Its been over a month since my ankle injury. Its not broken but sprained which is 6-8 weeks to heal. I wish the first doctor would have said that rather then getting my hopes up by saying 7-10 days. That time frame is a DROP in the bucket compared to the OTHER diagnosis. SO it is getting better just slowly. It is a difficult injury because you have to use your ankle to do EVERYTHING! And I have a long commute and of course driving makes you sit your leg at an odd angle. Not straight but not really bent which puts stress on any injury. It was the same for my knee when I tore my meniscus. I didn't really notice how long it took for that to heal because I was not really working out. I wanted to but I was not working out at the level I was during TurboFire.
I didn't realize how much being unable to exercise has effected me. For 58 days I did TurboFire, six days a week. Then all of the sudden I was forced to stop. I was feeling so good and I was actually FINALLY seeing progress. FINALLY! The stress relief that I got from working out was amazing and I didn't realize how much it helped me deal with the stress. And then in one moment I was forced to stop. It was tough and I was angry. Then I got totally paranoid about losing muscle because I could not work out like I did before. I know from after two weeks you start to lose flexibility & muscle by NOT working out. So I started over by really watching my food intake & using www.myfitnesspal.com to log calories. I really had to focus & figure out what I could do instead of what I could not do. It was a struggle.
Pilates! HA!!! Turns out you don't even need ankles or feet to do them!!! I had done pilates in the past. I use the Winsor Pilates DVDs, original ones, www.winsorslim.com and I follow Pilates: From the Inside Out w/ Karon Karter on the www.veria.com After doing TurboFire I actually have better form while doing pilates because I am stronger and more flexible than I was in the past. Pilates is no TurboFire! But its what I could do at the time and I NEEDED to do something! ANYTHING! When even a short walk was painful the pilates was able to give me a workout without additional pain or reinjuring myself.
I have now officially moved back to yoga. I still am wearing my ankle wrap (no gel cast for me!!) during the times I am away from home but I also wear it during yoga. The wrap gives me support but flexible enough that I am not fighting against the support it gives me. I am only on the second day of yoga and I do it every other day so I don't do more harm then good! It's very easy to get over enthusiastic about working out on an injury..... So I modify a lot of moves and I am definately slower then before. There are some poses I just cannot do right now. I am not having significant pain in the ankle and I am definately getting a workout. It does make me happier and allows me to relieve stress.
So the moral of this story is when dealing with an injury you MUST let it heal first otherwise you run the risk of extending waiting period for your injury to heal. Then start back slowly and being injured is NOT the end of the world even though it does feel like it at times...
Ciao
USMCdaffy
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