Good exercises while resting a foot?

[Anonymous]

So I hurt my foot (an area at the top of my right foot hurts) a few days ago and I'm hoping it's something pretty minor (I have a doctors appt. Tuesday). I run track (sprints & hurdles) and our first varsity meet is in two weeks. I was wondering if anyone had good ideas for things I can do to build/keep muscle while not using or putting pressure on my foot? I'm in really good shape right now but I was thinking of mostly upper body/core stuff. In case my foot takes two weeks to heal I want to be able to run at the meet.

[redeyemindtricks]

You won't experience muscle atrophy in 2 weeks. If you are overtrained, you may even experience a resurgence of some strength and/or power.

Training the rest of the body -- including 1-sided exercises for the non injured leg -- will literally work wonders, by the way. Google some studies on unilateral training in patients with long-term injury recovery. It's amazing -- the patients typically keep almost all the muscle mass on the injured side (except in the direct vicinity of the injury), even for months, just by training the other side.

You can do everything for upper body, and you can use machines and possibly do one-legged squats and such (supporting yrself with hands against a pole/wall) with yr non injured leg.

[mysterydude]

I woudnt suggest training the one legged squats. Have you ever seen the muscle diffence right after some has a cast taken off. using one muscle won't maintain both. Muscle mass make take a little bit to fade but endurance is diffent entirely. she should try to maintain active so it dosnt fade to much

[redeyemindtricks]

@mysterydude Dude, please do some basic internet searching before posting, tyvm breakingmuscle. com/.../unilateral-exercise-improves-endurance-on-both-sides

[mysterydude]

yea call me crazy but ill put my years experience over a article. There are also artlicles that say sit ups dont help get u abs and are really bad for u and that running isn't good for u either. I speak from expeirnce when I say endurence fades quicker then muscle and training one side is stupid. when people regulary favor a side there a noticble muscle diffence whitch is bad. I don't know what would happen if you only train one side smh

[redeyemindtricks]

@mysterydude I have worked professionally with models and athletes for longer than you have been alive.

[redeyemindtricks]

And we are not talking about "regularly" exercising unilaterally; we're talking about unilateral exercise as a stopgap for exactly as long as needed for an injury to recover, and no longer.

[mysterydude]

Im not going to argue, its pointless. she probably already knows from experience that she can't run as long after a week off. Its common knowlege for atheltes that endurance fades quickly.

[redeyemindtricks]

@mysterydude Well, duh, injuries cause detraining. Who knew?

Still, you are somehow using that as an argument AGAINST doing maximum damage control. That's weird.
She should train to conserve as much strength AND endurance as possible. The training volume available to her is modest enough that she can -- and should -- aim for both.

[mysterydude]

im not against training more lightly im against over resting and training one side. I used to be into archery and that over trains ur dominat side of ur back. so I experience uneven muscle do to uneven training and know its a pain to fix. Sorry if I offended u or came off wrong

[mysterydude]

If its true that u worked with models I would really like ur imput and advice on thr last question i posted. It would be higly appreciated

[redeyemindtricks]

@mysterydude Oh, yeah, that's different, because it's a fundamentally asymmetric action. Same thing with glide-style shot putters, whose push-off leg inevitably gets bigger and stronger than the other leg. Or anyone else who performs a specialized one-sided strength action repeatedly.

This is about minimizing the detraining effect of an injury. Different, and profound.

No worries, I am very difficult to offend. LOL I think we were just talking on 2 different planes for a while.

[mysterydude]

hmm alright not sure if i complty agree but i respect u. I really would appreciate ur imput on my post

[Asker]

Very interesting haha! I will most definitely look into that. I'm hoping that I'll only be out for a VERY short time. Thank you both so much for your information!!!

[mysterydude]

Try lap swimming. It can help you maintain your endurence and strenght plus it has the can possibly improve lung fuction. Swimming and running are actually really comparable and swimming has almost no impact so ur unlikely to make a injury worst. Feel free to message me if u want advice on pool exercises

[Asker]

Unfortunately it's too cold here to swim and I don't have access to an indoor pool atm, but if it randomly gets warm I will message you!

[mysterydude]

haha alright good luck with your recovery

[jman46241]

I would wait to get more info from the doctors appt. on Tuesday.

[Asker]

That's my plan for now (: