So over the weekend, I broke my fibula in my high school football game. My family and I are still meeting with doctors to see what the best course of action is. While we’re figuring that out, it has occurred to me that I wont be able to bench as well without leg drive from both legs.
So how do I go about benching with less-than-awesome leg drive?
Should I use different ME exercises? or should I switch up my training and go to a bodybuilding oriented program while my leg heals?
Thanks in advance.
OH! One last thing - how do I train lower body as well? I have a feeling my leg is going to shrink no matter what from wearing a cast for however long I’ll have it on. Should I just try and train my good leg as much as possible?
Since I had a cast for a total of 4 months on my leg last year, I believe I can give you some advice. First, with no leg drive. You will need to lower your weights a bit, but from stopping benching completely, is better. Other option is to focus on you weaknesses. Just do some speed benches and hit your weaknesses hard, shoulders, triceps, whatever it is. This worked well for me the second I had a cast on last year. Also, Both times I had the cast on my leg, since my knee was fucked up. My injured leg’s quad became half the size of my left. After 2 months of solid squatting, I broke my old PR and my legs were as they were before. So, I would suggest to not train only your one leg. Of course, if your strong leg was injured, doing some one legged squats REALLY careful, wouldnt hurt. Hope I helped you. Heal well
[quote]niksamaras wrote:
Since I had a cast for a total of 4 months on my leg last year, I believe I can give you some advice. First, with no leg drive. You will need to lower your weights a bit, but from stopping benching completely, is better. Other option is to focus on you weaknesses. Just do some speed benches and hit your weaknesses hard, shoulders, triceps, whatever it is. This worked well for me the second I had a cast on last year. Also, Both times I had the cast on my leg, since my knee was fucked up. My injured leg’s quad became half the size of my left. After 2 months of solid squatting, I broke my old PR and my legs were as they were before. So, I would suggest to not train only your one leg. Of course, if your strong leg was injured, doing some one legged squats REALLY careful, wouldnt hurt. Hope I helped you. Heal well :)[/quote]
Thanks so much for your advice. I really appreciate it. Well, my left leg is the one that’s broken, and my right leg is my dominant leg. So would it be okay to do some one-legged squats with my good leg?
I’ve never broken my leg, but this is what ive seen in this situation.
1.Bench with legs up on bench
2.Weighted dips
3.Floor press
4.Incline
Get strong as hell on these and when you return to normal bench pressing don’t be surprised if your actually right where you left off or maybe even stronger!
And as far as the lower body, I would hammer the fuck out of your posterior, back extensions and seated GM’s. Make the most out of this time to really bring up some weak points, and worry about your legs when the cast is off.
Thanks for all the suggestions. We’re meeting with the surgeon tomorrow. Right now, we’re probably gonna opt for surgery because the recovery time would be cut in half compared to if we went with just a cast for however long it would be on for.
[quote]CSEagles1694 wrote:
Thanks for all the suggestions. We’re meeting with the surgeon tomorrow. Right now, we’re probably gonna opt for surgery because the recovery time would be cut in half compared to if we went with just a cast for however long it would be on for.
CS[/quote]
Surgery is the best oprion usually with this kind of injuries. I wouldnt do anything my good leg, because the strength difference between your legs would become even bigger. Again, heal well and have patience.
Holy shit man. You must play like a maniac because this is the second time, that I remember, you posted about a pretty serious injury. The good news is, it wasn’t your tibia and the fibula is small/not load bearing during normal life activities.
I had a whole semester when I was in college where I couldn’t put weight on my left ankle. I had some sort of degenerative bone issue in my ankle that took some pretty serious surgery to get fixed. I still managed to train somewhat.
x2 on the straight leg floor press. Straight leg flat benches (just wheel another bench over to put your broken leg on) worked pretty well too. I did tons of lying tricep extensions and dumbbell presses. I think that helped keep my bench up the most during that time period.
[quote]StormTheBeach wrote:
Holy shit man. You must play like a maniac because this is the second time, that I remember, you posted about a pretty serious injury. The good news is, it wasn’t your tibia and the fibula is small/not load bearing during normal life activities.
I had a whole semester when I was in college where I couldn’t put weight on my left ankle. I had some sort of degenerative bone issue in my ankle that took some pretty serious surgery to get fixed. I still managed to train somewhat.
x2 on the straight leg floor press. Straight leg flat benches (just wheel another bench over to put your broken leg on) worked pretty well too. I did tons of lying tricep extensions and dumbbell presses. I think that helped keep my bench up the most during that time period.[/quote]
Haha yeah, it’s been a wild ride. I went to the surgeon today and it turns out that I broke my fibula as a result of a high ankle sprain. He said that my fibula down by my ankle was supposed to break, but because I’m an athlete and have harder bones than most, it broke up around my knee. He’s decided to put a screw (or two) in my ankle for 6 weeks then take it, letting the fibula heal on it’s own.
Thanks for your suggestions as well. Once I’m out of surgery on Thursday, I’ll be back in the weight room on Monday. Can’t wait!
