Ankle Rehab Log

Training Logs
1

i broke my ankle/lower leg in february, had some hardware installed, and just got out of the cast little less than a week ago - 4/15/09.

rehab has involved lots of stretching according to this chart: http://www.fairview.org/healthlibrary/content/xanklefr.gif

also, i’ve using a light jump stretch band to strengthen and stretch, roughly following this video from jump stretch:

walking is still pretty painful due to ankle flexibility, but luckily conventional deadlifting doesn’t really require a lot, so…

thursday night (4/16/09)
conv dl
barx10, 135x10, 185x10, 4x225x10
leg extension
3x25 at a light weight
leg curl
3x20 at a light weight
adductor/abductor
1x20 each, reasonable weight

every day since 4/15 i’ve done ankle exercises with the light band 4-5 times a day.

today, 4/20, i started using the average band because calf strength is improving.

also, calf tone is coming back, and it’s starting to grow again. yay!

2

it should be noted that my goal is to return to sumo deadlifting as soon as possible. i was making good progress with wendler’s 531 program, and was so damn close to a 500 lb deadlift before i broke the ankle.

training during the 8 weeks in a cast consisted of:

  • bench day: flat BB bench with varying grips, chest supported rows and hammer rows

  • military press day: seated MP, seated reverse grip MP, weighted pull ups and chinups.

now that the cast is off i plan to resume the squat/dead/bench/mil press split, but of course ease into the sq/dl workouts.

getting great ankle flexibility back is my primary goal at the moment, because once i have that i feel getting my strength back will be pretty straightforward.

3

mon night 4/20
both pairs supersetted

standing mil press
barx20, 95x10, 115x7, 135x4,5,5,5, 95x15
pull up
bwx10, +25x10, +45x7, +70x5, +90x4,4,4, +45x14

then

dip
bwx10, +45x10, +70x10, +90x8, +90x8
chin up
+45x10,10,10,10, bwx5… gassed

this was the first time doing a standing mp since the incident, and i was a little unsure how it would go. turns out i was very unstable, so i just stayed at 135. not that a stable mp would have been much better lol.

not exactly back on the 531 yet… we’ll see how stable i feel next week.

5 or 6 sets of band exercises to strengthen the leg today. i’m gonna stretch more, too.

4

wed night 4/22

first squatting day in more than 2 months!! i’m going to try doing two-leg exercises followed with extra work for the injured right leg. i will probably try to add goodmornings to the squat day next week as well. i chose to use the safety squat bar because it works you good, and i can hold on to the rack while walking it out to make sure i stay stable and nothing collapses unexpectedly.

syntax:
weight x sets x reps or weight x reps

SSB box squats, medium stance
barx10,10 ~135x5x10 -not really 135 due to heavier ssb weight, but i’ll pretend it’s a 45lb bar.

split squat for right leg only
bwx3x20

shrugs on the “raging bull” - wheelbarrow handles so you don’t squeeze the boys!
200x3x20

also more stretching. yesterday i did 3 or so band sessions (busy day) and finally dropped into a full bw squat, which is an improvement.

today i did a lot more band exercise sessions, 6 for the day including the one i will do before bed.

the ankle is feeling good, i can almost walk on flat ground without a limp. the cast has been off for one week today. i will try to do a bunch of split squats every day from now on because i think they will help tremendously.

friday is bench day, and i can finally use some leg drive! i’m excited :slight_smile:

5

also been doing the ankle mobility exercise described in Michael Boyle’s article:

it’s great, i would highly recommend this.

it also occurred to me that when i say “the ankle is feeling good” i mean that there’s plenty of “good” pain, but it’s tolerable and the mechanics seem comparable to the good foot.
i’ll say “it hurts like hell” for bad pain, or when it’s raining and the joint feels inflamed.

6

friday afternoon 4/24

benching was ok. can’t quite tuck my right foot as much as i’d like. gonna work on that.

BP
135x10, 185x7, 225x5, 245x5,3,3,3, 135x15
BB row from the floor
135x10, 185x7, 225x6, 245x4x5

WG BP
185x5x10
superset with one arm rows (OAR)
85x10, 105x10, 125x3x10 (wrist straps)

not so much band work for my ankle the last two days. i discovered that getting into a backward lunge is very hard due to limited ankle flexibility, so that’s going to be my next goal: do lunges comfortably.

lots of stretching at the bottom of the lunge (had to hold onto a desk to get there). lots more of the mobility drills. actually, working on flexibility for lunging immediately made walking much more natural. it feels like the bottom of my foot and up through my calf is stretching out. i can basically walk normally on flat surfaces!

i like these exercise goals. here’s a few more:
full bodyweight squat - done!
full bw walking lunge - working on it
one leg calf raise
match mobility of the left leg
running/sprinting
hopping on my trials bike

if i can comfortably ride my trials bike, then i will consider the ankle rehabbed.

7

sunday 4/26

walked around in the woods yesterday with my girlfriend. we were exploring some local parks for a school assignment. my foot handled it very well! uneven ground and everything. and it was a beautiful day!

then we decided to walk to the top of a hill and have sandwiches while taking in the natural beauty of things and observing the boston skyline. unfortunately i think we overreached a bit in walking to the park. probably ended up being 4 miles round trip on pavement. i was pretty uncomfortable by the time we got back home.

everything feels ok after a good nights rest though. i will rest even more today (and get some work done), then deadlift tomorrow night.

8

mon 4/27

my ankle hurt like a mofo today and i wasn’t being terribly productive at school, so i left and went deadlifting.

sumo deadlift
135x10, 225x10, 275x10, 315x9(touch and go), 315x6,7 (i remembered i don’t want to touch and go)

body weight walking lunges, per leg
5x5

“raging bull” RDL - the wheelbarrow thing
+200x10, +200x10, +290x10

R.B. shrugs - see what i did there?
+290x15, +400x15,15

deadlifting was fine. it was nice to start sumo style again. there were some big boys pulling many more plates than i could before the injury. i was humbled… even more than usual.

i’m happy about the walking lunges. they weren’t super pretty, there was a lot of hand-waving for balance, but definitely an improvement. RDL’s for the hammies and shrugs for the traps. used a calf raise machine with no weight for some reps on the weak leg.

also stretched during the day and did some split squats and full squats.

rode my bike back to school to get some work done, about 2 miles. it was nice to ride this beast again. here’s a pic with 3" knobbies. there were halo twin rail street tires on it today though. this is the bad boy i will take downhilling when i get better :slight_smile:

9

wed 4/29

mil press
95x10, 115x7, 125x5, 135x5, 145x3, 145x3
with pull ups
bwx10, +25x7, +45x7, +70x5, +80x5, +90x4

then mil press
115x10, 115x10, 115x9,1, 115x7, 95x10
with chin ups
+45x5x10 - better than last time (+45x4x10) but still not great

if this looks like boring but big, that’s because i will follow that for MP and BP days.

then i weighed myself. i am all of 174 pathetic fucking pounds. grrrrr. anyway, 135 will be my 5 rep mil press goal for starting 531 again (156lb max for calculation purposes). i was going to use 300lbs for my chin max, but the rep numbers look a little ambitious, so i’ll start with 285.

also this is my first week attempting carb cycling, because i’m sick of being small.

for rehab: on monday i received “the stick” and “the trigger wheel” from elite. i massaged my calf and lower leg with the stick, then “detailed” around the ankle joint and foot with the trigger wheel. i woke up the next morning and the slight swelling in my leg had completely disappeared. needless to say i did the same thing last night. also paid attention to the hammies, which were tightening up from deadlift day.

i started getting stabbing pain on the in side of the ankle, so i did some more band exercises yesterday and today. i should probably do more. also, i want to walk around in chucks, but it is just not that comfortable. so i’m walking in them anyway, and trying to pay attention to the pronation of my foot - the goal is to keep it pretty neutral. when i wear sneakers the pain isn’t so bad, but of course i don’t want to be dependent on footwear for support; i’ll just learn to walk right.

10

oh yeah, i also did some reverse curls and overhead extensions with 50lbs on the EZ curl bar. 3 sets of 10. why? because i wanted to. i was also still shaking like a madman on the “heavier” mil presses. fuck i want a stronger MP, too. being weak sucks. i’m also very testy… must have been the bad news the scale gave me.

11

thurs 4/30

so yesterday was supposed to be a high carb day, but it ended up being a medium. whoops! it’s the first week, i was expecting mistakes.

anyway, today is a high day because that was the only meals i had left. so today will also be a squat day.

i laid out a meal plan and a 531 plan and matched everything up. here’s how it’s going to go down, starting monday:

Monday - Squat, high carb
Tues - Bench, med carb
Wed - off, low carb
Thurs - Deadlift, high carb
Fri - Mil Press, med carb

Sat - off, try to keep it low
Sun - off, try to eat more

this will change slightly if i start riding on the weekends, in which case food will be as much as possible… downhilling for 6-8 hours will drain you, even when you take the lift up the mountain!

rehab stuff: the past couple days i haven’t been stretching aggressively enough or often enough. i made a rule to stretch every time i get back to my desk from the bathroom. so lots of stretching (ankle mobility stuff from the video above) and lunges/squats.

by the way, i can cross bodyweight lunges off my list :slight_smile:
next up, the one leg calf raise!

12

fri 5/1

yesterday was indeed squat day.

SSB Box Squat (assuming 45lb bar)
barx20, 135x10, 155x7, 185x5, 205x5, 205x4, 185x6
DumbBell Swing
60x15, 79x10, 80x10, 90x10
Good Morning
barx20, 135x10, 185x10, 225x10, 225x10, 135x12
“raging bull” shrug
+400x3x15

damn those SSB squats are more like an upper back exercise! i’m trying to get a feel for the weights i want to use. probably going to start straight bar box squats on monday, then alternate SSB squats and GMs as assistance every week. i used to do the swings on deadlift day, and lunges on squat day, but i like it switched better. squat and dead days will look like this:

Squat - 531
DB Swing - sets of 10
GM/SSB SQ - sets of 6-10

Sumo Dead - 531
Walking Lunge - sets of 12 total (walking space dependent)
RDL - sets of 6-10

if it gets to be too hard on the lower back i’ll probably drop GMs for SSB SQ and keep RDLs.

the ankle continues to feel good. i think a bw calf raise in in my near future :slight_smile: i keep doing the ankle mobility drill and stretching. i use an average band if it’s feeling restless. i can climb stairs on the balls of both feet now, which tells me the weak calf is getting stronger.

13

god damn this ankle is restless today. it doesn’t hurt at all, and it feels like it’s just ready to go. good thing i’m squattin again on monday, i can’t wait!

might have to do a lot of exercises tonight before bed so it doesn’t keep me up.

also, my girlfriend called me skinny, so today was a high carb day. i made some wicked pot roast that took care of about 9 meals in one shot! ohhh yeahhhh. 4.5lbs is about all i can fit in my smallish crock pot.

14

my ankle… my god. i can’t tell if it hurts or if it feels really really good.

i’ve been massaging/rolling the bottom of my foot a lot, and it seems to be helping loosen the foot up. today it was really restless again, and it felt realllllly good/painful to stretch it hard. and it felt really good to walk, so i went outside and walked up and down steep, short, grassy, uneven hill. carefully of course, so as not to roll anything. i managed to walk up the hill on the balls of my feet, which says the right calf strength is improving.

that felt really f-ing good. you know that moment of build up right before you come? yeah it feels like that. in my foot and all the way up my leg. except it hurt just a little too. i’m going to walk up some hills some more :slight_smile:

also been doing the ankle mobility drill, but with all my weight on that foot, so it’s kind of like a TKE. and every time i climb the stairs, i try to do so on the balls of my feet. i will be able to do a calf raise soon, i think.

15

mon 5/05

Squat Day!
Box Sq - straight bar
barx20, 135x10, 185x7, 225x5, 255x5, 275x5, 225x10

DB Swing
70x10, 80x12, 90x12

SSB Box Sq
135x5x10

RB Shrug
+400x15, +490x15, +490x15

not bad… first day with the straight bar. 275 used to be a warm up set, but that’s ok, i think it will come back quick. i love the SSB squats, they are going to make my back so much stronger!

i can tell the calf keeps getting stronger because it gets easier to climb and descend stairs every day. also making progress on flexibility, i think due to the mobility drill. i still have a long way to go before it matches the left leg, but progress is progress so…

also figured out how to stretch the muscles on the shin with the band: i loop it around a post, then put one end around the top of my foot, and the other end around my heel, then pullllll back. it feels great! is this what they call band traction? i’m a fan.

my hammies and back took a little while to loosen up so i rolled them before bed, along with my right calf and foot. i’m noticing some muscles in the foot growing back to normal size too, which is good.

progress!

16

tues 5/06

Bench
barx20, 135x10, 185x7, 205x5, 225x5, 245x5
Bent row from floor
185x10, 225x10, 245x10, 275x5

then
BP
185x5x10
with OAR one arm row. per side
100x10, 115x10, 130x3x10

my bench really really sucks. it’s like i forgot how to bench. last november/october i could put up 275x5. then i got seriously sick for a month or so and my bench has been plummeting ever since :frowning:
and obviously my rowing is much better than my benching. awful. it was nice to get a decent set-up back, and get a little leg drive. i need more of course.

not too much news for my ankle. i brought out the trials bike with the idea that i can just practice balancing and pivoting while i the ankle gets stronger. i’ll put it together tonite and take it for a spin :slight_smile:

17

thurs 5/08

Sumo DL
205x10, 265x7, 315x5, 355x5, 405x5
funny story about the deadlifting… i used a bar the guy before me was DLing with, and just left the bumper plates on. i didn’t realize the bumpers were 55lbs. i thought i was doing a set of 365x5, and i was weak as hell. but no, it was 405 haha. still weaker, but not quite so bad!

Walking lunge, with dumbells, weight and reps are per side
40x5, 50x5, 60x5

RDL
225x10, 275x10, 315x3x10 - lost my grip trying to rack it on the last set. oops.

RB Shrug
+400x15,+490x15, +600x10, +600x10

rode my trials bike around after school and before the gym. it was fun! i managed to do some side hops, back hops, pivots, and practiced some balancing. my leg was aching so bad for something to do, so that’s what i did. the restlessness might have been due to the rain as it had been raining for several days. today it’s sunny and my leg is no longer restless. weird.

lots of rolling and stretching yesterday, and some ankle mobility stuff. i rode my road bike to school today for a change. the calf is definitely getting stronger. also did some half-assed calf raises last night at the gym.

18

fri 5/09

Mil press
barx20, 95x10, 105x7, 115x5, 125x5, 135x7
with pull up
bwx10, +25x7, +45x5, +55x5, +65x7

mil press
95x5x10
with chin up
+45x4x10, +45x12 (this was hard as hell, but i was trying to beat the log book. i did it.)

ez curl reverse curl, immediately followed by overhead extension
+50x3x10 (i have no idea how much the bar weighs, so i go by additional weight)

i rode my trials bike around again today. it hurt a little at first, but then things loosened up. also rode my road bike to school, but i see i mentioned that already. the right calf is really catching up to the left in size.

the only thing holding me back now is the searing pain i get on the inside of the ankle when i try a calf raise. i think it’s a tendon. i wish that would calm the fuck down so i could get on with life. next wednesday i will have my one month checkup with my surgeon, and hopefully she’ll tell me i’m on the right track. we’ll see.

19

the weekend

went back home to help mom on the farm. my foot felt ok, so i volunteered to help cut up some of the downed trees (which are still all over the place from the ice storms… home is in southern NH). believe me, i was extremely careful and methodical with that saw. the last thing i wanted to do was trip on some little sticks and faceplant on a chainsaw.

anyway, the point is that my foot felt strong and stable, even if i did have to take a little extra effort to make sure my footing was always solid.

also, it was nice to do some real man work for a change. academics is fine and all, and a good brain is an asset, but manhandling tree trunks is way more satisfying.

i’ve also been riding my trials bike and my road bike, daily. hmmm, maybe this log is coming to an end. that was quick.

20

mon 5/11

box sq
135x10, 185x7, 225x5, 255x3, 275x3, 295x5, 225x12
db swing
80x10, 100x10, 110x10
gm
185x5x10
rb shrug
+400x15, +490x15, +600x12 (no straps!), +690x10, +600x15 (straps for both sets)

did some legit right leg calf raises. lots of stretching after the session. i seem to be regaining more flexibility without really trying. i wonder if it’s the bike riding? if i had to do this again, i would ride the trainer every night from the beginning.