Swimming with a leg cast

liamo

Hi,

My lower right leg is in a plaster cast for the next 8-10 weeks (ruptured achilles) and I'm on crutches.

I've gone from circa 12 training hours per week to zero and I'm sooooo bored. With the huge drop in activity I can see my weight ballooning if I do nothing. Although I can't run or cycle for the next few months, I'm thinking that I might be able to continue my swimming. I'm going to run it past my doc when I see him in 3 days for my first post-surgery appointment but in the meantime I'm working on the assumption that he'll give me the thumbs up.

I've sourced a waterproof cast cover which can be used for bathing and swimming and I'm thinking I'll strap my pull-buoy to the cast so that it doesn't sink like a stone. My pool is in a Jackie Skelly gym so there's no deep end in which I can drown.

Has anyone tried this before? Any tips? Anything I should watch out for? Anything I haven't thought of?

Thanks

kw316

Hi,

A few years ago I was in a cast from the knee down for a broken ankle for about 6-8 weeks. I am a swimmer and waterpolo player. I was able to continue swimming with out any problems. I bought a special leg cover. Basically it was a large rubber sock that fitted tightly around the leg and cast. It had a small pump attached to the top. When the leg cover was on you would pump the remaining air inside the cover out. This creates a vacum inside the leg cover giving you a perfectly water tight seal. You shouldn't need the buoy as your natuaral buoyancy will carry the weight. The cast really doesnt weight you down. When you get out of the water you relase the valve on the pump which allows air inside the cover and its easy to remove. Your cast is bone dry.

Hope this was a help to you.

Karl

liamo

I somehow managed to post this to the Unix forum. Perhaps some kind Mod could move it to the Swimming forum?

Thanks

BossArky

liamo wrote: »

I've gone from circa 12 training hours per week to zero and I'm sooooo bored. With the huge drop in activity I can see my weight ballooning if I do nothing.

Reduce your calorie intake in line with the drop in activity to prevent weight gain.

liamo

BossArky wrote: »

Reduce your calorie intake in line with the drop in activity to prevent weight gain.

I'm one of those people who would rather spend hours working off calories than eliminate the problem at source by reducing calorie intake. I don't have the luxury of choice for the next few months so it looks like I'm going to have to bite the bullet.

rubadub

I'd take up upper body resistance training. First off I would ring the gym and see if you would be allowed to swim wearing such a device, before even going looking for one.

Even if it is hygenic some people might just look at it as not being hygenic, I remember my mate taking a cast off and the stench was horrific.

liamo

rubadub wrote: »

I'd take up upper body resistance training. First off I would ring the gym and see if you would be allowed to swim wearing such a device, before even going looking for one.

Even if it is hygenic some people might just look at it as not being hygenic, I remember my mate taking a cast off and the stench was horrific.

Good points. Thanks.

For the next couple of weeks, it's a moot point anyway. Doc said "no training" this morning and to ask again in two weeks when I get my cast changed again.