Exercises while injured

11 weeks ago I tore 2 ligaments in my right ankle. I'm seeing a physio twice a week and have an appointment with an orthopaedic surgeon next month so I'm not looking for any advice on that front.

What I do want is a list of exercises that will not involve my ankle in anyway. Such a feckin nightmare but I have been incredibly lazy and done pretty much nothing for the past 11 weeks. I've managed miraculously to only put on 1lb in that time due to diet (which also needs huge improvement!)

So can you give me some ideas for exercises I can do without the use of my ankle?

Cheers for your help

madma

fair play for only putting on a pound... im no expert but i think in that situation diet is the key if your trying not to put weight on.. you could sit at home all day and still lose weight if your eating well...

i suppose cardio is out of the question but im sure some people on here will be able to give you some answers

Chancer3001

Your physio will suggest loads of exercises.

Surely you can do weights though?

bench press, biceps, triceps, shoulders, back workouts?

Obviously you would have to stand for some of them, the extra weight might be uncomfortable. But the ones where you sit and lie down would be fine.

My physio is great for my ankle, but when I asked what exercises I could do she looked at me like in had ten heads, as if to say "I'm not a personal trainer" and then suggested I go on an exercise bike and pedal with one foot!

Yeh I'm thinking push ups on my knees, crunches, I don't have a pool in my gym so I'm unlikely to go swimming.

Yep weights will be key I just have been out of the gym for so long now I'm forgetting e everything so just want to make myself up some sort of programme without ankles so no lunges, squats etc obviously which I would have done a lot of.

cgpg5

madma wrote: »

fair play for only putting on a pound... im no expert but i think in that situation diet is the key if your trying not to put weight on.. you could sit at home all day and still lose weight if your eating well...

i suppose cardio is out of the question but im sure some people on here will be able to give you some answers

You need exercise (+diet yes, but not diet on its own) to lose weight simple as, the only other way you'd lose weight is if you under eat perhaps but this is dangerous as you end up losing muscle/water too

Keep up a good diet and you won't gain as much weight but you won't lose any. If it was that easy we'd all be at it Remember Push ups etc won't help you lose weight either. They are designed for upper body strength.

Cardio will help you lose weight and I don't know the severity of your injury OP but I'd say if you could find a pool nearby, swimming would be fine.

I'd recommend press-ups and the likes but they won't burn significant calories if that's what you're hoping for

Oh sorry, should have said, it's more for fitness than specifically for weight loss

Chancer3001

You need exercise (+diet yes, but not diet on its own) to lose weight simple as


Incorrectio.


Anyways, try looking into doing chest/bench press, military press, upright row,bent over row, single arm rows, pullups if you can, tricep dips if you can(assist machines if your gym has one)

If you dont know what the exercises are go check them out on Youtube.

Pullups? Hahahahahaha, oh that made me smile I've got weedy arms, I could only do one pull up last time I tried

Don't know military press so will google that

Chancer3001

some gyms have a machine that assists you in pull ups - like pushes you up.

All those exercises will be much better for you than push ups and crunches imo.

cgpg5

I assume you're just looking to possess a moderate level of fitness OP? If so the likes of pressups, pullups will help indeed. Try do them in circuits (about 8 exercises, 30 secs off between, all exercises by 2/3 perhaps)

For serious fitness levels they're not sufficient but I assume that's not waht you're after really?

cgpg5

Chancer3001 wrote: »

some gyms have a machine that assists you in pull ups - like pushes you up.

All those exercises will be much better for you than push ups and crunches imo.

Pull ups work your back mostly, crunches work your abs, pressups chest. Wouldn't say any are much better, their purpose is quite different. I'd use them all OP, possibly rotating between sessions

kevpants

cgpg5 wrote: »

You need exercise (+diet yes, but not diet on its own) to lose weight simple as, the only other way you'd lose weight is if you under eat perhaps but this is dangerous as you end up losing muscle/water too

Keep up a good diet and you won't gain as much weight but you won't lose any. If it was that easy we'd all be at it Remember Push ups etc won't help you lose weight either. They are designed for upper body strength.

Cardio will help you lose weight and I don't know the severity of your injury OP but I'd say if you could find a pool nearby, swimming would be fine.

I'd recommend press-ups and the likes but they won't burn significant calories if that's what you're hoping for

This place is on fire tonight.

OP what's the goal? Do you want to lose weight or are you just bored?

Chancer3001

the "better" im referring to would be the effects they have on you.

Doing lots and lots of pushups has very little effect apart from building endurance in your arms.

Pull ups work out a LOT of the body at the same time.

Crunches are generally a waste of time at the start imo as you need to have low bodyfat to see your abs anyways. Obviously strengthening your core is a good idea, plank, weighted pulldowns etc are better for strengthening than crunches.

cgpg5

kevpants wrote: »

This place is on fire tonight.

OP what's the goal? Do you want to lose weight or are you just bored?

Whatya mean?

If you read her posts you'd know her goal.

Any advice for her?

I'll be honest, I don't have a goal at this moment in time. I'm overweight, I'm always overweight :rolleyes: but I'll sort that with diet, I know the perfect diet, I just never eat the perfect diet! So it's boredom, fitness, strength at the moment. "Toning" will come when I sort the food.

Chancer3001

I know the perfect diet, I just never eat the perfect diet

Youve summed up 99.99% of the population right there.

Everybody knows what to do to get to their ideal body shape , but doing it takes a LOT of work. Most people dont wnat to do that.

kevpants

cgpg5 wrote: »

Whatya mean?

If you read her posts you'd know her goal.

Any advice for her?

It's full of really questionable advice.

There's no clear goal here. Does she want to keep the weight off while she heals, does she have a specific sport she was training for, what was her goal when she got injured?

Rather than just listing exercises, it's not a table quiz, that don't use an ankle I thought I'd try to give advice. It's supposed to be the point of this place.

Chancer3001

Chancer3001 wrote: »

I know the perfect diet, I just never eat the perfect diet

Youve summed up 99.99% of the population right there.

Everybody knows what to do to get to their ideal body shape , but doing it takes a LOT of work. Most people dont wnat to do that.

Oh I don't agree with that, I see lots (and lots) of people eating what they genuinely believe is the perfect diet and never understanding why they don't lose weight. Sure a curly wurly is only 2 points don't ya know

Chancer3001

Im guessing that the people eating curly wurlys (even if theyre 2 points) know that they SHOULD be eating fruit and veg and not chocolate.

cgpg5

kevpants wrote: »

It's full of really questionable advice.

There's no clear goal here. Does she want to keep the weight off while she heals, does she have a specific sport she was training for, what was her goal when she got injured?

Rather than just listing exercises, it's not a table quiz, that don't use an ankle I thought I'd try to give advice. It's supposed to be the point of this place.

And that is...?

No seriously what?

Mellor

cgpg5 wrote: »

And that is...?

No seriously what?

Ignoring the "advice" in your posts would be a good place to start.

OP, gaining fat is caused by eating more than you burn. Dont do thus and you wont put on weight. It really is that simple. Exercising increases the energy you burn slightly. So you can eat a little bit more without going over. If you are inactive for a while due to injury you simply need to eat less.

If you'd prefer to stay active anyway there's lots of stuff you can do that won't involve your ankle. There's no point in listing off every exercising here - most of the ones that don't affect it should be obvious.
What would you like to do?

cgpg5

Mellor wrote: »

Ignoring the "advice" in your posts would be a good place to start.

OP, gaining fat is caused by eating more than you burn. Dont do thus and you wont put on weight. It really is that simple. Exercising increases the energy you burn slightly. So you can eat a little bit more without going over. If you are inactive for a while due to injury you simply need to eat less.

If you'd prefer to stay active anyway there's lots of stuff you can do that won't involve your ankle. There's no point in listing off every exercising here - most of the ones that don't affect it should be obvious.
What would you like to do?

Apologies for having an input and speaking from personal experience anyway

Mellor

cgpg5 wrote: »

Apologies for having an input and speaking from personal experience anyway

what personal experiences exactly led you to the conclusion that you can't lose fat with diet alone, and best you could hope for is to maintaining weight.
There was something in there about losing muscle and water if you diet. Was that another personal experience?

csallmighty

whoopsadaisydoodles wrote: »

11 weeks ago I tore 2 ligaments in my right ankle. I'm seeing a physio twice a week and have an appointment with an orthopaedic surgeon next month so I'm not looking for any advice on that front. What I do want is a list of exercises that will not involve my ankle in anyway. Such a feckin nightmare but I have been incredibly lazy and done pretty much nothing for the past 11 weeks. I've managed miraculously to only put on 1lb in that time due to diet (which also needs huge improvement!)
So can you give me some ideas for exercises I can do without the use of my ankle? Cheers for your help

You could try one of those hand peddle things, your physio should know where to get one. I don't think you would have to buy one, I think you can rent or borrow one. Its a good cardio workout using only your upper body. They are very handy because you can use them sitting or even lying down.

Mellor

Mellor wrote: »

If you'd prefer to stay active anyway there's lots of stuff you can do that won't involve your ankle. There's no point in listing off every exercising here - most of the ones that don't affect it should be obvious.
What would you like to do?

I know how to lose weight so that's not what it's about, and I could pretty much be a (very wibbly wobbly) size 8 if I was good enough with my diet and had no exercise. I'm just fed up being inactive. My workouts previously would have included a lot of leg work, and as it's 3 months since I've been anywhere near a gym, I was struggling a bit to even come up with any sort of programme. As obvious as the non ankle exercises may seem, I was looking to refresh my memory or come up with ones I hadn't thought of really. I'm not overly fussy with what I do at the moment in all honesty. I'd feckin love to go cycling or do a good kettlebell class even but they're off the list.

Thanks for the input so far guys

Mellor

Well that's all off the cards. Legs, kettlebells, cycling etc.
You could do some unilateral stuff. But I wouldn't advise it. If it was me I'd just work upper body resistance stuff. Bench press, seated shoulder press, chest supported row. Press ups, pull ups etc

kevpants

cgpg5 wrote: »

And that is...?

No seriously what?

Since she clarified what she wants my advice is this.

Watch the diet if it’s weight you’re worried about while you’re immobile. This is priority number 1.

If you’re accomplished at weight training (programming, how to perform lifts etc) it’s easy to train around an injury. Maybe not so if you’re a beginner so it would be very hard to get any benefit from these ankle sparing exercises.

I’d also advise that advice on what exercises would or would not hurt your ankle wouldn’t be best sought on an internet forum from people who have not seen the injury and even if they did mightn’t know what to do to avoid aggravating it.

A good personal trainer could help with the programming and weight training while you were injured but if I were to drop €’s on a personal trainer I’d wait till I could use my ankle.

I hope this advice meets the high bar set by my esteemed co-respondents.

Nervous Wreck

Deleted User wrote: »

I'll be honest, I don't have a goal at this moment in time. I'm overweight, I'm always overweight :rolleyes: but I'll sort that with diet, I know the perfect diet, I just never eat the perfect diet! So it's boredom, fitness, strength at the moment. "Toning" will come when I sort the food.

With this in mind (and given your exercise history coupled with injury), I'm gonna say something I'd never say/might get shot for. Just do a few machines. You won't have to use your feet too much to stabilise the weight, you'll get some good from it and you'll feel good about getting stuff done. When you're able to use your ankle properly again, by all means abandon the machines and do some proper lifting. But for now, take it handy and just enjoy the doing a little bit each day.

Machines you could use without much stress being things like Leg Curl, Leg extension, shoulder press, chest press etc. Do some lat pulldowns. Keep the weight off your foot and just have fun. When your ankle's healed, you can do some big stuff!

Yeh I'm pretty good at lifting the old weights when I want to be!! But I've always had PTs start programmes for me and I've progressed them from that. Wasn't looking at "what would and wouldn't hurt my ankle" from people on an internet forum though, I'm not stupid enough to think you can help me overcome my injury, which is why I pointed out I'm in physio a couple of times a week. I was just looking for a few ideas so that I can try and create a programme from them

You know what NW, it wouldn't have even occurred to me to use machines but you might actually be on to something there. I'm gonna go up in the morning and see what's there and what I can do. I just hate walking into a gym without a programme, it's usually a waste of time.