Broken wrist recover time / training advice
thegreatdivide
Posts: 5,807
Two weeks ago I got knocked down on a training run by an old biddy driving on the wrong side of the road. She just missed my mate who was cycling on the front but I didn't stand a chance. Destroyed her wing mirror with my arm and went for a tumble. I spent four days in hospital with impressive road rash, a bashed up right leg (no breakage) a fractured right Radius held together with a plate, 9 screws and 21 staples and a chip taken out of the end of the Ulna too - so there was no Etape Caledonia for me 
The Consultant told me that I wont be able to get back on the bike for 6 months but the Physio thinks I'll be back on it (albeit doing easy rides) in 3 months. Conflicting views. I'm already going nuts being off the bike for 2 weeks :shock:
Who's bust a wrist and how long were you out of the saddle?
I can't use a turbo in my flat as I'm on the top floor but I've got a gym at the end of my street - any training tips?
Thanks in advance.
The Consultant told me that I wont be able to get back on the bike for 6 months but the Physio thinks I'll be back on it (albeit doing easy rides) in 3 months. Conflicting views. I'm already going nuts being off the bike for 2 weeks :shock:
Who's bust a wrist and how long were you out of the saddle?
I can't use a turbo in my flat as I'm on the top floor but I've got a gym at the end of my street - any training tips?
Thanks in advance.
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Sorry to hear about this mate. Wrong time of year to be knocked off by some old biddy.
Apart from the bike machine at your gym of course, only thing I can think of is short squat/deep squat sessions.0 -
I broke my scaphoid (spelling?) bone last summer. Took 9 weeks to heal and prob another 2/3 weeks before I was doing some light riding and prob another 3/4 weeks again before I was doing harder rides but im predominately a mountain biker so might be easier to get back to normal on the road?
I have a few mates who have broken wrists all doing snowboarding. while not cyclists they took a similar amount of time to be fully active again. but every case can be different and im no expert so its all speculation ..
hope you recover quickly.0 -
Off the road for three months
Turbo sessions in the shed after a few weeks!
Look on the net - full of turbo plans!
After that I spent 4-6 weeks on the S/s bike.
Couldn't change gears - and long rides were out - had to build up the strength again!
If you can't do much - use the time you have - increase intensity.
Best of luck with your recovery.0 -
I had an off at the beginning of last year, Basically as I landed I pushed the thumb too far backwards and for want of a better description "peeled" the bone away where it flares to support the thumb.
It was an odd break but healed pretty well within 6 weeks, the day after my cast came off I was riding again.
Still get the odd twinge on the road bike but that seems to be less and less as I ride more. I think the muscles must be strengthening to support it? only road the mtb on road last year to protect the wrist.0 -
I broke my Radius and was able to ride with the cast on after about 2 weeks. I couldn't pull with it and I had to flip my bars to give a more upright riding position. Just see how it feels. Let your body tell you what's right. Hope it mends soon.0
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Thanks for the info guys.
I'm going to give it until the start of next week before hitting the gym, stick to the physio regime and then see how I am at the end of June.
On the plus side I might get a nice insurance payout for this so every cloud...
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broke my collar bone last autumn, fecking hurt!! i stupidly took all the painkillers i was given and spent 2-3weeks stoned lying in bed watching dvds... by then things still hadn't started stiching up and my shoulder began to freeze.... i was in tonnes of pain and got withdrawls when i stopped taking tramadol. i tried to ride a bike after ten weeks but it brought tears to my eyes, then at around 12-14 wks it just loosened up and starte to feel strong.....
my advice and the advice i have subsequently been given is to keep active and keep the circulation up... a friend of mine bust his collar bone and was on a spin bike 2 days later, he was out riding after 8-10 wks.... so try not to stress it, but thing about doing things that fire up your body... alsomaybe slug some colostrum!!0 -
Goo dluck with recovery, don't worry, I broke both wrists, ulna and radius. plate in left, right was set in plaster only. 6 weeks of plaster, 6 weeks of intensive painful physio stretching and twisting and generally increasing range of movement. That was the biggest factor, how far do you want to push yourself? My Physio said as i was a cyclist i was used to pushing into the pain and so i would do better than the average Joe. Now I have full use, albeit somewhat painful occasionally. Stayed at home all summer off work, put the turbo in the lounge, and rode with the Tour guys all day! Epic! Biggest shock was taking off the casts, my wrists looked tiny, all shrunk and wasted. Don't let it worry you, back to normal in 6 weeks.0
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@ ozzy1000 - I'd read and heard some scary stories about getting off the tramadol so made a conscious decision to ween myself off them ASAP. I'm now just taking a couple of paracetamol first thing to ease the morning ache. TBH it's not too bad now. The chip at the end of the Ulna is causing the most pain.
@ sciencegeek - double wrists! fuck! My physio starts on Monday but the arm is pretty flexible already. It's just that bloody Ulna. Wish I was on the ground floor - I could have been blasting the turbo in front of the Giro!
Thanks again for sharing your tales of recovery.0 -
Bastrads, bl00dy bollox!
Had my eight week check-up at the fracture clinic this morning.
On the plus side there are signs that the bone is starting to knit but the car wing mirror did such a good job of trashing my arm that recovery is going to take a lot longer.
The middle bit of my radius shattered into lots of wee bits and a large triangular chunk that will be the last bit to fix. I thought the bit of the ulna that broke off was caused by another knock but they explained that it was the shockwave travelling through my arm that popped the end off :shock:
If I'm very lucky I might be able to try a bike in another four weeks but at my own risk and probably best done on our local velodrome. They're now saying a firm six months before I can ride properly again!
I'd better get a good payout so I can move to Mallorca for a month of recovery cycling this winter.0 -
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thats bad luck!!! keep you vitamin D and calcium intake up to help the calicifcation of the break. for vitamin D you can taker supplments but yourmuch better off sun bathing, 20mins of lying in the sun and you skin'll produce 10times the vitamin D you get from most over the counter supplements. D is really important for your abosorbtion of calcium...
good luck and keep active!!0 -
An off in december resulted in clean breaks of both bones, like you 4 days in hospital and plates. Once I was out of the hospital I bought a turbo trainer and was on the bike straight away training with the sufferfest vids (the pain the sufferfest dished out hurt more than the arm!). 7 weeks later I was back on the road. Changing gears was a little painful but i was probably fitter than before the accident.
X rays at 9 weeks showed fully healed.
I don't know the full details of your injuries but I'd say get on the bike at the gym or even spin class. I cant think of a reason why you cant ride on a stationary bike with a broken arm. You dont need to hold on the bars. I actually could (just) and Im sure it helped with the healing process.0 -
Sadly a turbo is out of the question because I live above another flat, but I've been in the gym for the last month hammering away on the bike while watching classic races on my HTC, so the guns aren't wasting away
I just want to be out on the road 0 -
Alright Dave- hope things are getting better mate, at least the TDF is on now! Have you considered putting down some heavy insulation, rubber mats, anything to absorb the vibration? I used my Cycleops Mag trainer in the flat I had in Perth with no issues(there again my downstairs neebor was a feckin mentalist who used to scream his head off in the middle of the night, would love it if he'd chapped the door to complain....set of stilsons round the napper!!!), are your floors paper thin?!! Could lend you my trainer as long as I get it back for winter up here!
Weathers been pish anyway, still biking in my winter kit minus the thermals....!
Baz0 -
Hey mate - fancy meeting you here!
I'm in a solid 1920's four-in-a-block with thick floorboards, but I'm not sure I'd get away with that low hum that turbos produce. So there's no need to travel down from the frozen North - the huskies would never make it
Cheers for the offer though.
Currently I'm doing five days a week in the swanky new Uni gym, sweating on the bike like Pavarotti in a cake shop, plus lots of leg work on the weights. So that's keeping the legs in check and the weight down, but it's no substitute for the real thing.0 -
I keep meaning to ask you if there are any good road routes up there - which is a daft question because I know that there will be. When I'm back in the saddle I should head up your way (matron) for day out.0
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Rotten luck, hope it does mend soon. Broke my wrist coming off bike on icy patch, nowhere near as serious as you. Plaster was off in about a month, but after the first week I was out running regularly (doc said 'its your decision, but you really don't want to fall on it').
didn't take too long to get back on bike, maybe another month afterwards, but I couldn't hold my weight on it to do a press-up for ages, so how I would have faired cycling anything longer than my 7 mile commute I don't know.
As someone else said, prepare yourself mentally to what your wrist / hand will look like when its out of plaster :shock: a skinny twig wrist, with all the tendons in your hand clearly visible, and lots of hair falling off. Oh, and you can have loads of fun ploughing things into the thick layer of dead skin on your hands (if you have a bath, it'll go a revolting cloudy colour quite quickly!).
You'll then be super careful about your wrist afterwards for quite a while, it becomes very precious. Just don't do what I did, slipped running on icy cobbles, and was so freaked I didn't put the injured hand out, knees, hip and fingers of other hand took the hit.....tendon damage that took longer to heal than the break. Then a month after I prolapsed a disc.....at this point my work starting asking me if 'this keep-fit lark' was healthy!0 -
Nightmare Rooner! Glad you're fixed now.
I was lucky, I went straight from the accident into A&E and then had surgery first thing in the morning - less that 12hrs after getting hit by the car! So there was no plaster and I could move all my joints within a month - all thanks to being heavily plated and pinned.
The arm did lose a hell of a lot of muscle though - but I squeezed my ball (me again matron), I'm still using the resistance band, I'm able to use it to open doors and some jars and carry bags, so the arm is starting to look pretty good again. However it's still nowhere near fixed. The last x-ray was only just showing bone knit, and gripping the gym bike bars when I'm doing intense sprints makes it ache like a bugg3r - so I'm not ready for the road.
Pain in the 4rse!!!0 -
What gym is it-Abertay?Dundee Uni? As an alumni of both I bet I could use them for free the nights I come through for sea kayaking?
Decent turbos won't be any louder than a washing machine and as long as you use it at sensible times doubt you'd get any flak. BUT....once you've made the effort to actually go to a gym I think you tend to work harder as you've made the effort to go, otherwise it's a waste of time!
Aye, few good routes up here, top scenery too, and a nice fitness test zone- Glenmore campsite up to the Cairngorm mountain carpark!
Best for xc mtb really though, never get bored it's got it all outside my house!!! Started running wi the dog too through the forest (it's Deliverance country, squeeeel like a pig boy!!! he he he)0 -
Big day yesterday.
After eighteen weeks of being off the bike I got back on the saddle. It was made even better because I got to ride the Cento Uno for the first time!
I've spent my off time in the gym, four or five times a week, hammering away on the bike and pushing weights with my legs. The combo of this, more lost weight, a crazy light bike and two pre ride espressos was quite explosive.
I'm going to try an limit myself to one outing a week for the time being but man it's good to be back! 0
