weeks, which means no PDX marathon. I am wondering how much biking can I do? How long should I wait to start biking? Can I swim right away?
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6 comments.
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jhudalla posted 1 year ago.
Being that I am NOT: a medical expert, someone who has personally experienced this, a very cool person; you may take what I say as a grain of salt... however I will tell it anyhow.
A prior lady friend of mine had the same thing happen to her... too much running. She tried to stay off her leg, waited until it 'felt' ok and then reinjured it... again and again. Biked... injured... light running.. .injured.
I would suggest swimming with a pull bouy... that is all. Again.. refer to that I am no expert. Just a guy that knew someone who went through this.
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Anton posted 1 year ago.
Consult your Physician. That being said, I would avoid biking too, while not load bearing in the sense that running is, it does torque joints and bones and may hamper healing. Swimming should be fine.
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brittda posted 1 year ago.
You did not say WHERE the stress fracture is. I have had 5 count 'em 5 tibial stress fractures in both legs. For all 5 I was allowed to bike, swim , do hot yoga, and eliptical, just NO RUNNING. In fact I was encouraged to bike and bike hard to maintain my cardio for my upcoming HIM which I was able to do (on my last one)just 2 months after restarting my running. Mine were all closer to the knee, so I could not be booted. It would probably depend on where the fracture is (ie foot, leg). Typically it is the impact that causes the problem so I would think you could bike if it were your tibia vs say your foot. Oh and aqua joging is/was fine too.
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jrs961 posted 1 year ago.
I was able to bike, swim and take my regular yoga class when I had a stress fracture in my heel. Dr. just warned me to be very careful on the bike. My guiding principle was that if it hurt, I would stop doing that activity.
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jdcox1999 posted 1 year ago.
Mine is about 4 inches below the knee. The next thing on the Calendar is a sprint tri in Apr, marathon beg of May, HIM end of June. I might take it easy for 12 weeks just to be safe. I'll do a fair amount of swimming but I don't want to get back out too early and then have another 2 -3 months laid up.
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chadsmith71 posted 1 year ago.
I had a femoral stress fracture in my left hip in may or june 2007. X-Rays showed nothing, but a subsequent MRI showed the fracture pretty clearly (mass of fluid in left hip, i.e. "bone juice"). My Orthopedic doctor then took me off all activities other than swimming for 8 weeks.
He advised me not to ride b/c I live in a hilly area, and the steep inclines could aggravate the fracture when climbing out-of-the-saddle, sprinting, etc. In his opinion, it was best to not ride at all, not run at all, and not lift weights at all. Prior to my injury, I was lifting weights 1x/week, running 3x/week, swimming 3x week, and riding 3x/week (pretty standard triathlon training).
So I was in the pool 5 - 6 days a week for 8 weeks, which was the only activity my Ortho told me to do. I was able to kick with my legs as I normally would (I didn't just use a pull buoy and drag my legs behind me).
After 8 weeks we re-evaluated the leg. Dr took another X-Ray which showed white fuzzy build-up (it looks like a cotton ball) around the injury, meaning healing had occured. I took another 2 weeks off just to be sure the healing process was 100% complete, and started riding again. At the same time, I went through 2x/week physical therapy sessions for 4 weeks. PT invovled a lot of single leg exercises and stretches - stand on one leg and bend over to pick up a tennis ball x 10 per leg, stretch cord exercises in all 4 directions on each leg, single leg presses w/only body weight on a horizontal leg press machine, etc. And they gave me crutches to use for about 4 weeks, which I hated, but tolerated.
This may be a somewhat conservative treatment but it worked. I returned to running injury free after a total of about 12 weeks. Although I basically started from scratch when running again.
Hope this helps.