BY ADAM FARADAY
How to stay fit and keep busy with broken leg.
Having a broken bone sucks, having a broken bone that inhibits your ability to walk, like a broken ankle, sucks even more. Not being able to get around properly can make it easy to fall into a rut of eating like crap and not getting off the couch. It’s important not to let this happen, so here are some tips on how to not just stay fit with a broken leg, but how to stay productive.
Tip 1: Already be relatively healthy and in shape prior to breaking your ankle. If you are overweight, out of shape and morbidly obese, getting around on crutches is going to be a nightmare for you. If you can’t already hold yourself up, you’re screwed, so stay in shape.
Tip 2: Workout. Obviously it is imperative that you rest for at least a week after your injury but after that week you have to stay active, otherwise you’ll put on weight and lose muscle. Your shoulders will already be getting a pretty good workout from being on crutches, especially if you’re going up and down stairs multiple times a day, but consider getting dumbbells. You can do all the upper body workouts you want, curls, hammer curls, forearm curls, incline bench press, bench press, dumbbell flys, skull crushers, shoulder raise and shoulder shrugs.
You don’t even need a bench for those workouts, you can do them on the couch and floor. You can also do body weight workouts if you can’t get dumbbells. You can do half push ups on your knees, one legged push ups, crunches, concentration curls, and resistance workouts. If you want to do curls, but don’t have weights, do the action of doing a curl, but place your opposite hand on you wrist and flex, hold that flex for 10 seconds, rest and repeat for 10 more times. You can do workouts like that with every muscle, get creative! You could also get a chin up bar.
Tip 3: Stay busy. You’ve got to stimulate your mind, read books, get a new hobby, learn guitar, don’t just sit around playing video games all day. Learn to meditate, learn a new skill on the computer. Do anything to stay productive or else you’ll get cabin fever sitting on the couch all day watching YouTube videos.
Tip 4: Eat healthy. Don’t sit around eating junk food and ordering takeout. With all these food apps like Skip The Dishes and Uber Eats, it’s easy for someone who can’t walk to order takeout and fast food, don’t do this. Making your own healthy meals with save you money and you won’t get fat, and standing on one leg while you cook your meals will give you a jacked leg and a nice butt cheek. When it comes to eating, have a portion of protein, a small portion of carbohydrates (bread, rice) and a portion of green vegetables, if it’s green, it’s good for you. Try not to eat tonnes of carbs, like spaghetti or pasta, all those carbs and bread products will make you pack on the pounds so limit your servings of carbs.
Anyways, those are some tips for staying fit and busy with a broken leg. Get well soon!
