physical exercise that can be done with an immobile foot

March 16, 2023 7:37 AM

I have a little stress fracture in one of my feet. I need to get some exercise for physical and mental health reasons. Any ideas?

What it says on the tin. The foot is not yet in any sort of cast or immobilization but probably will be soon. I urgently need this healed within a few weeks, so I'm going to do whatever it takes to speed that process up. Anything that involves striking the ground with foot is out. Weight bearing, also out.

And yet, I need to exercise, at least a little. Something to keep blood flowing, muscles from totally atrophying, and stretching/flexibility above all.

I went swimming yesterday and my foot hurt significantly the rest of the day. I'm not sure if it was from the swimming or from the driving and walking to/from the pool. Dr said "let pain be your guide" as to what to avoid, so I guess swimming's out?

Can you think of any, like, youtube videos for seated exercises? Something that I can access easily and try out for free, I don't mind paying if it's worth it but I'd want to try it out first before paying.

posted by fingersandtoes to Health & Fitness (12 answers total)

How about yoga? It can be as gentle or as demanding as you'd like and there are a lot of poses you can do seated. There are also a ton of videos available on youtube.
posted by dawkins_7 at 7:41 AM on March 16, 2023

Response by poster: ETA, a useful answer here would be a pointer to an exercise video or practitioner who does stuff that doesn't involve the feet.
posted by fingersandtoes at 7:46 AM on March 16, 2023

Best answer: Yoga with Adriene seated yoga playlist. Not all will be suitable but plenty to get you going.

Seated yoga is a whole thing, so searching that phrase on YouTube/google will probably also find you plenty other results if for some reason you don't like these ones.
posted by penguin pie at 8:18 AM on March 16, 2023 [4 favorites]

Best answer: Here's a site I used while my foot/ankle were out of commission you can move your foot, tapping lightly or just use your uninjured foot.
posted by agatha_magatha at 8:23 AM on March 16, 2023 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Bob And Brad have a bunch of seated/chair exercise routines "for seniors", like this core workout.

A friend of mine just retweeted this article about exercises you can do in bed, that I think may be from an upcoming book, but I bookmarked it for myself just because I have been having some knee problems and my PT has me doing some stretches on waking (I stand up out of bed and it's a whole "bones or no bones day?" crapshoot what my knee will do) and I thought I might add some of these for a whole routine. Just be careful about using your foot for support/leverage, which is a bad thing I do to my knee sometimes too.
posted by Lyn Never at 8:25 AM on March 16, 2023 [2 favorites]

What about a rowing machine? If you know someone who has one, or have access to a gym with rowers, you can test it out to see if you like it and if it causes pain. A friend of mine used a rower quite happily when recuperating from bunion surgery and couldn't run.
posted by DrGail at 8:34 AM on March 16, 2023

What about a rowing machine?

Came here to recommend the same thing. I just wrapped up a rowing session a couple minutes ago. There is some pressure on the feet, but it's not much, and you can easily shift most of the work to the non-injured foot.
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 8:36 AM on March 16, 2023

Best answer: I have a bum knee and I feel you.

Youtube has a whole lot of "seated exercise videos" - however, most of them involve some degree of leg action. But I did find this playlist from someone who's had a spinal cord injury, so it has practically no leg action - and he even tells you how to adapt for "if you have NO lower body mobility, you can do [blah] to replace any lower body stuff you can't do."

If that doesn't appeal and you still want to look further; I also found and have started using a routine from the Body Project channel. Some people are sitting and some are standing; here's a similar one with sitting and standing options. I did mine standing, but for the exercises where legs were involved, if my knee was feeling overwhelmed, I just did the exercise entirely on the good leg.

Another option: the Darebee web site is loaded with free exercises and workout programs, at all levels and all styles, and it is all 100% free. I filtered their workout search to focus on "upper body" only, and here's that result - there are 261 upper-body workouts to choose from, and you can filter further based on difficulty, the kind of concern you want to address (cardio, stretching, strength, etc.) and even whether or not you need equipment of any kind. One of them is even a complete upper-body stretching sequence designed for someone in a wheelchair.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:39 AM on March 16, 2023

Best answer: The first half of this seated-in-chair exercise video by Joe Wicks (Joe The Body Coach) may suit you.

Also here's a "knee-safe" video from Jessica Valant Pilates -- I fast-forwarded through it and it looks like it would work for you. There's a portion where you lay on one side, so maybe you'd skip doing that part on your injured side.

Also check out HEP2go, a compendium of physical therapy exercises divided up by body part.

Good luck and I wish you swift healing!
posted by brainwane at 8:42 AM on March 16, 2023 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Youtube has a whole lot of "seated exercise videos" - however, most of them involve some degree of leg action.

Yeah, I found searching for "wheelchair yoga" got some potentially more useful results than "chair yoga".

For getting your heartrate up there's also always bopping and flailing your arms around to music, which you can do while seated.
posted by trig at 9:13 AM on March 16, 2023

Best answer: I found some non weight bearing and broken foot workouts:

One in a boot/cast, modifications suggested

This Pilates one if you can kneel, although it’s done with a straightened/pointed foot
posted by clew at 12:25 PM on March 16, 2023

I did six weeks with no weight bearing and had success in Pilates mat classes (I skipped or modified a couple of exercises but very many were done in variations of lying down positions) and swimming with a pull buoy between my legs (so swimming with arms only). I was using crutches to get to and from the gym, so no weight on my foot at any point. Do be careful if you are using crutches on a wet pool deck.
posted by TrixieRamble at 11:04 PM on March 21, 2023