Broken ankle out 2-3 months minimum. Would you train?

I was climbing last weekend on some easy terrain that was wet, and slipped before I put any gear in. Decked, broke my ankle. No surgery. My heel is fractured, and the base on the tibia has chips in a few spots.

I’ve broken this ankle before and it doesn’t seem as bad as before, but last time it took around a year to feel like I was back to around 80%. Doc says no weight bearing for 4-8 weeks, no sports for 8-12.

So here’s the questions, anyone else with similar injuries want to weigh in on their experiences?

Would you train? I’m taking two weeks off, then thinking about doing a hangboard cycle, core stuff, some foot on campus ladders, maybe ever climbing one footed in the gym.

I’m just a little apprehensive that it’ll be a long time before I get to climb again and might get frustrated or prolong the injury. In the other hand I don’t want to lose all my fitness, get fat, and just sitting around for a week has been driving me crazy.

Thoughts?

Very unlikely that you would get reinjured and prolong recovery while doing hangboard and core exercises. A lot more likely with campusing, or one-legged climbing, if you push just a bit too far, and fall off awkwardly.

From personal experience with knee surgery, I had to be non-weight-bearing for two months, and I thought I would do hangboard for sure. It ended up being too difficult to do, bc I couldn’t bend the injured leg, so I didn’t start doing hangboard until month 3, when I was allowed to bend the leg, and felt that I could keep it safely out of the way, while doing my hangs. Until then, I was doing just the PT for my knee, some core, and shoulder exercises with light weights. Still, doing one month of hangboard workouts during the 3rd month of recovery was very effective, and I didn’t feel like I lost much finger strength at all.

IMO, do some training to keep from going stir-crazy, but don’t go overboard. 

If you like to train you should train. Using this time and having motivation to come back stronger can help to keep you focused. My ankle injury took forever to heal completely and years later it still has its quarks. I loved climbing one footed because it was a different type of challenge. It is super important to remember rest is part of the recovery program though. You might feel like sitting around doing nothing is losing fitness and getting fat but your body is working hard to heal itself. Let it have time to do its thing.  

We don't rise to our goals, but fall to our systems. Training can not only help the mind, but implement new practices that you might of been apprehensive to start initially due to feeling weak, or taking too much time away from actual climbing. A great example would be posterior chain training, which usually gets neglected in favor of chest, anterior delts, etc. 

Plus, getting blood flow going at a higher rate that resting can only benefit healing.

I have clients who get hurt and instead of allowing them to do nothing, I pivot and focus on systems of the body that will eventually allow them to come back stronger and more motivated. 

Bummer.

You should/can hangboard, I would just offset your weight a lot in the beginning. 

Since you are relatively close to me in size, I would probably wait for a month before TRing in the gym. I imagine if you fall in the first 5 feet your feet would still hit the ground. 

I am not sure how they cast you, but did the doctor mention anything about swimming? It is a lot better workout than climbing! For all my broken bones I could just immobilize my legs and swim with the old people in the slow/walking pool lane.

If you get too bored come play halo with me, my XBL is RevPuppyLuvr. When your healed enough to walk but not climb your welcome to come bolt with me!

Get better!

I tore my ACL almost 5 years ago now.  I still joke that it was the best thing to ever happen to my climbing as I came back a lot stronger than before my injury.

I had a good base strength from climbing but had done about zero real training before my injury.  Knowing I wouldn't be climbing for about 5 months I started pretty slow with the training as the last thing I wanted to do was hurt myself.  I had to have surgery about 6 weeks after my injury so I did a base building hang boarding cycle of mostly repeaters during that time.  I took a couple weeks off after surgery as I couldn't really get around and it was a nice little break on the fingers.  I then started back at zero on the hang boarding and worked back up to where I was over a few weeks.  I did about 6 weeks of repeaters and then slowly transitioned to max hang workouts as my fingers were getting stronger and felt I was less likely to hurt myself.  I then tapered a couple weeks before getting back to climbing.  I felt shaky on the rock at first but within a couple weeks I was sport climbing at and above my pre injury max.

I also did a lot of core and shoulder exercises to complement the hang boarding.  Lots of time spent on the rings.  I'm pretty short so reach is often an issue for me so I also spent a fair bit of energy working on things that would help that.  I worked on doing clean muscle ups on the rings as I found the transition from pull to push to be super helpful.  I also found weighted pull ups to be a good substitute for campusing (I didn't want to drop down on my knee).  I mostly worked on 3 rep max and kept my overall volume very low to avoid the overuse injuries.  

As well as all the training I spent some time working on my diet.  I cut out as much additional sugars as possible.  I completely quit drinking (though I only probably had 2 or 3 drinks a week previously) and then went on to an intermittent fasting diet (both of which I've continue for the last 5 years).  I dropped pretty much 1lb per month for the next year.  1 year post injury I was in the best shape of my life and sent my hardest sport climb to date.  I'd been climbing for 24 years when I hurt myself so making gains at that point my career I thought was gonna be pretty hard.  I'd definitely plateaued well at least that is what I thought!

The motto I went with during the injury was  "a crisis is a terrible thing to waste."  

 Good luck and stay psyched!

following, as I just suffered a small tibial plateau fracture, MCL Sprain, and tore my calf. Awaiting MRI to see if I did in the ACL and scope of tibial fracture. 

Three days in, already bored as shit.

I always found crutching around, depending on how adventurous you are can be quite a workout. Depending on how active of a person you are, just the change to sedentary lifestyle would have a negative enough effect on someone that adding in a little workout regularly might be pretty important for mental health, which is an important part of the process. But, the one thing you really got to keep in mind is you must not overdo or have any accidents during this time, whatever that takes. Thats self inflicted regression, which is the polar opposite of what you are going for right now. When I shattered my calcaneous a few years ago, I was fortunate too that I didn't need surgery, but for the first 2 months of no weight bearing just crutching around seemed to be enough for me. But, once I started weight bearing and doing my own physical therapy I began training a bit more seriously. By the  time my foot was ready for climbing again, the rest of my physical body was more then prepared.

Edit: After reading JNEs good post below I would add that I felt that brief breaks, where you legitimately elevate your foot above your heart and ice it, were super important when first easing back into activity.

  RICE RICE baby easing back into it

I broke the 5th metatarsal in my foot a few years back and had it in a boot and I was on crutches.  My doctors orders were to avoid all activity and stay on crutches.  

Standing/moving on the heel was fine, but any movement like walking (outside of very small, very rigid steps) hurt the foot.  Basically any weight on the front of the foot was sharply painful and thus any rolling onto the front of the foot needed to be nearly 100% avoided.  During this period I continued to work at a construction job in a limited capacity and I continued to lift weights with the arms and do core.  I also campused a lot (always down-campusing everything, and always landing on the good foot or just taking a digger) and did a bit of hangboarding.  I hobbled about on crutches to do these things, only putting them down to do the actual workouts and sometimes at work when I could either hop or less preferrably stay on my heel and take slow rigid steps.  

I generally avoided walking around on the foot or using it otherwise due to pain, though I imagine I could have gotten more blood through the foot daily had I been able to do so, and therefore gotten an even better result than I did.  Nonetheless, I think the workouts and physical job still improved the bloodflow and therefore indirectly improved the injury.  I also put arnica on the foot several times a day.  

The doctor who looked over the injury commented that it healed nicely and quickly compared to the average, especially with respect to how fast the bruising and swelling healed which I think was likely mostly from the arnica.  As for fitness, after a week or two of climbing again I was back at the same level I left off.  The biggest thing for me was a positive mental attitude and constantly and consistently acting with the intent of getting my foot back to 100%.

I had to have surgery about 6 weeks after my injury so I did a base building hang boarding cycle of mostly repeaters during that time.  

Hey Mikey, what prompted the delay? Did you have any thoughts of pushing surgery further to a more "convenient" season?

Man, I had the same thing happen to me to my left ankle:

04/2019 - Avulsion fracture from a bouldering incident

01/2021 - Fracture of the malleolus taking a whip and hitting a slab

The first injury was worse and apparently it was never back to 100% because my right foot also hit the slab on my second injury but was fine. 

I know this is a tough time and you probably have a lot of questions and anxiety about the whole ordeal. I know I did. I started to question if I should even keep climbing. I opted to pay out of pocket for a climbing PT who I trusted would give me sound advice. He helped me with exercises I could do while I was injured. It was tough. I definitely put on some weight over my injury period. I have now lost the weight and am in the best shape of my life.

Overall, I was back outside on top-rope very carefully climbing in 3 months. I was leading again in 4 months and worked my way back to grades I was leading before in about 8 months. Now, 14 months later I'm climbing harder than I ever thought I could. I still worry about taking a big whip and slamming my ankle though. Stay with it and keep perspective that this will pass. Stay strong brotha! 

My ortho doc (and my partner who is an orthopedic) both thought outcomes were better if the 6 weeks were spent doing pre surgery PT.  Essentially they wanted me to get my knee as strong as possible while I could use it, knowing that I wouldn’t be able to use it for a bit.  They also thought letting the knee heal a bit from the initial trauma was preferable though not mandatory.  It did happen right before filming for Free Solo was suppose to start back up so waiting till after we were done was nice.  The whole reason I am down in the meadow filming while Alex is up there soloing was because I’d just hurt myself.  The original plan was for me to be up there shooting the Boulder problem.  So it was sorta a relief I didn’t have to be up there!

Thanks for the insight, encouragement and inspiration. 

I’ve been through quite a few serious injuries, and while my body parts have never really come back to where they were pre injuries, I have always seemed to come back stronger than before (eventually. Hopefully this time will be no different.

I have been icing and elevating, and the swelling has already gone way down. I think I’ll stick to my plan of 2 weeks rest, then ease into the training.

If I can manage to be to at least a similar level by the end of the year, I’ll be stoked.

Thanks again, I appreciate it 

Based on my experience you are better off doing something like pilates so to keep the core going. That was my rehab while waiting to rehab.

Allen Sanderson wrote:

Based on my experience you are better off doing something like pilates so to keep the core going. That was my rehab while waiting to rehab.

What he said. In fact, with a lower extremity disabled, its' a great time to learn about core. For example, can you do the Pilates equivalent of a sit up while pressing your heels into the floor? More likely you'll want someone holding your feet down? 

Your core is the direct muscular connection between the inside of your knees to the bottom of your rib cage. You can let your ankle heal while you train this whole other business. 

How is recovery going?

It's going good. It was 6 weeks last week, and I saw the Doc. He wants me to stay in the boot another 4 weeks. I've been slowly transitioning to walking in the boot the last 2 weeks, and would probably transition to a brace in the next week or so if they didn't tell me otherwise. I opted to have a boot instead of cast, and that was nice, as I am was able to start working on mobility after about 2 weeks and doing some rehab after 4. I start actual PT tomorrow, so we'll see what they say. I walk around without the boot a bit at night, but am trying to take it easy. I think this isn't as bad as when I've broken it in the past, but I'm a bit worried about the heel. I honestly think it'll be at least another month after I take the boot off before I'm ready to even think about trusting it climbing, but we'll see.

As far as the training goes: I took two weeks off not doing anything, I had a nagging finger issue, so I figured I should give it some rest. I then did a max hang test and was able to hang with 80lbs off a 20mm edge for 7 seconds,(which is more than I've ever done, but admittedly haven't tried much).  But the next day my finger felt reaggravated, so I took another 2 weeks off, but did some core, and overall conditioning stuff. 

The last couple weeks, I've been trying to do 2 80% repeater hangboard sessions a week, and have been climbing on the kilterboard one footed once a week which is actually not that bad. I was pretty suprised at how well I could climb with one foot. It probably makes the problems a grade or two harder depending on how footwork dependent they are, but it's fun and a great workout, albeit hard on the digits.

Thanks for asking.

saign charlestein wrote:

It's going good. It was 6 weeks last week, and I saw the Doc. He wants me to stay in the boot another 4 weeks. I've been slowly transitioning to walking in the boot the last 2 weeks, and would probably transition to a brace in the next week or so if they didn't tell me otherwise. I opted to have a boot instead of cast, and that was nice, as I am was able to start working on mobility after about 2 weeks and doing some rehab after 4. I start actual PT tomorrow, so we'll see what they say. I walk around without the boot a bit at night, but am trying to take it easy. I think this isn't as bad as when I've broken it in the past, but I'm a bit worried about the heel. I honestly think it'll be at least another month after I take the boot off before I'm ready to even think about trusting it climbing, but we'll see.

Well if you wanna join us at World Wall 2 that place is devoid of heel hooks other than orgrasmatron. 

As far as the training goes: I took two weeks off not doing anything, I had a nagging finger issue, so I figured I should give it some rest. I then did a max hang test and was able to hang with 80lbs off a 20mm edge for 7 seconds,(which is more than I've ever done, but admittedly haven't tried much).  But the next day my finger felt reaggravated, so I took another 2 weeks off, but did some core, and overall conditioning stuff. 

The last couple weeks, I've been trying to do 2 80% repeater hangboard sessions a week, and have been climbing on the kilterboard one footed once a week which is actually not that bad. I was pretty suprised at how well I could climb with one foot. It probably makes the problems a grade or two harder depending on how footwork dependent they are, but it's fun and a great workout, albeit hard on the digits.

Thanks for asking.

Solid! You should walk Bust A Move/whatever one move wonder at world wall with that fitness!

maybe consider training your core by bulking up just eat 3-5 large frozen pizzas every day and gain mass

mass moves mass

Princess Puppy Lovr wrote:

Well if you wanna join us at World Wall 2 that place is devoid of heel hooks other than orgrasmatron. 

Solid! You should walk Bust A Move/whatever one move wonder at world wall with that fitness!

Thanks for the invite.

I’m more worried about the amount of pressure you drive through your feet when climbing. Also taking lead falls. It might take a bit of time to get comfortable on both those fronts, but we’ll see.

I’m guessing your mentioning bust a move, because you stalked my ticks? That’s a climb I’ve never tried more than once a day, it’s always an afterthought at the end of the day, and I’ve one hung it a couple times. It’s something that would go down pre injury if I just tried it a couple times in a day and remembered what to do. I will say though, that I do remember the crux for me was moving my left foot up. That sends a lot of pressure through the right foot (broken side) and actually the exact type of move I’m worried about.

I have definitely considered the pizza core workout, and have probably put on 5lbs of mass so far ;)

In 2018, I was coming off my strongest season so far and was ramping up training for my first full ninja warrior season. I had just sent my first 5.12 on gear and was the strongest I had ever been. Then, right around Halloween, I broke my leg playing basketball, of all things. I was devastated, but I used it as motivation and trained upper body pretty hard. I was back in the climbing gym in 3 months, and led a 1,000 ft. 5.10a in 5 months. Although I haven't sent my second trad 5.12 yet, I have gotten very close back to where I was (i had an upper body injury last year, wrist and elbow which set me back a little). This year, I also qualified for The Ninja World Championships, The New England Ninja Association Championships, and got the call to participate in NBC's American Ninja Warrior. I like to train and perform at a high level, even at my "advanced" age.   

Whether you train or not is up to you, but it can give you a chance to find motivation, train weaknesses, find new strengths, and pass the time. Just be smart and listen to your body.